The Parable of Long Spoons

I’ve noticed a shift in responses to the COVID-19 outbreak. A shift from crisis mode to grief mode, and two themes of grief standout this week especially:

1. We are grieving the loss of what we know.

2. We are being faced with both our own grief and each other’s grief. And grief is never linear, or matches perfectly with how others are grieving.

While researching what fellow mental health professionals are saying about the theme of community grief, I came across The Parable of Long Spoons. If you aren’t familiar with this folklore story, I am so excited to share it. (The short and sweet, quick to the point version of it). I think this is such a perfect reminder of empathy, perspective, and finding light in the darkness, together. I think the story also highlights another theme- the theme of having to be adaptive and rely on each other. Something that can be scary, but also needed for survival.  

The Parable of Long Spoons (A cliff-notes version):

A man is led into an elaborate banquet hall. He smells delicious food and hears people gathered around a table. He then notices that each person has a spoon with a handle so long, it is impossible for them to actually feed themselves and eat any food. They all sit around the table feeling helpless and hungry.

The man is then led into another banquet hall, where he again smells delicious food and hears people gathered around a table. They each have spoons with long handles that make it impossible for them to feed themselves. This time though, the people use their own spoons to feed each other. Each person is able to eat and no one goes hungry.