A Tale of Two Houses
One day, as I was walking down the street, I saw two different houses. One was a large golden house that was clearly owned by a well-off family. The second house was a small dingy shack. The house had fewer amenities and furnishings, but you could clearly see that it was full of love; the people at the house were cheerful and happy.
The owner of the large house decided one day that all his riches were not enough, so he set his sight on his neighbour’s property. He gradually moved his fence closer to the small shack next door. As he moved closer and closer in, the owner of the smaller house demanded that he stop. The owner of the larger house became enraged and took control of his neighbour’s property.
Later that year, many other owners of rich and fancy houses in that part of the world began to take smaller houses over. Owners of the rich houses had more and more disputes as to who could own the houses. The occupants of the smaller houses began to resist more and more. They became angry and sad that people would commit such terrible acts. The rich owners eventually came to an agreement that they would divide the houses among themselves. Families were separated because their homes were owned by different people.
Photo by Ciprian Bota
The rich owners also came to the conclusion that they did not want to work for themselves. They realized that, if they inflicted enough fear on the poor homeowners, those less fortunate ones would work for them for free. As more and more pain was inflicted, the poor owners began to work harder and harder, for no pay. They were forced to garden, clean, and cook for the rich owners. This happened for years and years. The rich owners also established laws for the poor owners as to what they could and could not do. This was the never-ending cycle of torture.
As years went on, the rich people decided that they were tired of ruling over the poor houses, so they just left the smaller houses. The people from the poor houses now had no houses, no jobs, no leader. They were left alone. Although the rich owners were gone, their ideals were still left with them. Poor people from all over had come to believe that the rich were better and that hey had more power than the poor.
The less fortunate people eventually rebuilt their lives and began to live normally. They would try to live as they once had, but people would should insults at them, and they were viewed as bad people. As time went on, things did improve, but the scars were still there. Their land was still not their own. They lived in bravery with these scars until one day their houses were set on fire by another person. Nobody came to save them. They eventually began to protest and were telling people that their houses mattered. The rich people looked down at them and said that all houses matter and did not do anything about it. This continued for many years as more and more houses were set on fire. The rich still looked down at them and said that that all houses matter. They never had their own houses set on fire. They were the ones causing the fires, and yet they still found a way to act like victims.
Both kinds of houses were viewed as being equal until the rich decided that they were superior to the poor. Now, humanity was divided because of greed.