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The fire crackled softly under the night sky. Mira sat cross-legged, her notebook open on her lap, eyes wide with curiosity.

“Grandfather,” she said, “you said that great leaders must understand all perspectives. But… how can someone truly know everything? How do they even know what matters?”

Grandfather smiled, smoothing the dirt where he had drawn two figures the night before.

He picked up a small pebble and placed it in the center.

“This,” he said, “is a single fact. Alone, it tells you very little.”

Then, he drew circles around the pebble—mountains, rivers, other villages.

“And this,” he continued, “is context. It’s the world around the fact. Without it, you don’t know if the pebble is a seed, a tool, or a weapon.”

Mira leaned closer, her pencil poised. “So… context is everything around what you’re looking at?”

“Exactly,” said Grandfather. “In politics, in history, in life—you must always ask: What is the bigger story? Why do people believe what they believe? What are their hopes, fears, memories?”

He paused, adding little dots around his drawing like stars.

“Imagine trying to fix a garden by only looking at one wilting flower, ignoring the soil, the water, the weather. You would fail.

Leadership is like gardening—you must understand the whole ecosystem.”

Mira wrote furiously, her mind racing.

Grandfather’s voice grew softer, as if speaking to the stars themselves:

“Context teaches humility. It reminds us we do not know everything, and that our truth may only be a piece of a larger tapestry.”

Mira tapped her chin thoughtfully. “So… to make good decisions, you have to see the connections, not just the problems?”

“Yes,” Grandfather said warmly. “Good leaders, good friends, good people—they don’t just react to what they see. They pause, they listen, they wonder:

What else is here that I don’t see yet?”

Grandfather smiled warmly as Mira finished tracing the circles in the dirt. The fire crackled softly beside them, and the stars blinked patiently above.

“So you see, Mira,” Grandfather said, “context means understanding the whole picture—not just a piece of it. It’s how we find fairness, avoid misunderstanding, and make wiser choices.”

Mira thought for a moment, then looked up with wide, serious eyes.

“But Grandfather…” she asked slowly, “if understanding all perspectives is context, then… how do we know what the right thing to do is?”

Grandfather chuckled, the lines on his face deepening with affection.

“Ah, Mira…” he said, leaning closer. “That, my dear, is where wisdom begins.”

The fire popped and sizzled, casting long, thoughtful shadows as the night grew even stiller, as if the whole world was holding its breath for the next story.