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Weed

May 26, 2013

She was weeding the plant boxes alongside the road.  Satan came up to her and asked, "What are you doing?"  She, in her late 50s, looked up and said in a despising expression, "Have you never seen a person pulling weeds?"  Satan replied, "Of course, I have. But I'm asking why are you weeding...?"  The woman became more contemptuous, and responded, "Are you a nut? People pull weeds because weeds grow."     Satan sighed, "I just wanted to know the reason why you are pulling weeds in a public area.  This is not your property and you don't need to maintain it, the government will do it."   She became irritated even more, "Can't you see?  Neither the government nor anyone else takes care of these boxes.  So if I don't do this, then there will be no flowers and only weeds.  Anyways, you look concerned about weeding.  Why don't you help me?"  He laughed, "Satan is not supposed to do good things."  "Why not?" she questioned.   "I have my own image, the symbol of Evil." Satan retorted.  She said, "Image isn't stable.  People easily change their ways.  Furthermore, young people don't ever know about you.  You should do what you like."       Satan claimed, "I didn't say that I like weeding."  She thought for a few seconds, and said, "OK. I have an idea. Can you see the young couple over there?  If I can persuade them to help me to weed, you have to help."  Satan agreed to the wager.  She went up to that couple, and spoke with them.  Surprisingly, soon, the young woman nodded and the young man followed her.  They came over to the plant boxes and started to weed.  Satan was watching them for a while and left the area saying, "I can't understand."       It took more than 4 hours for them to finish weeding all of the boxes.  After finishing the weeding, the young man asked, "Who was the person watching us?"  She laughed, "Young people don't know who Satan is, but if he became serious, something fun might happen."     The next morning when they -- the woman and the couple -- came back to the plant boxes, they saw carnations blooming throughout the plant boxes.

*despise: to hate someone or something and have no respect for them (C)
*contemptuous: showing that you feel that someone or something is not important and deserves no respect (L)
*concern: to worry something (O)
*be supposed to do: If you say that something is supposed to happen, you mean that it is planned or expected. (Collins Cobuild)
*persuade: to make someone agree to do something by talking to them a lot about it (C)