Sunday, October 14, 2018

The Manipulative Poor Townsman

I'm a wise man, or so they tell me. I've seen so much evil in my life. The stories I could and often do tell are legion. I try to resist evil, I really do. My personal baggage is the wisdom those around me think they see. Stories. I tell stories. Over and over and over again. In most of them I'm the good guy. It makes sense after all. You'd do the same I'm almost certain. Tales told, or as my student friends and occasional acolytes like to say, "story time with John" is about to happen. That temptation is toxic.

He arrives at the wise man's door, pleading for mercy. And he needs it. God knows he needs it. He has a story to tell the wise man about his suffering. The things that have happened to him over his lifetime are beyond belief, yet all too terribly true. True tales, terribly told to ringing ears willing to hear.

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