Characters: Hok, Lok, Siew, and the villagers
Setting: a mountain road
Plot: Three monks want to find out what makes one happy.
Genre: Folk Talk
Stone Soup is retold and illustrated by Jon J Muth. It talks about once there was a village that faced many disasters and was wary of strangers. When some monks arrived, the villagers closed their windows and doors. One day, three monks came here to sleep one night, but the villagers didn’t want to care about them, so the three monks used their way to teach the villagers and make them recognize how to be happy and trust each other.
Sharing can make us get more happy no matter how to define the happy. Some people think that getting money is the most happy thing. Some people think that big houses or luxury cars are the best, but there is so much more than that. For example friendship, love, and family. In the story, the village had suffered many hard times, making them weary around everyone. The villagers only care about themselves and they are not happy. However, they change to happy when they try to add some food to join the monks in cooking stone soup. So, sharing makes them happy like monks. We are happiest when we’re around people who are also happy. So, if you want to be happy, try to think and help others.
The best teaching method is to guide or inspire us. Guiding involves using questions to lead us to find the answers on our own. In a story, a village faced many disasters and was wary of strangers. When some monks arrived, the villagers closed their windows and doors. However, the monks remained calm. When they wanted to cook food, they used various questions to guide the villagers and encouraged them to contribute to a delicious stone soup. There is an old Chinese proverb that states: "It's better to learn to catch fish than to be given fish." This means that we learn best when we make things ourselves.
We need to pay our true heart to get anything we want. We need to plant seeds in spring, to have a big harvest in autumn. In the story, the villagers don’t trust others. But after the monk’s guide, the villagers add the food they have and they get the delicious stone soup. After this, they completely trust each other, and they are very thankful to the monks because the monks teach them how to get happy and true hearts. At first, the villagers are selfish. Then, they could share a little of their food. At last, the villagers can share all of their food, and they recognize the wrong things they have done, and their relationship becomes deeper. No pay, no gain. If we want to own love, happy, or something, we need to pay our hearts first.
In conclusion, "Stone Soup" is a heartwarming tale that teaches us three important lessons about sharing that can make us get more happy, the best teaching method is to guide or inspire us and pay our true heart to get anything we want. I recommend this story to you. You will feel the powers or thoughts that I have encountered, and it might even inspire you.
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