I came up with a parable today. The only problem is, I don’t know how it ends.
Goes like this.
There was a father and son who lived in a house by a cliff. The father loved his son very much. The day the son was born, he swore to him, “I love you so much, I will never say no to you.”
When the child grew older, he wanted to play outside, and of course his father said yes. “But don’t play too near the cliff,” he said.
But every day the boy played a little closer to the cliff, testing the limits.
“I don’t think you should play so close to the cliff,” the father said.
“Are you saying I can’t play by the cliff?” the son demanded. “Are you saying no to me?”
“No, I’m not saying no,” the father replied hurriedly. “You may play wherever you like.”
After a while, the boy came to his father and said, “I want to play right at the edge of the cliff.”
His father did not say no.
That day the boy slipped, and plunged to his death on the rocks below.
Now here’s where I don’t know where to take the story. I’m not going to tell you what the parable means, because I think you can guess.
What I wonder is, what did the father do then? Did he feel he’d done right, and fate was to blame? Did he blame God? Did he feel he’d failed his son?
I don’t know. I don’t know what he did next.
But if the parable means what I think it means, I guess we’ll find out.
I’m reminded of an episode of Adventures in Odyssey where Whit reads a story he’d written of a boy who lied about getting robbed to cover up the fact that he’d been irresponsible and lost some money. Things blew out of whack and he ended up getting a heroism citation from the mayor. Eventually the plaque was broken and put away in a box and the event was never brought up again. End of story. Connie said, “So he got away with it.” Whit responded that was not the case. Though the lie and fraudulent basis for the award were never made public, the boy had to live the rest of his life with the whole fiasco on his conscience. Though everyone else forgot, he never did. In other words, avoiding prosecution does not necessarily equate with avoiding punishment.
As for the above parable, It would make a great introduction to a novel that then follows the dad through the stages of grief, exploring the various ways they may be twisted and warped by the human propensity to rationalize all behavior rather than admit guilt. Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.