Day One Hundred Twenty-Six: "A Field of Rice" by Pearl S. Buck

Progress.

A man in a Chinese village challenges the newcomer in power who decides that plowing deep into the soil will yield a better rice harvest. In a story that serves as one enormous metaphor for how the abuse of power can come back to bite the one wielding it, there are flashes of brilliance in quotes like:

"Rice is as willful as woman...forget what it wants and it withers without harvest."

and

"Never slice the skin of the earth."

Overall, this story was a nice read but a little long for me considering what little actually came out of the story. Still, the writing was solid and the message clear. Progress is good but only if checked. Otherwise, destruction awaits and is inevitable.