A parable of a town on fire

Once there was a town called Elephant Falls. At least, it may have been called that; it hardly matters. Most of the buildings there were made of wood and close together, predating the advent of fire codes. One summer morning, as should surprise no one, a fire started in the downtown area. And as soon as people saw it, they started shouting, "Fire! Fire! Soon the whole town will go up in smoke!"

The mayor was very worried and called a meeting of all his subordinates. "This town is very vulnerable to fire," he said. "I'm worried that the whole town will burn down."

The mayor's secretary, who was very smart and whose opinion the mayor valued highly, said, "I don't think the whole town will be destroyed. There have been fires here before, but the whole town did not burn down. In fact we have a very well-funded fire department, which tends to keep these things under control. It would be foolish to panic." The secretary's words came as a great relief to many.

The fire marshal left the meeting in fine spirits and returned to the fire department, where he found the firefighters enjoying a game of cribbage. One of the firefighters greeted the fire marshal and said, "I've heard that there is a fire downtown, and I was wondering what we should do about it."

The fire marshal replied, "I have just come from a meeting on that very subject. There's no need to panic. It turns out that our town employs people to keep these things under control." And the fire marshal joined the fire fighters in their game.

Around lunchtime that day much of the city was on fire. People from the town next door gathered to toast marshmallows and laugh. "I always knew this town would burn to the ground," they said.

Some citizens tried to organize a bucket brigade. Many other citizens shook their heads and said, "It's too late for that now." Still another group of citizens said, "I don't see what all the commotion is about. I've been saying for years that some of these buildings were eyesores and needed to go. Why are you so upset now that someone's gotten around to it?"

In the afternoon, the mayor called another meeting of all his subordinates. "This is very alarming!" he said. "Three-quarters of the town are on fire. What are we going to do?"

"Some of the citizens are forming bucket brigades," said the mayor's secretary. "We could use the town's firefighting equipment to help them."

"No more out of you," said the fire marshal. "We wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't given everyone a false sense of security. In my opinion it is too late to stop the fire from spreading. I think we should try to make friends with the fire. If we bring it offerings of newspaper and gasoline, it may remember that we were helpful and only burn the people we don't like."

"Under the circumstances, that seems like the most reasonable course of action," the mayor said, the heat curling his mustache.