Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and ground coffee beans in the third pot.

He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing.

After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning to her he asked. “Daughter, what do you see?”

“Potatoes, eggs, and coffee,” she hastily replied.

“Look closer,” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity– the boiling water.

However, each one reacted differently.

The potato went in strong, hard, and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.

The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which are you,” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean? “

Moral:In life, things happen around us, things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us.

Which one are you?

Great way to explain disorder, survival & coping to preteens.


In the space between chaos and shape there was another chance.

Jeanette Winterson

What is the origin of this story?

I'd have to say that dependent upon the circumstances I'm ether the egg or the coffee bean. Meaning under pressure I tend to push back or make some attempt to change my surroundings to make the situation more bearable.

None of the above.
I'm a human being, and not 4 years old.


Great.
So civilization is entirely pointless.
Because this is also saying "other people don't really matter, only what happens inside of you."
That also generally comes out in today's society as "I'm me, you don't know me, I don't care what you think, you can't judge me, whateva' whateva' I do what I want."

I mean

What if the boiling water didn't want to be something new?
What if it was content being boiling water.
Next thing you know some a-hole coffee grinds are forcing the water into being something it doesn't wish to be.

But, according to the moral, it's all about the coffee bean, it's all about how the coffee bean (or potato, or egg) feels, because no one else matters.

Unless you believe that adversity never ever ever ever comes from two or more people interacting?
Especially in a highly "globalized" and technologically interconnected world?

And that doesn't even begin to touch on the idea that:
1. Her father makes his living off of creating and exploiting "adversity."
2. Her father has to lead her by the hand to every conclusion because she's not smart enough to understand metaphors, which makes sharing of the moral with her pointless.
3. There are far more ingredients in the world than potato's, eggs, and coffee. There are different types of potato's, eggs, and coffee that interact with boiling water differently.
4. He did/would need special tools to handle everything after the effects of "adversity" yet held them as having no importance to his moral. Even though they kept him from harm and allowed him to present his ideas to her.

And so much more to make this story one of those specious platitudes that can ultimately mean what you want it to.
I mean

So?
It also becomes safer to eat and more delicious that way.
But it also means no chicken can hatch from it.
So what does it actually matter what happens inside the egg...unless you know who values the egg, or what purpose the egg has, or wants?
Because the chicken that laid it in order to have offspring is going to have a different opinion about her egg getting "hard" inside, then the guy in the restaurant that just ordered deviled eggs.

Stop being so curmudgeonly and getting so bent because you don't like a philosophical ways of looking at life.

Ugg say, Coffee Eggs and Potatoes? Sound like breakfast to Ugg!

Nice story to show in a simple way how to be prepared to life and its colors. Human beings can walk in different paths with different light intensities;they must take the best decisions to survive...from potatoe to coffee beans.

Thank you again