Chief Silver Maple called together the members of his tribe. They seated themselves in a circle. In the center of the circle, the Medicine Man was making an sand painting. Most sand paintings are very colorful. They are made during the daytime and all traces of them must be destroyed before the sun sets. This time, the picture was different. The braves watched in surprise as the Medicine Man made a square out of white sand and in the center of the square poured a large circle of black sand.
The braves whispered to each other, "I wonder what this is."
The Chief heard them talking and then he asked for silence. The Chief asked, "Braves, what do you see here?"
The first brave said, "I see a black spot."
The second brave replied, "That is what I see, too," and so said each brave around the circle, each agreeing that that was what the Medicine Man had painted.
When each had reported, the Chief said, "Braves, why is it that none of you noticed that this is a white square with a black spot on it? Many of us, as we think about other tribes and as we think about our fellow braves, look for the black spots and fail to see the rest of the picture - the white. Too often we look for what is bad and do not see what is good. Let us look for the good things in our fellow tribes and in our fellow braves from now on."