06/19/2025
🧶 THE GIFT is not a children's story.
It is a bittersweet allegory that wrestles with greed, overconsumption, and complicity—with imagery as intense as the message is urgent.
In the gentle eyes of the Apiakuna, we glimpse the sacredness of giving. In the cries of the broken, we confront what happens when we forget that.
This is a story about what we lose when profit blinds us to pain—and what we might still recover, if we choose to see.
See **TEACHABLE MOMENT** at end of post.
Trigger warning: Emotional intensity, metaphorical violence, and grief.
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THE GIFT.
The alpacas in this story were beautiful and gentle creatures. Known simply as Apiakuna, "the ones who give", they lived on a quiet farm with a wise farmer.
Each year, they allowed their wool to be shorn, knowing it would easily grow back and there was no pain in the giving.
The wool was a great gift, soft and warm, and it kept the farmer’s family comfortable through harsh winters.
The farmer, being a wise steward, protected and cared for the Apiakuna with love and affection. and, as they had done for generations, they lived long, peaceful lives, while keeping the family warm.
The family was skilled at weaving beautiful sweaters, blankets, and other goods, which they traded with the village.
The items were so beautiful that word spread, and the wool became highly valuable.
Other farmers began raising the Apiakuna and processing the wool, until a wealthy merchant in a distant land heard of the farms and saw an opportunity.
The merchant wanted to buy the farms, make goods from the wool, and sell them far and wide for enormous profit. and promising prosperity to all, he convince everyone but the wise farmer to sell.
Under the merchant’s distant command, many men were hired to do the shearing, a great machine was built to process the wool.
The farms grew larger, and the machine roared.
Demand increased. Quotas grew. and the workers faltered under the pressure. In their haste, kindness and gentleness became less of a priority.
The creatures cried out as they were handled roughly, and the men hesitated— as they were not cruel by nature.
Distant and unconcerned with the suffering, the merchant sent orders to give the men a drug to numb their senses. to keep the shearing process moving.
Desperate to meet the quotas and keep their jobs, the men took the drug.
With their senses dulled, the men’s hands were no longer nimble. and by that time, they had processed so many of the gentle creatures the men had become indifferent to their cries.
If they were aware, at all, of the torture and maiming as they removed the wool, they hoped someone else would bind the wounds, so they set the injured creatures aside.
A few passing villagers stopped to bind the wounds, but there were not enough healers to save them all.
The Apiakuna lay dead and dying as more were brought by the truckloads to be shorn. You see, the truckloads became necessary to make up for the shortfall, dead creatures could no longer regrow wool for the next shearing.
Of course, the wool was made into goods and distributed far and wide, but shopper's tastes changed. The items didn’t sell and languished in a dusty warehouse. No longer in demand, the items lost their value.
Eventually, the cost of storing them exceeded the cost of disposal, and the goods were discarded.
The beautiful gifts given by the innocent creatures now rotted in the sun.
With the value of the wool depleted, the merchant moved on. seeking profits elsewhere. leaving the weary men abandoned in the fields.
The machine fell silent, and as the drug wore off, the men awoke one by one.
As they came to their senses they saw the blood on their hands.
and the piles of dead and dying creatures in the field... crying out for mercy.
Now without the roar of the machine, the villagers could hear the cries and so gathered at the edge of the farms.
Among them was the wise farmer, who stepped forward to lead.
The villagers entered the fields, their hearts heavy with grief for the greed that had driven the suffering. They gathered the dead and built a great pyre that lit up the night sky.
Some men, threw themselves onto the pyre, unable to live with the weight of what their hands had done.
The others lay sobbing in the field.
The villagers gathered the men and together, they stood around the flames, and wept and prayed—not just for the Apiakuna but for themselves. for their blindness. and complicity.
As they stared into the flames, they vowed never to place profit above the sanctity of life.
The maimed creatures were comforted, their wounds bound, and they were carried to safety.
The other survivors were led to the wise farmer’s pasture, where they could live out their lives in peace.
As the days turned to weeks, the villagers reclaimed the discarded items from the landfill, gently cleaned them, and gifted them freely to those in need, honoring the Apiakunas’ sacrifice.
And so, the wise farmer’s pasture again became a sanctuary, the villagers became keepers, and the fields a place of quiet once more.
The Apiakuna, no longer afraid, lifted their heads to the sun.
The villagers, wove a NEW future — rooted in compassion, humility, and peace.
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END
**TEACHABLE MOMENT**
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
(No need to reply. This is just food for thought)
What do the Apiakuna represent beyond providing quality raw materials for beautiful merchandise?
Could they be citizens that provide money in the form of taxes or workers that provide labor?
Are both the wise farmer and merchant different forms of government? or different business models?
Could the Apiakuna be soldiers and the men are government officials that send the soldiers to war?
Or could the men in this story be soldiers and the Apiakuna the innocents that died at their hand, an act necessary to achieve an objective desired by the merchant?
What does the merchandise represent?
What do the shoppers represent? They're just living their lives, and just want what they want. But why do they want it?
Who tells the shoppers what they should want? The merchant? How?
Q: How can this system be rebalanced?
A: The system can run in a balanced way that is beneficial to all -- with more thought, more cooperation, and less greed.
The wise farmer already understood.
