Stone Soup

“Go ahead and drop it in.” I watched in bewilderment as my classmate unloaded several large pebbles into the empty cauldron, which resounded with a cacophony of metallic clangs. I sat waiting my turn in line with my can of sweet corn amongst fellow second graders who held a smorgasbord of ingredients from barley to potatoes to rosemary sprigs. We were re-enacting “Stone Soup,” the childhood fable that teaches the value of community and contributing to a greater good (or as I realized as an adult - how to surreptitiously finagle a free meal like the protagonists did). In a way, the concept of m...