This comes from my church's in house magazine this week- it seems right to share it, though I'm not sure what it means. Maybe the meaning is in the reading, not in the writing.
A Parable.
Eight monkeys were put into a room. In the middle of the room was a ladder leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from the ceiling.
Each time a monkey tried to climb the ladder, all the monkeys were sprayed with iced water. This made them miserable. Soon, whenever a monkey attempted to climb the ladder, all the other monkeys- not wanting to be sprayed- beat him up.
It did not take long before all the monkeys stopped trying to climb the ladder.
Then one of the monkeys was removed from the room, and a new monkey was added to the troop. Seeing the bananas and the ladder he did the obvius thing and tried to climb the ladder to get the bananas. All the other monkets leapt upon him and beat him up. He had no idea why. However, he never attempted to climb the ladder again.
Then a second monkey from the troop was removed and replaced. The newcomer again attempted to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammered him- including the other newcomer who was just grateful he was not on the recieving end. However, he had no idea why he was attacking the new monkey.
One by one, the original troop was replaced. Eight new monkeys were now in the room. None of them had ever been sprayed by ice water. None of them attempted to climb the ladder. All if them enthusiastically beat up any new monkey who tried without having any idea why they were doing it.
A Parable.
Eight monkeys were put into a room. In the middle of the room was a ladder leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from the ceiling.
Each time a monkey tried to climb the ladder, all the monkeys were sprayed with iced water. This made them miserable. Soon, whenever a monkey attempted to climb the ladder, all the other monkeys- not wanting to be sprayed- beat him up.
It did not take long before all the monkeys stopped trying to climb the ladder.
Then one of the monkeys was removed from the room, and a new monkey was added to the troop. Seeing the bananas and the ladder he did the obvius thing and tried to climb the ladder to get the bananas. All the other monkets leapt upon him and beat him up. He had no idea why. However, he never attempted to climb the ladder again.
Then a second monkey from the troop was removed and replaced. The newcomer again attempted to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammered him- including the other newcomer who was just grateful he was not on the recieving end. However, he had no idea why he was attacking the new monkey.
One by one, the original troop was replaced. Eight new monkeys were now in the room. None of them had ever been sprayed by ice water. None of them attempted to climb the ladder. All if them enthusiastically beat up any new monkey who tried without having any idea why they were doing it.
