SOCIAL CAPITAL. DOES COMMUNITY MATTER MOST OF ALL?

A far fetched tale. A traveller was far from home and he trudged along in the snow and ice like a faithfull pilgrim. He was glad he missed the Roman legions marching to the outlands. At dusk he reached a quiet village secretively hiding in a valley. He was tired and knocked on a door and sought shelter but he found none.
Moving on past the village hall, by candlelight, he saw Shostakovich at the piano but he continued on to knock at another door only to be turned away again. He passed a small group and saw they were reading a poster warning about a radioactive spill.
The traveller was very hungry and he lit a fire and found an old cooking pot into which he put a handfull of stones and snow to cook.
An elderly woman from whom he had sought shelter asked what he was doing. He said he was cooking stone soup which would be greatly improved by an onion. She went and got an onion. The store-keeper approached and ended up bringing carrots and he texted his neighbours.
A monk was interested and was told that barley was needed so he bought back barley and a bottle of Jamie Oliver's sauce. Others joined in.
Eventually a large group surrounded the fire. The enormous pot of delicious soup was full and bubbled and steamed. The villagers all supped on a bowl of soup and enjoyed singing, storytelling and dancing together until it was very late at night and they vowed to do it all over again sometime soon.

Based on tale from SBS TV. The group in the photo is the Transylvaniacs who, among the instruments, have a cimbalom which is a large hammered dulcimer. An unusual instrument and one played with an intensity akin to dementedness.