Unrequited Hope: Parable Pulpit?

[Abishai100]

I want to focus on two special iconic folk stories about wishes, daydreams, nightmares, and unrequited hope.

The first is the timeless story of Cinderella, which tells of a downtrodden (but beautiful and kind) young woman oppressed by her wicked stepfamily (mother and sisters) after her loving father dies and finds magic in a wish-fulfilling fairy-godmother who gives her the charms, ornaments, and grace to seek the hand of a great prince at a fantastic ball but has to prove her identity through the fittedness of a perfect glass slipper, which the prince uses to track her down.

The second is a tragic and horrifying story called The Monkey's Paw in which a smalltown family (mother, father, and adult son) discover a sacred but taboo voodoo item known as 'the monkey's paw' which has the power to grant wishes, and when the parents decide to make wishes, they discover their wishes are coming true but at a terrible price --- a handsome monetary award bestowed (as they wished) but for the death of their son at his factory (an insurance claim) --- so the mother in a fit of desperation makes a second wish that her son return, and the parents discover that he may have but as a zombie from the grave, so the father grabs the monkey's paw and makes a final wish that the son disappear, and he does.

These two fantastic tales illuminate the great yearning with which human beings make wishes, and they suggest that modern age metaphysics and adventure tales about justice, courage, hope, and sanity (such as comic book stories) point to a human need for fantasizing about happiness.

So how can we use storytelling to understand human will? The Christian Bible does suggest that humanity learns about morals through the simplicity of parables.



Cinderella

The Monkey's Paw

 

[BULLDOG]

The use and usefulness of parables was well known long before any bible was written,

 

[QuickHitCurepon]

The use and usefulness of parables was well known long before any bible was written,

Most of what we learn today from our churches has evolved out of Jesus' parables. The basic standards we hear from others there are parable-driven IMHO because they are palatable. Those two words sounding so similar I don't believe is a coincidence.

 

[BULLDOG]

The use and usefulness of parables was well known long before any bible was written,

Most of what we learn today from our churches has evolved out of Jesus' parables. The basic standards we hear from others there are parable-driven IMHO because they are palatable. Those two words sounding so similar I don't believe is a coincidence.

I gotta disagree. The churches should be concentrating on the forgiveness and love expressed by Jesus, but, instead, they concentrate on the neither forgiving or loving dictates of Paul. A man who never even laid eyes on Jesus.

 

[QuickHitCurepon]

The use and usefulness of parables was well known long before any bible was written,

Most of what we learn today from our churches has evolved out of Jesus' parables. The basic standards we hear from others there are parable-driven IMHO because they are palatable. Those two words sounding so similar I don't believe is a coincidence.

I gotta disagree. The churches should be concentrating on the forgiveness and love expressed by Jesus, but, instead, they concentrate on the neither forgiving or loving dictates of Paul. A man who never even laid eyes on Jesus.

Having suffered a lot from depression, I have the luxury of discovering what really makes a big difference in how you feel. It is obvious when you are going downhill so far.

The most powerful game-changer is the elimination of anger, and right behind that is the creation of forgiveness. Gratitude is a similar way to leverage out what you want that is good. Gratitude complements forgiveness very well overall.