Flies and Bees
Scene 1: Brush Prairie, WA. Watching Anne of Green Gables with the kids. 1990. Marilla has just told Anne that she can't stay at Green Gables. . .
ANNE: I can't eat. I can never eat when I'm in the depths of despair.
MARILLA: The depths of despair?
ANNE: Can you eat when you're that way?
MARILLA: I've never been that way.
ANNE: Can't you even imagine you're in the depths of despair?
MARILLA: No, I can not. To despair is to turn your back on God. This is your room for the night. Wash up and then come down for supper.
Scene 2: Southbourgh, MA. L'Abri. 1993. Dick Keyes wheels around on me as we make our way down the hallway of the "main house", staring at me somewhat menacingly, and says firmly, "Cynicism is incompatible with Christianity!" I was taken aback, because all I had said was, "The older I've gotten, the more cynical I've become." In reality though, I had thought that by letting Dick know I was somewhat "cynical", and not just another cheesy evangelical, I would gain access to the inner sanctum of intellectual discussions with this man who I respected. Uhhh. . .it didn't work out.
Scene 3: Mount Athos, Greece. (Not sure of the date. . .probably within the last 20 years. Elder Paisios died July 12, 1994.) Elder Paisios is telling a story to some visitors who were complaining of nothing but scandals and mismanagement in their parishes: The elder says, "I know from experience that in this life people are divided in two categories. The first one resembles the fly. When a fly is found in a garden full of flowers with beautiful fragrances, it will ignore them and will go sit on top of some dung found on the ground. If the fly could talk, and you asked it to show you a rose in the garden, it would answer: 'I don’t even know what a rose looks like. I only know where to find garbage'. The other category is like the bee whose main characteristic is to always look for something sweet and nice to sit on. When a bee is found in a room full of dung and there is a small piece of sweet in a corner, it will ignore the dung and will go to sit on top of the sweet. Now, if we ask the bee to show us where the garden is, it will answer: 'I don’t know. I can only tell you where to find flowers, sweets, honey and sugar’. This is the second category of people who have a positive way of thinking, and see only the good side of things. They always try to cover up the evil in order to protect their fellow men; on the contrary, people in the first category try to expose the evil and bring it to the surface."
Cynicism has been fashionable for a long time in some circles. I don't care. . .I wannabe a bee.
