How could wild orangutans know this particular vine had medicinal properties? Did this ape watch his mother apply it years ago? How did she know? Tribal group legacy passes generation to generation…a sort of behavioral tradition conserved for future generations by ‘show and tell.’
“Monkey see, monkey do.” Or, as a man sees, so he does.
“My words are like so much straw,” said St Thomas Aquinas about his voluminous tomes that sit idolized but mostly idle in the bookshelves of wannabee theologians and hypocritical prelates.
When I come across the scribblings of modern day scribes who write with subtle, serpentine, sophistry — possibly containing a few grains of Christian truth but mostly just insignificant “Words, words, words,” as Shakespeare had Hamlet say — I heave a heavy sigh and swiftly move on to less rocky ground.
Christian Authors: Keep it short and simple for stupid folks like me, or you’ll lose us and your brief flash of fame.
When we humans bomb ourselves back to the Apocalyptic Dark Ages, when all books will have been burned by puritanical zealots (as in Fahrenheit 451), when computer data banks won’t work for lack of electricity, and no candlelight will avail us reading what’s left of torn, fragmenting manuscripts and scrolls, when reading and writing are no longer taught by cowled monks, and the gospel is badly slurred by tipsy Friars Tucks, only then will the written word bow to the potency of ‘show and tell,’ as it must.
After the remnants of Church cathedrals are merely hollowed ruins and ghostly spires serve as lofty nests to bats and sparrow — as seen in post-Henry VIII English country sides — after bibles are eagerly used for heating hovels, then must the Christian gospel be ‘show and tell.’
Our youth don’t read or write much, not anymore. But they can and do effective protests with ‘show and tell.’ They did it well during the Vietnam War, and are doing it now during this senseless Gaza crisis.
Come to think of it, Christ didn’t write anything but scribbles in the sand that vanished after a gusty wind or callous footprint. Interesting to note, everything He did in His short ministry was ‘show and tell.
If we did likewise, our madding world would be a whole lot better off.
newoxfordreview.org/author/rdellorfano/
The Rievaulx Abbey lies in North Yorkshire Moors
THE TRIQUETRA OF LIFE: Wisdom, Wealth, and Wellness 
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