A welcome story for 2025: The three stone-cutters
31/12/2024 - blog
In December I use to reread the two volumes of The Circle of Liars, the collection of philosophical short stories from all over the world from Jean-Claude Carrière, searching for a new story to welcome the New Year. It has become a fascinating ritual, since although the books don’t change, every year I discover in them a story that had got unnoticed until then and suddenly becomes meaningful to me according to my last experiences. As it happened right now with this story, which Carrière attributes to Charles Peguy, but possibly has a more ancient origin, as seems to indicate the Japanese variant The Stone-cutter (ATU 555) gathered by Andrew Lang in his Crimson Fairy Book, a version I adapted in 2018 for a touring storytelling session that I used to tell in Barcelona’s old town, in pre-Covid times. Although both stories used to talk to me about human dissatisfaction, nowadays they make me think about the inner serenity achieved when you suddenly discover that your life makes sense. Because books don’t change, that’s true, but the eyes which read the stories can keep intact their learning capacity until the end of their lives.
They say that one day, a pilgrim met a stone-cutter working near the road and he asked him:
—What are you doing, good man?
And the stone-cutter answered:
—You don’t see that? I am struggling for life, cutting stones exposed to the cold, the rain, the sun, and all these for a misery. There is not a worst destiny than mine!
The pilgrim went on his way, until he found another stone-cutter, and he asked:
—Hard job, isn’t it?
And the man answered:
—Well, it’s not all bad: at least I can feed my family, there is always work, and besides, working outdoors allows you to see people… There are jobs worst than that.
Finally, a bit further, the pilgrim found a third stone-cutter, and after asking him, the man, looking deeply in his eyes, answered:
—I am building a cathedral.
Good year and good stories.
5 responses to “A welcome story for 2025: The three stone-cutters”
Leave a Reply to Amalia Cancel reply
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Aquest conte és un bon exemple de que tot és segons la manera d’enfocar les coses, llavors ens farà més feliços o no…
Trobar l’equilibri.!
Felicitats per fer-nos meditar!
Mai s’ha de deixar de perseguir un somni. Gràcies per compartir aquest conte amb totes i tots
Susana, me ha encantado.
Q bonitos son los cuentos
Hacen falta.
Feliz 2025
Un abrazo enorme
Mil gracias! Cada cuento un ladrillo de la memoria colectiva. Lindo trabajo!
Molt bonic,Susana! La serenitat interior et pot fer veure la vida amb bons ulls. Bon any!