Re: A Parable of Two Carpenters

From: Beth (BethStone21_at_hotmail.NOSPICEDHAM.com)
Date: 12/01/03 

Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2003 15:14:28 -0000

Alan Connor wrote:
> So I guess I owe everyone an apology.
>
> (except a certain juvenile delinquent who remains in
> my killfile)
>
> I hope you will accept it.

Don't worry, that was one of the most important things that the first
carpenter taught is that forgiveness should basically be
automatic...as, in fact, as our second carpenter demonstrates to an
unbelievable level of clarity: Hatred and anger hurts _YOU_ more
eventually than it does anyone else...Rene's "wrath" has simply turned
him into a bit of a mockery, scared away plenty of people who would
otherwise be _very_ interested in his all-in-one solution, he would
have received - as Hutch suggested - plenty of help from skilled
others which he's lost by insulting them all the time, his "rebirth"
is forever delayed, etc....whereas, HLA has gone from strength to
strength...all because Randy listened to the first carpenter...note
that Rene's been at this for _ages_ and still Randy takes a perfect
forgiving and still tries to offer genuine and honest advice...

Unfortunately, increasingly, because many of the "Bible belt"
persuasion shout and act all judgemental (which is _highly_
unChristian, in fact..."Love thy neighbour", "Love thy enemy", "Judge
not, lest thy be judged", etc.), there's often a perception that the
things Jesus was saying are like "restrictions"...you know, like
"daddy" spoiling the kids "fun"...but, in fact, it's all really good,
self-evident advice for living...which was what shocked a friend who
once tried to annoy me by saying the old joke: "They've found the
first missing page of the Bible...it says: 'the characters and events
in this novel are purely fictious and any similarity to people,
companies living or dead is purely coincidental...'"...and he found it
odd that I just laughed at this joke, which he thought he could wind
me up with...knowing I'm a Christian...but I simply said: "Perhaps
that's actually true...maybe the whole Bible _is_ a work of
fiction...not that I personally believe that...as, after all, many of
the historical events and so forth are actually _known_ to have
happened from other history and geological studies...but, were it all
just a fiction novel, IT DOES NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST ALTER THE TRUTH OF
THE MESSAGE"...and the Bible itself stresses the importance of the
actual _Message_ of Love, Compassion, Forgiveness and so forth as most
relevent...

Rene proves almost every time he opens his mouth that his anger and
fear and wrath are, in fact, HARMING HIMSELF more than they actually
harm anyone else...interestingly, you can also see completely separate
religions - and sciences even - independently come to basically the
same rough conclusion as this themselves...notions of Yin and Yang,
the concept of balance and "karma", etc....very different ways to
approach it but, essentially, there is more or less the same basic
underlying message there too...

Heck, even _YODA_ knows this stuff in Star Wars and those Jedi are
very chivalrous Arthurian knights (and King Arthur's _true_ historical
significance was in being the first _Christian_ warrior king...note,
England didn't actually exist at that point and he was a likely a
rough-around-the-edges Celtic warrior...but the actual historic record
going right back to the first record of a "king" called Arthur
specifically stresses the importance of Arthur: he carried the _cross_
on his shield...and the historical record makes a big deal about
that...as it should because the British Isles was not yet supposed to
be Christian...later on, of course, they cleaned up the myth and
stories...transplanted them in time to medieval England and gave them
more "modern" armour and romantised the whole history a bit...Merlin
was another myth doing the rounds and was married together with the
Arthur myths...anyway, the Christian elements are still mostly there:
the round table ("all are equal in the eyes of God" so there's no
"head" of the table at which the king sits ;), the knights following
the "noble" code of chivalry, going to seek the Holy Grail,
etc....basically, the _real_ Arthur was, one supposes, the first
Christian warrior king who probably won a lot of battles and made lots
of good pacts with other kings and all his people thought him a
fantastic king that his name got into legend and myths permanently
that, even today, we all know about King Arthur...even if, well, the
stories today are so distorted from the reality of the "bear man"
Celtic warrior king (that's what "Arthur" means..."arth" is still the
Welsh word for "bear" today, in fact ;))...

The hero has a thousand faces...all the myths and legends of the world
are essentially the same in the underlying messages and truths...but
this is to be expected, in fact...we're all human, we're all on the
same planet, we're all subject to the same forces of Nature, the same
_TRUTHS_ apply to us all, etc....it was humans themselves that
invented these _PATENTLY ABSURD_ notions that because there was a
river and a mountain, they'd draw a line on a map, create a flag of
different colours and then proceed to kill each other repeatedly in a
periodic cycle because of...well...it's anyone's guess why humans
insist on this nonsense...but, regardless, humans have insisted on it
for thousands of years and will, no doubt, keep doing it until it's
simply not possible to do so anymore (Judgement Day? Which you can
read as the Biblical or Hollywood "Arnie" one...again, different
actors at a different theatre but the same basic play in which we are
all actors playing our part :)...

So, remember, kids:

"Fear and Anger the path to the Dark Side is, young padawan Annakin"
[ Yoda! :) ]

"The only way to win, is to _deny_ the battle"
[ Daniel Jackson learns in an episode of Stargate, for those who
prefer that to Star Wars ]

Yup, Jesus right next to pop culture references...I don't care
because, you see, that's my whole entire point here...the colour of
someone's skin (which, by the way, in Jesus' case was NOT likely to be
white whatsoever ;)...the media by which you learn your lessons in
truth (movie or holy book)...the person speaking and / or
listening...these are _independent_ of the message...independent of
the truth..."From the mouths of babes...", as the saying goes...which
is why I never killfile on principle...

So to speak, we accepted the apology long before you actually offered
it ;)

Beth :)