<em>The Gardener Parable</em><o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

" Two people return to their long-neglected garden & find among the weeds a few of the old plants surprisingly vigorous.

One says to the other "It must be that a gardener has been
coming & doing something about these plants." <o:p></o:p>

<em><o:p> </o:p></em>

Upon inquiry they find that no neighbor has ever seen anyone at work in their garden.
The first man says to the other: "He must
have worked while people slept."

The other says, "No, someone would have heard him & besides, anybody who cared about the plants would have kept down these weeds."

The first man says, "Look at the way these are arranged. There
is purpose & a feeling for beauty here. I believe that someone comes,
someone invisible to moral eyes. I believe that the more carefully we look the
more we shall find confirmation of this."

They examine the garden ever so carefully <o:p></o:p>

& sometimes they come on new things suggesting that a gardener comes <o:p></o:p>

& sometimes they come on new things suggesting the contrary
& even a malicious person has been at work. <o:p></o:p>

<em><o:p> </o:p></em>

Besides examining the garden carefully <o:p></o:p>

they also study what happens to gardens left without attention. <o:p></o:p>

Each learns all the other learns about this and about the garden.

Consequently, when after all this, one says: "I still believe a gardener comes"
while the other says "I don't"

Their different words now reflect <o:p></o:p>

no difference as to what they have found in the garden,<o:p></o:p>

no difference as to what they would find in the garden if they looked further
& no difference about how fast untended gardens fall into disorder.<o:p></o:p>

<em><o:p> </o:p></em>

At this stage , in this context, <o:p></o:p>

the gardener hypothesis has ceased to be experimental,<o:p></o:p>

the difference between one who accepts & one who rejects it <o:p></o:p>

is not now a matter of the one expecting
something the other does not expect. <o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

What is the difference between them?<o:p></o:p>

The one says, " A gardener comes unseen &
unheard. He is manifested only in his works with which we are all familiar," <o:p></o:p>

the other says "There is no gardener" <o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

<em>and with this difference in what they say about the gardener </em><o:p></o:p>

<em>goes a difference in how they feel towards the garden,</em><o:p></o:p>

<em>in spit of the fact that neither expects anything of it which the </em><o:p></o:p>

<em>other does not expect. </em><em>"</em><o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>