Stone Soup and the Second-Grade Psychiatrist

Each year, our church celebrates Palm Sunday with a post-service "Stone Soup" luncheon...with donations collected to benefit our local Meals on Wheels. As an explanatory tradition, the preceding Children's Moment features a reading aloud of the traditional Stone Soup story.

You know the tale. Three hungry, traveling soldiers seek sustenance in an unwilling-to-share village. The inventive nomads then declare they'll simply boil up some "Stone Soup," setting up a water-filled cauldron in the common square, adding mere stones. In the particular version read Sunday, the pot stirrers managed to wheedle the vegetable, meat, barley and milk contributions from a reticent citizenry with such leading strategic observations as:

"If only only we had a carrot, it'd add so much flavor..."

"A potato would go well with the stones and the carrots..."

"Wouldn't a bit of beef make this splendid?"

"A cup of milk would make this broth rich enough for the king himself!"

As you'd predict, one by one, the townspeople trot off to fetch their singular ingredients. The collective giving creates a communal feast. Symbolic indeed, until analyzed by our own youthful Jung over our Sunday night dinner....

Sarah: "Those soldiers were too passive aggressive. They should have just asked for carrots if that's what they wanted."