There are two types of people in the world. There are two types of people in the world, and there are two seas in Palestine. One is fresh and fish are in it. Splashes of green adorn its banks, trees spread their branches over it and stretch out their thirsty roots to sip its healing waters. Along its shores, the children play as children played when he was there. He loved it. He could look across its silver surface when he spoke his parables, and on a rolling plain not far away, he fed 5,000 people.
The River Jordan meets the sea with sparkling water from the hills, so it laughs in the sunshine and men build their houses near to it and birds their nests, and every kind of life is happier because it is there.
The River Jordan flows on south into another sea. Here, there is no splash of fish, no fluttering leaf, no song of birds, no children's laughter. Travelers choose another route unless on urgent business. The air hangs heavy above its waters, and neither man nor beast nor fowl will drink from it.
What makes the mighty difference between these two seas, what makes the mighty difference? Not the River Jordan. No, the River Jordan empties the same good water into both of them. Not the soil in which they lie and not the country that surrounds them. The difference is this. The Sea of Galilee receives but does not keep the Jordan. The Sea of Galilee receives but does not keep the Jordan, for every drop that flows in, another drop flows out. The giving and the receiving go on in equal measure.
The other sea is shrewder, hoarding its income jealously. It will not be tempted into any generous impulse. Every drop it gets it keeps. The Sea of Galilee gives and lives, the other sea gives nothing, and it is named the dead.
There are two kinds of people in the world. There are two kinds of people in the world and there are two seas in Palestine.
Matthew Kelly
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