An old wise man stood proudly holding an apple in his hands. This apple was big, juicy and smelled so fresh. Its skin was a rich red that shone like the sun in a cloudless sky. The old man held the apple with care and pride due to how beautiful the apple was because of his hard work over the years. But the old man was nearing the end of his time to care for the apple he had worked so hard for and it was now time for a young man to take his place.

A young man sauntered over to the old man. He was excited to get his hands on the apple for the first time. The old man asked him to hold his hands out in a cup-like shape. The young man quickly made the shape eager to have the apple in his possession. The old man slowly and carefully sat the apple in the young man’s hands. As he pulled his hands away, the old man began to tell the young man how to care for the apple but his voice trailed off to the young man who was no longer paying any attention.

Upon seeing that the young man was no longer paying attention, the old man gave the apple one last good bye and slowly faded away. The young man, still focused on the apple, began to have ideas and plans fill his head. The thoughts were not of ways to preserve the apple though. Instead they were ideas and plans to benefit from the apple; how to use the apple.

The young man began by squeezing the apple a little to get juice out of it but a little turned into more and more as the years went on. He peeled a small spot of the beautiful red skin off the apple but the small spot grew bigger and bigger as the years went on. He took a tiny bite off the apple but a tiny bite turned into larger and larger bites as the years went on.

By the time the young man had grown into an old man, the apple looked very used and very abused. Its rich red skin was mostly gone and its once delicious aroma no longer filled the air. The now old man realized that he had made many mistakes in caring for the apple during his time and he would make sure that the next young man to come along would learn from his blunders.

The old man stood there holding the apple somewhat ashamed as a young man walked up. The young man was excited to get his hands on the apple for the first time. As the old man lowered the apple into the young man’s hands he strongly said, “Now you listen to me!” He began to talk to the young man about what NOT to do but his voice trailed off to the young man. The old man noticed this but instead of giving up, grabbed him by the shoulder and proclaimed, “You must listen! You can’t make the same mistakes I did because if you do we will no longer have an apple to take care of.”

This made the ears of the young man perk up and his attention turned straight to the old man. The old man would go on to tell him about his errors and of how amazing the apple once looked. The young man was inspired by the stories of yester-year and promised the old man to bring the apple back to its former glory. The old man smiled as he was glad to hear this and then began to fade away slowly.

The young man looked down at the apple sitting in his hand. Ideas and plans began to fill his head but they were ideas of how to preserve and nurture the apple as the young man knew they only had one apple and he had to make sure that he took great care of it so there would be one for the next young man that came along.