The never-ending garden
A month ago, two quotes arrived at home for mowing the lawn and pruning the trees in the garden. The description is identical in detail, but the prices are different. Mainetti asks for 900, while Vincenzo asks for 700. It's exactly the same job and probably the same amount of time, but one believes he should charge more, and the other, less.
Immediately, I remembered the reflection of the Uruguayan philosopher Mujica, who says that money is a measure of time. For him, a 100 bill can be a whole day of work for a bricklayer, and the same bill, a fraction of a second for a famous actress.
I don't understand why Mainetti thinks his time is worth more than Vincenzo's. At first, I thought about confronting them by having a coffee and asking them face to face about the reason for the difference, but I doubt they would accept such a waste of time. Surely they would talk to me about the concept of business competition, capitalism, free market, and all those nonsense that adorn modern economics textbooks.
I went to my friend Sara's bar to find an answer to the puzzle. She is a very wise person, a daughter of experience, and she told me, "Sometimes you seem like a five-year-old who needs everything explained. In any case, be glad; those scoundrels want to charge me more than a thousand for the same job." Thanks to her advice, I realized that the initial motive was invalid; there was no reason for me to order the death of the garden's flora. Poor plants, their lives go beyond my aesthetic needs. It was then, in an ecological outburst, that I told Mainetti and Vincenzo, "Thank you very much, but no thanks."
After a month, the weeds turned into a forest, and with them came the pests. The day before yesterday, the insect invasion of the house began. They appear by the dozens, each time with more eyes, antennas, and legs; they are nesting in all the rooms, wardrobes, and furniture. Surely, they will devour me anytime now.
In the midst of fear, I wonder if God, in the gardens of paradise, mows the lawn or prunes the tree of life.
