June 2024
The story of the Crutches
When an accident deprived the village headman of the use of his legs, he took to walking on crutches. He gradually developed the ability to move with speed even to dance and execute little pirouettes for the entertainment of his neighbours.
Then he took it into his head to train his children in the use of crutches. It soon became a status symbol in the village to walk on crutches and before long everyone was doing so. By the fourth generation no one in the village could walk without crutches. The village school included “Crutchery-Theoretical-Applied” in its curriculum and the village craftsmen became famous for the quality of the crutches they produced. There was even talk of developing an electronic, battery-operated set of crutches!
One day a young Turk presented himself before the village elders and demanded to know why everyone had to walk on crutches since God had provided people with legs to walk on. The village elders were amused that this upstart should think himself wiser than them so they decided to teach him a lesson. “Why don’t you show us how?” they said. “Agreed,” cried the young man.
A demonstration was fixed for ten o’clock on the following Sunday at the village square. Everyone was there when the young man hobbled on his crutches to the middle of the square and, when the village clock began to strike the hour, stood upright and dropped his crutches. A hush fell on the crowd as he took a bold step forward-and fell flat on his face. With that everyone was confirmed in their belief that it was quite impossible to walk without the help of crutches. (Anthony de Mello)
We make up our minds about something and often we only change them with great reluctance. Our present opinions are shaped by our past opinions, what we think now, we so often thought then. Some constancy of thought is no doubt helpful, being blown about by the whims of fashion is not to be encouraged. However, it is important not to limit our thinking, new ideas and new experiences should change our outlook and understanding, or least we should be prepared to let them. Flexibility of thought and mind is surely the hallmark of a mature wisdom.
Jesus’ first disciples had to re-think much of what they thought in the light of this daring teacher and healer; they made the change only reluctantly and with difficulty. Little of what Jesus taught or asked his disciples to do was in any way comfortable – to either their thinking or their doing.
Is there a point to me writing this now? Not especially, just that I need to remind myself that although change is disorientating sometimes it is necessary, even if we, at first, fall flat on our face. It might be that you need to hear it too.
William
PS May I make my annual plea to you – please support your local fêtes and fairs – people do it to raise a bit of cash for something they believe in passionately. They are worthy of your support.