Dear Pink- I've been trying for a number of years to find the original
title(s) and author's of two short stories that I read in College over
thirty years ago. I worked full time while going to college full time
and my memory has been a little fuzzy from that period. Both stories
had powerful messages, and I would like to go back and re-read them.
The first short story was Russian, I believe, and it involved a
lieutenant who was walking along a single width path in the snow, and
someone was coming towards him and he debated the entire length of the
story whether he should get out of the way first, or since he may have
been more important, being a lieutenant and all, whether the other
person should get out of the way first. It was night and difficult to
tell the rank or station of the other person. It provided a powerful
object lesson for me. The second short story or essay (may have also
been Russian) involved a very simple man who had lived a humble and
decent life, and at the end of his life, the protagonist (possibly his
agent to get into heaven) and the antagonist (possibly an agent or the
Devil himself) argued whether this man should be allowed into heaven.
The setting was a trial of sorts, and the very humble man, finally
being assured that he would go to heaven, asked for eternity each
morning to be served a bisquit and perhaps some tea. At the very end,
the antagonist (Devil) laughed, because he now had him for all
eternity. In other words he blew it. It has stayed with me as a
powerful object lesson in humility for all these years. Any help
would be most sincerely appreciated. AJBUCK |
