The Goods and the Ills

Long ago the Goods and the Ills shared every house on earth. The Goods were things like good health and a full table. The Ills were things like coughs and quarrels and empty cups. But there were far more Ills than Goods. They pushed and they shoved. They filled up every room, until they drove the Goods right out.

The Goods floated up to heaven and stood before Jupiter, king of the gods. "Look what the Ills have done to us!" they cried. "We are nothing like them. We cannot live with them. All we ever do is fight. Please keep us apart, and make a law that can never be broken."

Jupiter listened, and he said yes. "Here is my law," he said. "The Ills may go to the earth together, as a crowd. But the Goods shall go one by one."

And so it is still. The Ills come in a crowd, pushing in at the door, one on the heels of another. The Goods come from far away, from Jupiter himself. They do not come to everyone. They come softly, one by one, to those who have the eyes to see them.