"Schneider's glasses"

The spruce

Everything has to be perfect, including the Christmas tree, of course.

(Bild: pictureshooting.at/Albert Mikovits)

People strive for perfection, self-optimization has become a characteristic of our time. However, "Krone" columnist Robert Schneider uses a little parable to illustrate that a flaw can also have its advantages.

In the Tara Mountains, on the southern bank of the Drina, a young, unsightly spruce stretched out its drooping branches and began to lament. "If I had a crown as beautiful and narrow as that one over there. I'd be happy and wouldn't complain any more." The little spruce looked enviously at the opposite bank, where the first rays of sunlight were casting a glistening morning light over a young fir tree of its own age and making an extraordinary impression. It seemed to be the only one chosen to be seen first of all the spruces. It was of almost perfect growth, with perfectly symmetrical branches and a pagoda-like, narrow, conical crown. There was not a blemish to be found on the tree. Its short, drooping branches tapered perfectly into upward-pointing tips all around. Its trunk was thin and straight as a die.

"I like you the way you've grown," replied the little spruce's mother, "your too-short arms, the crooked crown, the long neck. That makes you unmistakable." - "But I want to look like that one over there!" whispered the little spruce. "Nobody looks at me. But the hikers stop at that one over there and say: 'Look, that's a beautiful spruce!" - "Sometimes the flaw is the greatest protection," replied the mother, but the little spruce didn't hear it, instead grumbling incessantly.

Winter came, a harsh one. The noise of tractors filled the banks on both sides of the frozen Drina. Chainsaws were started up. A lumberjack stopped in front of the small spruce and was about to use his sword. "Not that one!" shouted the forest warden. "Not for sale. See that one on the other bank? That's going to be a magnificent Christmas tree."