A Good Heart = Trees.

We are an intricate race.

Ha!

Makes you feel special, doesn’t it?

By intricate, though, I mean that we, humans, can at times be ignorant, selfish, greedy, self-righteous pigs, with no sense whatsoever for anything, or anyone, else around us.

Yes. For those of you who think you’re perfect, you’re not.

It seems Zeus and his son Hermes weren’t that sure of this fact, though, considering they took their time to disguise themselves as beggars, fall from the heavens into this mud-mass we call Earth, and see what people where really like.

It seems they wanted to see the negative aspects of our beings since they came as beggars. What did they expect?

After knocking on a few (and by few I mean hundreds) doors and having them shut in their faces when asking for a hint of money, you’d think they give up.

But giving it one last try, they knock on a little hut on the outskirts of town, where they come upon Baucis and Philemon (How the writer comes up with these names, I don’t know).

The first words out of Baucis’s mouth are, “Poor Strangers!”

Finally, someone with a heart.

When they let Zeus and Hermes in, they are asked, “Do you know us?”

And Philemon replies with the obvious, “Yes. Why, you are the children of God.”

Aww.

Bascially, Philemon and Baucis are the epitome of hospitable hosts, providing food, insisting their guests sit on chairs, offering desert, etc.

When they poured wine, and Zeus and Hermes’s glasses remained full, they knew.

Is it just me or is that completely out of nowhere? I don’t get it. When they poured the wine, the glasses didn’t overflow when they put more? So, the phrase of how their cups were filled is beyond my line of comprehension. And how in the world does a cup being filled mean that whoever’s cup it is, is actually a god? Please, insight me.

Because of the grace with which they were accepted and cared for, Zeus and Hermes used their abilities to make Philemon and Baucis’s “poor little house become grander and grander” and have marble paved stones sprout were there was humble ground.

Hermes tells them they can ask anything of them, and the couple asks that they die at the same time. I never would have thought of that, but it is actually a pretty intelligent wish.

Imagine the person you love and care for dies and you have to live weeping with grief from that awful loss, or have them suffer and bare the experience they go through because of you. Very smart, indeed.

Their wish is granted and they start to sprout leaves and end up turned into trees.

Huh?

You want to die together and so you are turned into a freaking tree?

That makes total sense.

Well, maybe there’s an underlying meaning to it, but whatever it signifies beats me.

As for another possible teaching, if there is one, I think it means that, we may not be perfect, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying our hardest to be good people. And doing good acts and having clean, healthy goodwill will be rewarded.

So, even if you might get turned into a tree, at least it was for good reason.