Fairy Tales # 22: Two Chairs

Alex had two chairs. One stood by the window and was called Friend. The other stood by the door and was called Enemy. Alex seated his guests by merit.

Tom came, and Alex seated him on Friend, because Tom had brought a pie.

Pete came, and Alex seated him on Enemy, because Pete had once said that Alex’s nose looked like a shoe.

They sat in silence. Tom ate the pie and looked at Pete. Pete looked at Alex’s shoe and thought he could not remember why he had mentioned the nose.

– It seems to me, – said Alex to himself, – that Pete once gave me an umbrella.

He thought a little and added:

– Or Tom gave it. Or the umbrella gave me.

Then Alex noticed that Tom was sitting on the chair that had broken his leg last year. That is, it was not the chair that broke his leg but Tom, but the chair had been nearby and had seen everything. Alex broke into a sweat.

– Tom, – he said. – Did you ever break my leg?

– I don’t remember, – said Tom. – But if necessary, I will.

– It’s not necessary, – said Alex.

Then he looked at Pete and asked:

– And did you ever save me?

– I don’t remember, – said Pete. – But if necessary, I will.

Alex sat down on the floor between the chairs. It was comfortable on the floor. Nobody on it was either a friend or an enemy, it was simply the floor.

– Strange, – said Alex.

– Strange, – said Tom and Pete.

They sat down beside him. The pie was enough for three. The chairs stayed empty, and each of them thought the other was waiting for someone important.

From then on Alex did not seat his guests. They sat wherever they liked, and sometimes did not sit at all. That was good too.

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The subtext. The Buddhist practice of equanimity begins with noticing that the labels “friend” and “enemy” do not belong to people themselves: they arise from causes and conditions, like a pie and a joke about a nose. Over countless lives every being has been both friend and enemy to us, so memory in the tale blurs, and Tom and Pete are capable of anything. Alex sits on the floor, where there are no sides, and finds calm for the first time. This is not cold indifference but the ground of compassion: warmth reaches everyone equally. Notice today whom you have seated on the Friend chair and whom on the Enemy chair.