The Three Answers: A Story Of Differences

This story of differences is an adaptation of a story by Leo Tolstoy. Once upon a time, there was a city that had harsh winters, and daily snowfalls with temperatures that made all its inhabitants shudder.

In that city lived a couple who had no children. They were very cold all the time, and no matter how hot they heated it, they rarely gathered enough heat to feel comfortable. Both had had enough of this situation, but they didn’t know what to do about it.

One of their neighbors had a big house and a big family. He never complained about the cold and instead enjoyed warm evenings in winter. Noticing this, they wondered why their neighbor wasn’t as cold as they were.

According to this story of differences, their neighbor reacted kindly to this. As it was very cold, he had taken the precaution of covering the walls and ceilings with a very warm kind of wood. Perhaps that could work for the couple as well.

Home adjustments

The couple realized that their walls and ceilings were very fragile. They decided to save money for a while until they had enough to insulate their house with nice, warm wood.

Summer came and they began to feel an unbearable heat. The only way to find relief was to leave the house, because inside it was as hot as an oven. They thought maybe that was the price they had to pay to have a warm house in the winter.

However, this story of differences tells that when winter came, they still did not feel the warmth they expected. Maybe they weren’t shivering like they used to, but they were still cold. Upset by the situation, they went to their neighbor’s house to get an answer.

A second answer

The couple talked about their situation with their neighbors. The neighbor thought for a moment and told them they might need a good heater. Perhaps then they could remove the wood and be cooler in the summer without having to endure the severe cold in the winter.

The man saw his neighbor’s stove and made sure he remembered exactly what it looked like so he could buy the same stove. It was a huge and fantastic stove and it gave off a very pleasant heat. What the neighbor had told them was perfectly reasonable. Buying the same stove would certainly solve their problem.

This story of differences tells that the couple again had to save for a long time. In the end, they managed to buy a stove the same size as their neighbor’s.

They removed the insulation and piled the remaining pieces of wood on their patio. The following winter, for the first time, they were not cold from all the stored wood they had to burn.

The three answers: a story about differences

Some time had passed and summer was coming. As planned, the house felt fresh and comfortable. The couple was finally happy. Before winter arrived, they had a good amount of wood in stock. After all, they had to constantly stoke their stove because of its sheer size.

Then winter came with another disappointment. The wood they had piled up only lasted a few weeks. The man then took some logs from the walls and burned them on the stove. He repeated the process several times. The more wood they removed, the colder they felt.

There came a time when one of their walls almost all disappeared. However, they moved on to the roof. The neighbor, who was observing the situation, was concerned about the couple and went to talk to them.

He explained that there was no point in destroying the house to feed the stove. If they destroyed their roof, the stove couldn’t prevent them from freezing anyway.

The couple felt upset. They had followed their neighbor’s advice, but failed to solve their problems. What would he advise them now? The neighbor then gave them a third answer. His house was large and had large windows.

That’s why they weren’t hot in the summer, and that’s why he needed a big heater. That was what their differences rested on: they had borrowed solutions meant to solve other problems.