Parable of the Crayons

Adapted from a brief comment in high school seminary by Brother Woodward. 

There was a kindergarten where every child spent their day coloring.  They, of course, used crayons.  They simply aren't as messy as oil paints and pastels. The problem was that not everyone had the same box of crayons.  Every box was similar, but slightly different.  In order for these 5-year-olds to create their masterpieces, they sometimes didn't have the exact shade of yellow, or blue, or purple that they needed.  They would have to share.

But sharing is complicated among 5-year-olds.  In the back of every 5-year-old's mind is that their friend they were sharing with would be careless with their peach-colored crayon.  You know, the one that's just the perfect shade for filling in the skin color on the people you just drew on your white paper.  Everyone knows that people aren't white; they're peach-colored.  Or maybe they are very attached to their sky blue crayon, that is not only perfect for coloring skies, but also is same color as your favorite person's eyes. So, how does this dilemma get solved?

Well, eventually someone is going to have to start sharing.  But they won't share their sky blue crayon first.  They'll first share their plain white crayon, the one that's not good for drawing much of anything on white paper, and always gets little specks of color from the crayons around it.  If someone will love their white crayon enough to not break it, maybe they'll love their brown crayon enough to not break it.  I mean, being able to draw dirt the correct color is important, but not as important as being able to draw the sky, or your favorite person's eyes.  Eventually, after sharing a lot of crayons, they get more and more confident in the other 5-year-old's hands' ability to not break crayons.  And every once in a while a crayon will break, and someone might cry, but they'll eventually get over it.  Soon enough, they'll be good friends and always share all of their crayons.  And the art of both will be so much the better for it.

Sharing a sky blue crayon gave this meaning

"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love." -Supposedly Dr. Seuss, though it's debated on the internet.