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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
 Posted - 04/17/2002 : 15:36:17
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Slater's Ending:
But, oh most beloved, in this world if one puts their faith in a cracked pot one is doomed. For it came to pass that one day while passing the flower bed the crack, as cracks will do, burst open, flooding the flowers and killing them. Now, with his load unbalanced, the Water carrier dropped the unblemished pot smashing it upon a stone, and twisting his own back.
With no pots and with an injured back to prevent him from carrying water even if he did find a new vessel, the Water carrier, and his family, soon starved to death. There were no flowers left to place on their graves.
Do not, oh most gracious, be distracted by pretty colors. And do not place your faith in cracked pots or the unbalanced. For it is written that they will lead you to disaster no mater how pleasing they may seem at first.
Snake's Ending:
Cracks can be reparied enough to keep working. So the pot did go on to function and be useful. New things become old so the perfect pot soon looked as tatered as the cracked one from bumping around while being carried, so then there were two beds of flowers, one on each side of the road. There was more the beauty for all the Cracked pots being there.
Which way does the story end?
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...no one has ever found a 4.5 billion year old stone artifact (at the right geological stratum) with the words "Made by God."
No Sense of Obligation by Matt Young
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2002 : 15:37:25 [Permalink]
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Just because I wondered how long the pot lasted before coming apart when I read the story - I have to go with Slater's version.
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...no one has ever found a 4.5 billion year old stone artifact (at the right geological stratum) with the words "Made by God."
No Sense of Obligation by Matt Young |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2002 : 16:20:52 [Permalink]
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Being something of a cynic as well as skeptical, I too, went with Slater.
f
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason."--Benjamin Franklin, _Poor_Richard_, 1758
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Slater
SFN Regular
USA
1668 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2002 : 17:29:37 [Permalink]
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I think it was Shaw who said 'the fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.'
The whole story of a cracked pot causing flowers to grow seemed to be a fable advising you to discard logic and look at the pretty flowers. There was no implication that the pot could or would be fixed. The very point was to make it's defective state appear to be a benefit. As the story is almost always told in relation to religion I couldn't help see it as "the art of misdirection."
Apologies to Rudyard Kipling.
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It will sometimes be necessary to use falsehood for the benefit of those who need such a mode of treatment.
----Eusebius of Nicomedia,
The Preparation of the Gospel |
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Snake
SFN Addict
USA
2511 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2002 : 22:12:42 [Permalink]
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quote:
Being something of a cynic as well as skeptical, I too, went with Slater.
f
Seems some people are a taking things a little TOO seriously.
As an artist I 'see' what others don't, and that's the way I looked at that story. It's about finding the beauty within or beyond as opposed to just seeing what's on the surface. 'Don't judge a book by it's cover', so to speak. Which I WOULD THINK, is just what you all are saying also.
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*Carabao forever. |
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Tim
SFN Regular
USA
775 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2002 : 02:48:04 [Permalink]
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That pretty undamaged pot, oh, how boring! It functions, as always. Give me the cracked pot any day. Now, there's a story to tell - Even, perhaps, a sad one.
Anyway, Snake's version is the one with hope and happiness. Skepticism is a virtue which I desire, but cynicism is not what I aspire to.
"The Constitution ..., is a marvelous document for self-government by Christian people. But the minute you turn the document into the hands of non-Christian and atheistic people they can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society." P. Robertson |
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Snake
SFN Addict
USA
2511 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2002 : 03:42:42 [Permalink]
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quote:
That pretty undamaged pot, oh, how boring! It functions, as always. Give me the cracked pot any day. Now, there's a story to tell - Even, perhaps, a sad one.
Anyway, Snake's version is the one with hope and happiness. Skepticism is a virtue which I desire, but cynicism is not what I aspire to.
Some people just don't get it, do they, Tim? But we know. That's ok, everyone is on a different level. Each in his own time.
Thank you.
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*Carabao forever. |
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Lars_H
SFN Regular
Germany
630 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2002 : 09:45:00 [Permalink]
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I am not sure wich side to take.
On the one hand nobody is perfect and nothing lasts forever. And since humans unlike pots are not created with a special ideal or purpose in mind, there is no absolute truth of how a human being should be like. With pots it is easy to say that they were created to hold as much water as they can for as long as possible and not to water flowers on the way. You can't measure a human life by the same standards. People often say that it is not how long you lived and what you accomplished but how well you lived and how good you felt about it. by such standards a short life creating beaty like the cracked pot did is not nessecary a bad thing.
On the other hand I feel, that even if there are no absolutes, there should be some line dividing the 'flawed' from the just different. Otherwise you get cases like the one we recntly discussed on this board, where two crackeed-pots who thought that their flaw of deafness held it's on special beauty of cultural identity. They then useds this reasoning to create child with this special crack because they thought that the flowers where more important then the waterholding of hearing.
