About Project Diktuon
Pulling the Fish Together
Stone Soup

There’s a software called Fractint, used for making fractals. In high school, I used to tinker a lot with it. They say their software was made much the same way as stone soup. The way they tell the story is so captivating that I just have to quote it here:

Once upon a time, somewhere in Eastern Europe, there was a great famine. People jealously hoarded whatever food they could find, hiding it even from their friends and neighbours. One day a peddler drove his wagon into a village, sold a few of his wares, and began asking questions as if he planned to stay for the night.

[No! No! It was three Russian Soldiers! - Lee Crocker]

[Wait! I heard it was a Wandering Confessor! - Doug Quinn]

[Well *my* kids have a book that uses Russian Soldiers! - Bert]

[Look, who's writing this documentation, anyway? - Monte]

[Ah, but who gets it *last* and gets to upload it? - Bert]

“There’s not a bite to eat in the whole province,” he was told. “Better keep moving on.”

“Oh, I have everything I need,” he said. “In fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you.” He pulled an iron cauldron from his wagon, filled it with water, and built a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a velvet bag and dropped it into the water.

By now, hearing the rumour of food, most of the villagers had come to the square or watched from their windows. As the peddler sniffed the “broth” and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their scepticism.

“Ahh,” the peddler said to himself rather loudly, “I do like a tasty stone soup. Of course, stone soup with CABBAGE — that’s hard to beat.”

Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a cabbage he’d retrieved from its hiding place, and added it to the pot. “Capital!” cried the peddler. “You know, I once had stone soup with cabbage and a bit of salt beef as well, and it was fit for a king.”

The village butcher managed to find some salt beef…and so it went, through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was indeed a delicious meal for all. The villagers offered the peddler a great deal of money for the magic stone, but he refused to sell and travelled on the next day. And from that time on, long after the famine had ended, they reminisced about the finest soup they’d ever had.

This story is also a good picture of what is my vision of Project Diktuon and Diktuon.net. I bring the stone, and tell what could be done on it. You are is free to bring the rest.

Project Diktuon is ultimately about God and His gifts. He has given us different things so that we could share them with each other. Sometimes we may be like the villagers in the story and for some reason fear to share them. Or we might not know about people with whom to share things with. Or we might have something God has given us, and never thought that He wanted it to be shared with someone.

Project Diktuon is about bringing the fish together. That each of us would find other people with whom we could share whatever gifts God has trusted us to take care of. That each of us could offer ourselves as gifts to one another.

This way, Diktuon.net is not something, I – or anybody else for that matter – would do for you, but something I give to you, and call you to add to it whatever you want to add to it to share it forward.

My ultimate aim with all this is that it would be all yours, all ours. That you’d be able to take this thing wherever you want. I bring the stone. You bring the cabbage. And a bit of a salt beef. And potatoes. And onions and carrots and mushrooms and…

[Facebook] [LinkedIn] [StumbleUpon] [Email] More »