I’ve found that I ‘short cut’ stories by telling the people around me a set of fables, and then later referring to them as the “chicken story” or saying “He’s a scorpion.” etc. As I am writing more about my life and my thoughts here, I need to set the foundation of ‘common stories’ so anybody reading understands what these stories are without having to explain every time. So the next few posts will be little “bedtime stories.” I am sure I will be adding to the menagerie as I hear more. But for now my top 3:
The Chicken Story
There was a girl who would watch her mother prepare a whole chicken for dinner:
Her mother would take the chicken and cut it down the middle with a big knife. She’d put one side in a deep dish, season it, and place it in the oven. The other half, she would just throw away. The girl never thought much of it. It was the way it always was.
This went on for years. Until one day, the adult daughter asked her mother, “Mom, why do you cut the chicken in half and use only one side and throw away the other?”
The mother shrugged, “Well, that’s how my mother cooked her chicken. I’d watched her prepare it like that so I followed her way.” The answer left the daughter unsatisfied.
One day, the daughter went to visit her grandmother. She asked her why she cooked her chicken the way she did.
The grandmother answered, “When I was younger, we didn’t have a big house with a big kitchen. We definitely didn’t have a refrigerator or an icebox. So when we were fortunate enough to get a whole chicken, I’d cut it in half because we had a dish just big enough for a half a chicken. I didn’t keep the other half because, we couldn’t refrigerate it. And one thing about chicken: they go bad very quickly in hot weather. That’s why I only used half.”
Generally, traditions are good…and they were started for a reason…generally. But don’t do the same thing just because ”that’s the way we’ve always done it”.
Schools have a lot of chicken stories…teachers/professors with their lesson plans, the campus Greek system with things people do just because, building bonfires that have killed classmates just because we’ve always done it this way and you’re not going to stop me. Religious institutions are full of expectations and rituals that you may not understand. (Instead of undermining your faith, your questions may deepen it…or at least give you a renewed appreciation. Or it might have the opposite affect. But you’ll be THINKING.)
If you are okay with it, and it’s not hurting anyone…fine. Like opening presents Christmas Eve rather than Christmas morning.
Don’t let The Man hold you down…or tell you how to think. J
God gave you a mind…use it.
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