The novelist Flannery O’Conner once said, “A story is something that can’t be said any other way.” She also said, “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it emotionally.”
Some of our most important moral lessons are taught by means of stories. Jesus, for example, used parables to illustrate a truth or lesson. A parable is nothing more than a short story told to describe or illustrate a truth or lesson. Jesus communicated with stories because they clearly and effectively illustrated his points in a manner to which his listeners could relate. This form of teaching can be much more effective than an abstract presentation. Many children’s books also use stories to teach important life lessons. Consider, for example, the story about “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” from Aesop’s fables, which teaches children about the importance of trust.
A friend recently told me a story that contains a great moral lesson and helps explain the current state of our society. The story involves a professor at a large college who had several foreign exchange students in his class. One day while the class was in the lab, the professor observed that one of his exchange students was rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the student what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in this back. He had been shot in his native country while fighting Communists who were trying to overthrow his country's government.
While telling his story, the student looked at the professor and asked a strange question: "Do you know how to catch wild pigs?" The professor thought the student was telling a joke and asked for the punch line. The student said it was not a joke.
"You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and placing corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. When they get used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are accustomed to coming.
"When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you then put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, used to the free corn, come through the gate to eat that free corn again. You then slam the gate shut and catch the pigs.
"Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are trapped. Soon they surrender and go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to the free corn that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.”
The young man then told the professor this is exactly what he sees is happening in America today. The government keeps pushing us down the road to socialism and keeps giving us free corn in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credits for unearned income, tax exemptions, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops, welfare, subsidized housing, and medical and drug benefits. We are continually losing our freedoms, just a little at a time.
The story about the wild pigs reminds me of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem entitled “The Panther.” The poem tells the story of a powerful and beautiful panther who was once free but is now behind bars. Because he is no longer free, the panther loses his beauty and power. Although the panther’s confinement protects him from danger, his spirit is defeated. The panther is still alive but is truly dead and is really no longer a panther at all.
Both of these stories have a common theme. We lose our souls when we lose our freedom, we lose our souls when we no longer have responsibility for ourselves, and we lose our souls when we become dependent upon others for our livelihood. As Flannery O’Connor said, “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it emotionally.”
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