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THE SMILE OF GOODWILL A THOUSAND rose petals were being boiled in a seething, bubbling cauldron in the process of being distilled into rose water or rose oil. A million more rose petals lay plucked and scattered to be turned into rose condiment. A witness to this painful sight could not help exclaiming, “You are the beauty of the earth at its best. In the delicate fragrance of your colourful petals one can see the very smile of the earth. It grieves my heart to see your plight.”
Even in their agony, the flowers burst out laughing: “True, we are in a sorry plight, but we are not alone in this. It is the common lot of all men of goodwill. People cannot bear to see those who flourish, those who rise to the top and in their own happiness have a ready smile of goodwill for all. People have sympathy for those who weep in sorrow or in pain and will promptly hold out a helping hand to them. But they strive to sink with their envy those who are afloat on the tide of prosperity and out of the overflow of their own happiness, beam on all around them.
“Man does not realise that whether he boils or plucks us, we do not die. We live on through our fragrance, our tender delicacy. The smile of goodwill that we give to the world as flowers will persist through our fragrance in a new form."
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