Once a man named George was walking along a road with his friends and came to a rusted old truck. They tried driving the truck, but it wouldn't move because parts of it had gotten wedged into the road and into other parts of the truck. With some patience and work, George and his friends removed the parts that were in the way, and soon they had a simple, flatbed truck that took them all over the place, and anyone could ride on it.
After a long while, people began to ride the truck not because it got them anywhere, but because they liked the idea that anyone could ride on the truck. Some people who liked to fly added wings to it. Then someone who liked boating replaced the steering wheel with a rudder. A skier replaced two of the wheels with skis, while a biker installed a bike wheel. Pretty soon, the truck was such a mixture of all kinds of vehicles that no one could even describe it. And it never went anywhere.
Hi Liz, thanks for the comment! It probably was along the same lines as the basketball analogy. I was trying to make the point that in Quakerism we have a 350-year-old tradition rooted in a 1900-year-old tradition, and although we do make changes here and there, it is a good tradition. When we try to graft on other traditions, we end up with something that we have trouble describing or even understanding, and it no longer carries us on our journey with God.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I feel curmudgeonly for saying things like that, and I think I need to chill out a bit, knowing where my path has taken me thus far.
Oh, a little curmudgeon never hurt anyone: not that I write that comment to justify my own moments of being the curmudgeon...
ReplyDeleteI like the analogy - understood!