Maceo Keeling - SCORE Member, Business Owner and Consultant. Photo: Urban News
Maceo Keeling – SCORE Member, Business Owner and Consultant. Photo: Urban News
By Maceo Keeling –

For those of you who never heard the parable of “Stone Soup,” I’d like to share it with you.

In an impoverished region of the world, some weary travelers arrive in a small village carrying nothing more than an empty cooking pot. The villagers didn’t know what to think of the strangers, and decided not to share anything with them, including their food.

Seeing how the villagers turned their backs on them, the hungry travelers headed to a nearby stream to fill their big cooking pot with water. Then they built a fire and placed the pot on it to boil; and, having no food, they dropped a large stone into the pot.

The villagers, watching with distrust but also curiosity, asked what the travelers were doing.

“We’re making stone soup,” said one of the travelers. “It might taste all right, but we always like to add more ingredients to improve the flavor.”

Upon hearing this, some of the villagers brought along a few essential ingredients to help out with the soup. Some brought some onions, others a vegetable or two, one even brought a joint with lots of meat still on the bone. As other villagers inquired about the soup pot, the travelers explained that their stone soup had not reached its full potential. With that, more villagers added other ingredients. Finally, the (inedible) stone was removed from the pot, and all those who gathered around—the travelers and villagers alike—enjoyed feasting on the tasty pot of soup.

Although the travelers had to convince the reluctant villagers to share food with them, they successfully transformed the pot of soup into a tasty, healthy, nutritious meal to share with all.

The core message of this parable is, “All of us have something we can contribute, for the greater good of all.” Not only do we have something to contribute, we have enough to take care of our people.

It is with this belief that I am excited to announce the founding of Stone Soup University. The inaugural faculty will include people with PhDs, Masters Degrees, technical state licenses, prison experience, federal licenses, certifications, and a lot of good common sensors from the “School of Hard Knocks.”

(SSU) University classes will be held every Wednesday from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. in the community room at the Arthur J. Edington Education and Career Center. The first classes will cover professional sales development, and will begin on September 21, 2016.

The classes do not cost you money if you live in Asheville Public Housing, but you must meet with the admissions team for orientation. If you are a local professional a price list for classes will be provided. All are welcome to attend.

Currently, we are vetting candidates for president for the university and soliciting a fiscal agent with 501(c)3 status to help with funding the for the school. At this time all expenses are funded for us by us! If you have a skill, training or a desire to become a mentor, professor, or administrator at SSU, please contact me at the Conscious Call. This is completely volunteer effort. Just bring what you can to put into the “soup.”

We thank the Resident Counsel of Asheville Housing Authority for their sponsorship of the university.

Remember we don’t have to be great to get started, but we do have to get started to become Great! Answer the Call!

 


Dr. King had a dream, now we must have vision. The Conscious Call radio program airs every Monday at 11:30 a.m. on WRES-FM 100.7. In a collaboration with the radio program, the Urban News will help keep readers informed about events, programs, news, and the progress of The Conscious Call. For more information, contact the Conscious Call at (828) 989-6999 and visit www.theconsciouscall.com.

The opinions and statements made in this column are solely the opinions of the author and not necessarily those of the Urban News.