So the day came and the pot was set up in the center of the village and a fire built under it. The ladies, and even some men added their ingredients. Others in the village came out to see what was going on and, when they found out, many ran home to get additional ingredients to add. Soon, nearly all the people of the village waited as the pudding finished cooking, then cooled. Then the pudding was served, with a bit of apprehension as no one was sure exactly what was in it. There was some concern that too many cooks had spoiled it, but that was not the case at all. Everyone agreed that is was the finest pudding they had ever had.

This tale is an interesting fable, but it is really not far at all from the way villages did function at one time, and can again if the human race has any chance of survival. When people lived in small villages, they had to rely on one another to meet basic needs. The farmer did his best to produce good vegetables because he knew he was feeding friends and relatives, not customers he was trying to make a buck from. The tailor did his best to make good clothes for the same reason. The cobbler made good shoes because he wanted his children and his friends and their children to have comfortable footwear that would last. In short, the people of the village each contributed as best as he or she could to the well being of the village and, in doing so, contributed to their own well being better than if they greedily tried to provide inferior products or services for maximum profits, but at a cost to the village as a whole. And when someone in the village ran into problems, you didn't descend on them like a flock of vultures to buy their house and car and clothes at a big discount, you did what you could to help them out.

As some villages became cities, that concept changed. No longer were the customers your neighbors and friends, most were strangers, and greed soon took over. In time, it spread from the cities into the smaller towns and villages because people living in the small towns often bought things from the factories of the cities instead of from their neighbors.

The time has come for us to again live like those villages. We may not know everyone we deal with in person, but we have to start treating them as if they are our brothers, our sisters, our friends, because the age of materialism is ending, thank God.