The Salted Wisdom

The Salted Wisdom There was an old man in a village who led other villagers to carry salt day and night to a town in order to trade wheat as food for the winter. One night, they camped in a wilderness with a starry sky above. The old man, obeying the tradition passed down from ancestors, took out three blocks of salt and threw them into the campfire to foretell the changes of the weather in the mountains. All eagerly awaited the old man’s weather report: if the salt in the fire made crackling sound, they would have the good weather in store. If there was no sound, it meant the good weather would soon end and a storm would come at any moment. The old man looked serious. The salt in the campfire made no sound at all. He believed that bad weather was on the way and he urged the whole team to set out immediately after daybreak. A young man in the group, however, insisted that they shouldn’t depart in such a hurry, considering it foolish to forecast the weather by using salt. It was not until the next afternoon that the young man caught up with the wisdom of the old man when the weather suddenly changed, with cold wind blowing and a snowstorm raging. In fact, the method used by the old man would be well explained by modern science: whether salt produces sound in fire depends on air humidity or not. That is to say, when a storm is coming, due to high humidity, the salt won’t make any sound in the fire. Young people often look down upon the philosophy of the old, regarding their ideas as out-of-date and useless. In reality, some beliefs in life are just like salt blocks that are purified from the sea. Old as they are, they remain crystals, and carry with them profound memories of the sea.