This story was used by the Mendozas of Holistic Community Development and Initiatives (HCDI) in its Training of Trainers program for CHE (Community Health Education). I don't really know who came up with the story first. I modified it just a bit. ------------------------------------- There was a small mountain village we can call “Valleyview.” The mountain …
Month: December 2015
The Lamb and the Unacknowledged Self
One of the truly great parables in the Bible is the "Parable of the Ewe Lamb" in II Samuel 12. Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had exceedingly …
Stuck in a Steeple
The small country church stood at the center of the small farming community. Tim loved playing around there along with several other neighborhood kids. Tim had always loved to explore and today he decided to explore the church attic. Because almost no one ever went into the attic and the entrance was very inconspicuous, Tim …
Reflections on my Trip to Arkwright Falls
When I was young, my father and Mr. Dyer were Sunday School teachers at our church, Ivory, NY (need a really good map to find that place). The two of them took several of us boys, students in their classes, camping. We set up tents on some state land a mile (more or less) from …
The Scholars of St. Anselm’s. A Short Story.
Jon, Tom, Bev and Tammy were eating lunch together in the school yard of St. Anselm's Elementary School. Jon and Tom were, as usual, trying to show off who was the best--- the smartest, strongest, fastest, bestest. Jon said, “I know what the biggest biggest most huge creature looks like. Bet you don't!” This was …
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The Chaplain Who Did Not Show Up
Chaplain Tom started work at Hampton General Hospital. He was excited. He had trained, it seemed like, his whole life for this day. From College, to Seminary, to CPE, he has dreamed of this. HGH was a small hospital, and he was the only chaplain, but he was excited nonetheless. He visited as many patients …
Seward Hiltner Quote on Stories and Principles
"In Christianity and Judaism, which have beliefs and principles but regard them as having emerged from history and events, expressing the faith may take either of two general forms: narrating and interpreting the events, or describing and clarifying the principles. Thus the dramatic as well as the expository form of expression is inherent in these …
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A Wise Gift
Variation of an old Korean tale (or so I am told). Hopefully, I haven't abused the story too much: Many years ago, schooling was done far differently in the rural villages. Young boys would gather under the tutelage of a wise elder who would instruct them. Special emphasis was history, traditions, ethics, and discernment. On …
Poetic Tribulation
This is an excerpt from the book “A Study of Words” by Richard Chevenix Trench, dated 1859. This version is actually drawn from the Sanders “Rhetorical or Union Sixth Reader” from 1862. It focuses on the "poetry" of the term "tribulation." Tribulum in Action A popular American author has somewhere characterized language as “fossil poetry,” …
Ricoeur and Metaphors
Paul Ricoeur wrote considerably on the concept of metaphors. One major work was The Rule of Metaphor: Multi-disciplinary Studies of the Creation of Meaning in Language He described six contrasts between his understanding of metaphors and the, at the time at least, common understanding of metaphors. 1. Fundamental unit of meaning. It was (is?) common …