A Parable

A minister came up to me after my last show and said, "You tell some fine tales, my dear boy, but they are utterly without moral compass."

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

"I mean, son, that they lack any redeeming morality; they do not benefit the listener's soul. When you hear a sermon, you hear something of an improving nature. Other types of storytelling such as yours are merely for entertainment or to serve the vanity of the teller; they hold no true value."

"I'm not sure I agree with that, Reverend," I replied. "I've known too many preachers who put their parishioners to sleep with their long moral stories. Where is the value of that?"

"What the mind comprehendeth not, the heart knoweth," he replied. "A good parable is always more uplifting than a barroom anecdote, even if it is not easily understood."

 "A parable?"

"Son, don't you know what a parable is?"

"Oh yes!"I cried. "A pair a' bulls is twice as many as one bull. Unless you throw in a camel - then it's more."

That was the last I saw of the preacher. He stared hard at me and then walked away.

I believe there is a moral to this story, but danged if I know what it is.


Copyright © 2012 Laurie J. Anderson. All rights reserved.