At the Flea Market - bruce silverman

[Larry Robinson]

At the Flea Market

 

Last week at the flea market I spied Mahatma Gandhi,

Rabbi Abraham Heschel and the Reverend Martin Luther King

perusing a small two-pan measuring scale. One pan was marked

good, the other pan, evil.  A discussion then ensued.

 

Said Heschel: this scale is flawed, “the opposite of good is not evil,

it’s indifference.”

 

Gandhi replied: yes, I agree, for “good and evil often are found together.”

 

Then Dr. King spoke and said I find this scale to be befuddling because

“there’s some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us.”

 

With that they simply walked off and I timidly stepped forward and

bought the scale. I took it home and measured the weights sitting in

the two pans marked good and evil and here is what I found:

 

When compared, good and evil seem to be about equal in measure,

but clearly, at times like this,

 

it’s necessary to put a finger on the scale.

 

 

 	- bruce silverman