Homer said...Stick To the Trunk of the Tree?
Through the years encouragement has been given to stick to the trunk of the tree and to avoid going out on a limb. The idea behind this has been to stick to what that trunk has to offer. If the trunk we are clinging to has all that we need to know, then maybe that is good. However, if that trunk doesn’t have everything we need or everything that is offered, then there is a void. If we are to cling to the trunk of the tree, how can we see the forest? How can we know what the forest has to offer? As the following is read, consider the trunk of the tree as the truth as we know it and the forest an expansion of truth and understanding.
By sticking to the trunk of the tree, we can't even get to all the fruit that the tree has to offer, unless it falls to the ground close to the trunk. If we wait for the fruit to fall, it may be rotten by the time we get to it. If we do eat some rotten fruit we can regurgitate it and rid ourselves of it. It isn't pleasant to "throw up" but we are better off than to leave it inside where it can putrefy and make us sick. We shouldn’t have to experience that more than once.
Sometimes we have to go out on a limb or venture away from the trunk to get to the fruit. If we venture out on a limb we may fall. If we fall, we don't float away into space. We fall to the ground. Sure, it may hurt. But we become "grounded" and we learn from the experience. But unless we venture out on the limbs of the tree or get away from the trunk we will never benefit from all the fruit that the tree has to offer or see what the forest has to offer. Should we never venture out on a limb for fruit or back away from the tree for a better view of the forest? If so, we can become very nearsighted because we are not exercising our vision.
By sticking to the trunk of the tree where we are, we only see that one tree and what it has to offer. If that tree has been infected with disease, parasites or worms, we will be affected by that infection. That problem will be removed from the tree in one-way or another. If the tree survives the problem, it will be scarred in one way or another. That is OK. Scarring indicates that healing took place. If the tree does not heal, it will die. Some trees in the forest die for various reasons. They fall to the ground and decay and return to ground. Even though a tree may die, it's base elements will return to the earth.
When a tree in the forest is cut for lumber, the logs are milled into lumber for different purposes. The parts of the trees that have been damaged are cut away and discarded. The good wood is then used to build homes, make fine pieces of furniture or fine pieces of art. All trees have something to offer to the forest and to mankind. Even if that tree provides nothing more than taking in carbon dioxide and giving off oxygen. But that of course is a very important function. Mankind can't survive without oxygen.
This doesn't mean that the trunk we are clinging to isn't a part of the forest. Nor does it mean other trees are more perfect than the one at hand. Actually, there is no perfect tree in a forest. How can we know whether or not there is another tree that also has something to offer? Another tree, or several trees, that may have "good" roots, "good" wood, or "good" fruit. Some trees offer more than others. Each individual must choose if a tree in the forest offers a root system for good growth, which wood is best for the purpose at hand, and which fruit is good to eat. That choice must be made after careful and thorough examination of the instructions given by the Maker of the forest.
Just a thought, Homer
2 comments:
Nice analogy Homer. I agree and it is the freedom to chose that is the personal factor in how any one individual follows their own path even when associated with an organized group.
Every COG seems to demand compliance and it simply is not possible. It never was and never can be possible for "all to speak the same thing." That's not how humans think. It also supposes that what we all speak is decided on by someone else and then we all speak it. That is rubbish.
For those that have eyes to see and ears to hear, Peter, James, John, Jesus and Paul themselves did not all speak the same thing. Not even close.
To extend this analogy: I see nothing wrong with taking my axe and cutting down the trees for firewood.
If we are talking about Armstrongist trees -- the ones producing bitter fruit -- this would seem to be the best plan. Cut down the whole forest, I say. Burn it, I say.
This would solve a lot of problems. For one thing, we'd have recycled all those old booklets which do so much damage. All future damage would be mitigated, since there would be no fruit and no seeds to grow ever more trees -- popping up all over the place over the past 25 years -- a thousand or more of them, according to some counts.
After the forest of tare trees is slash cut and burned, we can pave over that part of the forest and put in a strip mall. There we could have shops to sell things that are useful and valuable instead of the recycled scrap from the Armstrongists.
Maybe we could sell off some of the trees in December for people to decorate. I don't necessarily sanction that, but it's better than just letting them stand there rotting away and rotting the brains of those inside the trees.
British Israelism as the root of the trees should be cut off permanently so these suckers can't grow again to spread the harm of the forest of darkness.
Yes, the analogy continues to work.
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