The Salt of the Earth

In the past, there was a simple farm. Meat was preserved by salt, and vegetables grew in the fields. Harvests were generally good, not really a cut above the best, but it was up there, and that was good enough.

People who worked at the farm helped out with the harvest, grow and farm crops, rear animals, and later on preserve their meat. When they were tired at work, they lay at the shelter where meat is preserved. Specks of salt lay spread around on the ground due to a more generous way of preserving meat on the part of the workers, but who cares about such things when you're lying on the ground taking a rest after a good break? The boss never complained, jokingly saying that it would preserve the earth's fertility, though after a while people took his word and started to sprinkle slightly more salt on the ground, hoping for good harvests. After a while, though, the salt gets absorbed into the ground, seemingly disappearing from the surface. Yet people knew that it was a good sign, for the salt has gone deeper down to preserve the fertility and general wellbeing of the land.

When lunch and dinnertime come, however, they ate the vegetables and salted meat. Much like the ground, the meat absorbs the salt after a while, and though it looks perfectly normal on the outside, its flavour has been enhanced and its durability has been lengthened. At night, they return via a simple grassy path to their home, and get back to the farm the next morning for work. All was fine. They worked their share, they ate a balance of delicacies and staple food (Vegetables were viewed more as a cheaper alternative to fill one's stomach that was sadly lacking somewhat in flavour compared to meat.) and they went home to rest.

But with any perfect cycle of repetition, eventually mutations occur in the cycle itself, leading to a slight, but consistent change. The people began to grow complacent in their work, and after a while certain folk took to thinking that a slight addition of salt on the ground would make up for inferior care given to the crops. The boss, in an angry fit of rage, decided to 'weed out' people who weren't serious about the job by growing harsh undergrowth on the grassy path. Soon, people got cuts from walking along the path, and from their complaints received the reply that this was a measure to weed out people who did not take their job seriously.

Unfortunately, those who worked hard had to walk along this path anyway, and they found themselves working on the crops with scratches on their arms and cuts on their legs. And no longer could they rest - they could not lie down at the shelter; for the salt that used to preserve the fertility of the earth now preserved the pain that they had received.

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Certain folk will recall that I had intended to write on something else, but another matter caught my attention and distracted me from writing that conversation at large. As such it still remains as a draft, and will likely stay that way.

I found it too difficult to name a person who was nameless, so I decided not to use conversations for this, for those wondering about the change in style.