Everyone might be special in his own way and it are our flaws that makes us who we are. This is a worldview that certainly makes it easier to live with ones own imperfections. We should celebrate our differences in crack-pride parades and be proud of what we are. But is everything we can be really worth celebrating?
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2002 : 11:44:05 [Permalink]
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So, why didn't the water carrier take care of his equipment, repairing or replacing the pot soon as the crack was evident instead of continuing upon a single-minded path of self destruction?
The pot is merely a tool, little different from a knife or an automobile. The knife must be sharpened and you have to change the oil in the car now and then, otherwise, you will neither cut nor travel.
f
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason."--Benjamin Franklin, _Poor_Richard_, 1758
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Snake
SFN Addict
USA
2511 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2002 : 13:29:22 [Permalink]
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quote:
So, why didn't the water carrier take care of his equipment, repairing or replacing the pot soon as the crack was evident instead of continuing upon a single-minded path of self destruction?
The pot is merely a tool, little different from a knife or an automobile. The knife must be sharpened and you have to change the oil in the car now and then, otherwise, you will neither cut nor travel.
f
I'm sorry that you Really Don't 'get it'. I also see it's no use in going around in circles trying to explain. Let me just say this in responses to the knife and automobile example:
I have no less than 3 full size bathtubs in my back yard. All filled with dirt and things are growing in them. If one isn't open to new ideas and other ways of looking at things no progress would be made.....we would not see the beauty in the world.
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*Carabao forever. |
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Snake
SFN Addict
USA
2511 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2002 : 13:38:32 [Permalink]
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quote:
I feel, that even if there are no absolutes, there should be some line dividing the 'flawed' from the just different
I believe *flawed was a metaphor for *different in that story. No?
But again I say, you all are getting a little too involved here. Don't you people have anything better to debate?
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*Carabao forever. |
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Slater
SFN Regular
USA
1668 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2002 : 16:40:47 [Permalink]
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quote:
I have no less than 3 full size bathtubs in my back yard. All filled with dirt and things are growing in them. If one isn't open to new ideas and other ways of looking at things no progress would be made.....we would not see the beauty in the world.
Okey dokey, three tubs full.
"Some people just don't get it, do they..."
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It will sometimes be necessary to use falsehood for the benefit of those who need such a mode of treatment.
----Eusebius of Nicomedia,
The Preparation of the Gospel |
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Physiofly
Skeptic Friend
USA
90 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2002 : 17:21:05 [Permalink]
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Perhaps it's just the world I live in right now, but I voted for Slater. My ending would go something like this, however: The water carriers wife, never really content to be married to a cracked pot water carrier, divorced him, took half his possessions, including his pots, and moved with the kids back to her mothers. The water carrier was then forced to work two jobs and carry water in his cupped hands just to make his alimony and child support payments.
So, do not, oh most gracious, be distracted by bodacious ta-tas. For it is written that they will lead you to disaster no mater how pleasing they may seem at first. 
"Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a
deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions." - Niccolo Machiavelli
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2002 : 21:55:35 [Permalink]
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quote:
Perhaps it's just the world I live in right now, but I voted for Slater. My ending would go something like this, however: The water carriers wife, never really content to be married to a cracked pot water carrier, divorced him, took half his possessions, including his pots, and moved with the kids back to her mothers. The water carrier was then forced to work two jobs and carry water in his cupped hands just to make his alimony and child support payments.
So, do not, oh most gracious, be distracted by bodacious ta-tas. For it is written that they will lead you to disaster no mater how pleasing they may seem at first.
"Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a
deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions." - Niccolo Machiavelli
The question is, will your kids ever have to ask the question, 'Why doesn't my daddy (or mommy) love me?'
If they never have to, the rest doesn't really matter much. (It's a hell of a question to try to have to answer.)
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...no one has ever found a 4.5 billion year old stone artifact (at the right geological stratum) with the words "Made by God."
No Sense of Obligation by Matt Young |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2002 : 04:42:48 [Permalink]
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The poetry here is not in the pot. The pot is merely a utinsil to be used, set aside, or even discarded as the owner decides. At this point, it has not even historical value. The poetry is in the water carrier himself.
Was this man so despised, such a pariah in his community that no one would help him, not even a relitive? Or were water carriers in general of such a low caste that no one cared?
f
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason."--Benjamin Franklin, _Poor_Richard_, 1758
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Physiofly
Skeptic Friend
USA
90 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2002 : 18:21:48 [Permalink]
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quote:
The question is, will your kids ever have to ask the question, 'Why doesn't my daddy (or mommy) love me?'
If they never have to, the rest doesn't really matter much. (It's a hell of a question to try to have to answer.)
No, they never have and they never will have to ask that question.
But I don't understand why you think it's a helluva question to have to answer?
"Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a
deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions." - Niccolo Machiavelli
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