Ben and the Carrots
Ben and the Carrots
A child named Ben was born into a world where he had a carrot on a stick tied in front of his face, he notices that everyone else has a carrot too, some are the same, some are different. People go about their lives wanting the carrot, sometimes they get a nibble of it, but never the whole thing. Because it's just one carrot, people chase it at a mild speed. One day, Ben stops and thinks to himself "Wait, why do we have carrots on our heads in the first place?" When he does this, he looks around at everyone chasing their carrots and although he feels alone in that moment, he also finds it kind of funny. In the process he begins to realize that there is more to life than the carrot in front of him. He studies other people's carrots, the terrain around him, which is a valley with high walls all around, there are features to the valley that he finds interesting like trees and streams. As time goes on, people grow up and become more obsessed with their carrot, they start chasing it faster, sometimes they bump into other people and get mad, sometimes people do bad things to other people that get in the way of chasing their carrot. Sometimes people try to steal other people's carrots.
Ben continues on, sometimes focusing on the carrot, but other times not at all. Occasionally someone will notice Ben not paying attention to his carrot and say "Look! There's a carrot in front of you!" And Ben replies "Yeah...I know... don't you find that odd?" They just look at him weird and continue on chasing their carrots. Gradually, people have even more carrots in front of them and now people are running really fast for them. People harm each other even more trying to steal other peopleâs carrots.
People begin to band together in groups and come up with schemes in how to get their carrots. Every group thinks that THEIR scheme is the right one and lash out at other groups for their "silly/stupid" schemes. They canât accept that people have different ideas. Occasionally somebody comes along with a new scheme and people leave their groups and form a new group around that scheme. They get a few nibbles here and there, but never the whole carrot. The desire for the carrots is very intense now. One day, people notice Ben not caring about his many carrots in front of him, wandering about and observing the valley and the people in it. People are stunned. They know nothing but the carrots at this point, and they ask themselves "how can someone not care about all those carrots!??" People get angry at Ben. They try to force him to chase his carrots. He refuses and asks "did anyone ask themselves why there's all these carrots in front of us in the first place?" People become irate. Carrots are everything they scream at him!
Ben doesn't understand the anger, because when he was younger, nobody got mad it him for not caring about his carrots, they found him odd, but were never angry. Ben starts to study and research the anger and the entire situation including the origin of the carrots and why theyâre on our heads in the first place. Through his research, Ben eventually learns of a staircase cut into one of the walls of the valley. You can't see the staircase unless you knew where to look. As people yell and scream at Ben, he climbs the staircase.
It's very narrow and not easy to climb. Ben gets to the top exhausted from the climb but also because people were yelling and shouting at him the entire time. When he gets to the top and looks out, what he sees shocks him... there are people with no carrots on their heads, but not many of them. But thatâs not the thing that astounds him the most. He sees that there are endless fields of carrots, as far as the eye can see. These are the people putting the carrots on everyone in the first place Ben realizes, they have all the carrots they want!
Ben descends the treacherous staircase. When he reaches the bottom, people are still angry at him and shouting and Ben calmly says "over the hill, there's fields of carrots, endless fields of carrots, there's people with no carrots on their heads too" People laugh at and mock Ben, some are still angry at him, some call him crazy. He insists that there are indeed fields of carrots, but nobody believes someone who doesnât care about carrots!
Eventually Ben gives up trying to convince people of the fields of carrots and how there are people with no carrots on their heads. He finds a nice tree in the valley and sits down under it. He doesnât pay attention to his carrots, he pays attention to the tree, the leaves, he appreciates the shade from it. When the wind blows, the tree creaks a bit, he enjoys the sound and the feel of the breeze, he looks up at the blue sky and the clouds in their various shapes as they move by. He watches on as people continue to chase their carrots, ever and ever faster. The groups get angrier and angrier at each other. People are still angry at Ben, as they yell and shout at him occasionally about his carrots and his lie about the fields and people with no carrots on their heads. Ben pays no attention to them. Slowly, people are no longer angry at Ben, they still mistrust him and look at him with suspicion as they pass. As Ben gets older, most people forget about him and what he told them. They focus on their carrots.
One day, as Ben is now old and weathered, sitting under his tree, a young boy comes running along, chasing his carrots and sees Ben sitting there paying no attention to his own. The boy stops and looks up at his own carrots, then asks Ben âwhy do we wear these?â Ben smiles and points to the staircaseâŚ
The End
[AI disclaimer] AI came up with the title, as I had none at the time. AI changed the ending, by suggesting the boy coming along and Ben points to the staircase, my original ending was Ben just sitting under the tree as he watches the frenzy around him. But other than that, it's 98% my own writing. Feel free to share the story if you'd like to.