No, I am NOT going to write about the recent U.S. election. Everyone else has done that already.

            Instead, I’m going back some 80 years, to a collection of academic papers I inherited, written by my father while doing his studies for a PhD in psychology. 

            He was, at the time, acting principal of an undergraduate arts college in India. His students belonged to four different religions and at least six language groups. And he was using those students to test psychological theories developed for western nations -- Europe and North America.

            The only thing he proved, he admitted later, was that western categories simply didn’t fit the eastern mind. 

            But some of his exercises have interesting implications.

            In one, for example, he gave students an unfinished story. He asked the students to complete the story. Then he asked them why they liked that particular ending.

            One such story (slightly westernized) described a boy from a poor farming area, who had struggled to get through school. Now he had to write an examination for high school entrance. But his father had an accident on the farm. The boy had to take over the farm, and care for his father as well. He had no time to study for his exam.

            How would they finish this story?

Fantasy and reality

            Their responses tended to focus on either fantasy or reality.

            Fantasy endings typically depended on external sources – some kind of  deus ex machina – for a happy ending. So some students argued that because the boy had done everything a good son should do, either fate or the gods should help him ace his exam.

            A lesser fantasy might suggest that the school principal – not mentioned in the original version of the story -- respected the boy for his efforts, and would intervene with the university.

            Reality versions, on the other hand, were more likely to assert that life is tough. The kid flunks; he’ll spend the rest of his life working a dirt-poor farm. Too bad; so sad.

            Or they blamed social issues. Poverty penalizes the already disadvantaged. Universities perpetuate class distinctions. Elites rule. 

Applied to parables

            I couldn’t understand my father’s analysis of statistically significant deviations based on religion, sex, and language. But the exercise made me wonder how that technique might be applied to Jesus’ parables in the Bible. 

            Suppose you stopped the parable before you get to the moral so conveniently provided by the biblical writers. 

            Suppose the parable of the Prodigal Son stopped where the older son refuses to join the festivities. Or before the five bridesmaids are told they should have been better prepared for a delayed wedding party. Before the workers in the vineyard get told why the master chooses to be generous. Or right after the farmer scatters seeds wildly, before Jesus offers an explanation.

            If you left out the moral, how would you end those stories?

            Would you require a higher power, to make everything work out? 

            Would you choose to punish those who failed to measure up?

            Could you even imagine any conclusion other than the one you’ve always heard?

            Your preferred endings might tell a lot about how you expect the stories in your own life to work out. 

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Copyright © 2020 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.

                  To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca

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YOUR TURN

“An excellent metaphor,” Isabel Gibson said of last week’s column, about looking at trees when they’re not hidden behind their leaves.

            “I recognize more birds than trees. Every person and book teaching bird ID says to set aside colour (the characteristic all beginners fasten on) and look instead at the general size, shape, and behaviour. Why? Because colour varies by season (mating or not; moulting or not), sex, age, and individual. The other characteristics are more reliable.

            “It takes a while to get onto that.

            “People are much the same as birds, I think: our superficial qualities catch the eye and distract attention from what matters. In your metaphor, the growth pattern of our branches.”

Bob Rollwagen applied the metaphor:  “Don’t they say the best place to hide is in a crowd? But now crowds are not allowed and lots of us have not so pleasant feelings and issues.  It is not easy to live with yourself and hiding in plain sight only counts when anyone looking does not know you. 

            “Like people, each tree is a product of the surrounding environment -- but without traditional clothing and customs, hard to identify.  This is what makes the world a wonderful place. It seems that trees do a better job sharing and living together than humans, fully dressed or not.”

Tom Watson also liked the column, but had one caveat: “I do wonder about your line: ‘Sports leagues have recognized that it’s the game that counts, not the count of fans screaming from the sidelines.’ Shortly after the professional baseball season started, the venues where they played started piping in pre-recorded fan noise. It was quite startling the difference the 'roar of the crowd' made. Without the fan noise the game was dead; the fan noise added life. Certainly the game counted, but the leagues quickly recognized that ‘fans screaming from the sidelines’ counted for quite a lot too.”

            JT: I’m not sure they have to be“screaming”fans. Just being there makes a difference. Church services, for example, feel different with real people present, even if they never scream. 

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Psalm paraphrase

Anyone who feels excluded, shut out, treated as inferior, might sympathize with Psalm 123.

1          I wish I were like you.
You have so much more than we have;
you are so much more than we are. 

2          You are the norm, the model, the image everyone expects of us.
We discern you at a distance, as if through the wrong end of a telescope.
You are far out of reach, untouchable. 

3          Don't brush us off, please.
We have had more than our share of contempt dumped on us.

4          For too long, we have been the rejects, the people nobody cares about. 

You can find paraphrases of most of the psalms in the Revised Common Lectionary in my book Everyday Psalmsavailable from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

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TECHNICAL STUFF

If you want to comment on something, send a message directly to me, jimt@quixotic.ca.

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                  I write a second column each Sunday called Sharp Edges, which tends to be somewhat more cutting about social and justice issues. To sign up for Sharp Edges, write to me directly, jimt@quixotic.ca, or send a note to sharpedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca

                  And for those of you who like poetry, please check my webpage .https://quixotic.ca/My-Poetry I posted several new poetic works there a few weeks ago. If you’d like to receive notifications about new poems, write me at jimt@quixotic.ca, or subscribe yourself to the list by sending a blank email (no message) to poetry-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca (If it doesn’t work, please let me know.)

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PROMOTION STUFF

To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols. Some spam filters have blocked my posts because they’re suspicious of some of the web links.

                  Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca He’s also relatively inexpensive!

                  I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom. She also has lots of beautiful photos. Especially of birds.

                  Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom (NB that’s “watso” not “watson”)

ALVA WOOD’S ARCHIVE

                  I have acquired (don’t ask how) the complete archive of the late Alva Wood’s collection of satiric and sometimes wildly funny columns about a mythical village’s misadventures. I’ve put them on my website: http://quixotic.ca/Alva-Wood-Archive. You’re welcome to browse. No charge. (Although maybe if I charged a fee, more people would find the archive worth visiting.)