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THE LITTLE BOY WHO GOT OUT

(This story is based on something that really happened.)

This story probably never made the news, because after all, not much happened, except that in the end, a crowd of people had a revelation.

One lazy summer day, a long, long time ago, I was strolling along the outdoors sidewalk at a strip mall.  I noticed a crowd of people had gathered, about two dozen people, standing in a circle, looking at something in the middle of the circle.  I wondered what they were looking at, and I worked my way inside the crowd. 

There in the center was a little boy about two or three years old, crying hysterically, caught between two of the pipe-pillars that held up the overhanging roof of the mall.   The pillars were thick metal pipes, each maybe about four or six inches wide.

The little boy was trapped there, bent over, but still standing, with his head on one side of the pillars, his neck caught between them, and the rest of his body on the other side.  He had his arms wrapped around the pillars to hold himself up. 

He could not stop crying, probably frightened more by the throng of staring and jabbering adults than by his predicament.  Some of them were trying to wiggle him free.

Seemingly, he could not get his head through the pillars.  He could not free himself.  He just kept on crying.

One of the men there decided to take matters into his own hands. 

He shouted to the crowd, “We have to knock these pillars down.”

Then he began to pound on the pipe-pillars as hard as he could with his fists.  After a few blows he would take a pillar in both hands and try to shake it, and then go back to pounding with his fists. 

As the man pounded the pillars, the little boy intensified his cries.  He could hear the sound of pounding above him.  The noise scared him.

The pillars were attached to the roof with gigantic bolts.  The pillars, bolts, and roof were doubtless capable of withstanding a hurricane.  Not surprisingly, the man’s pounding on the metal pipe-pillars was futile, and the pillars did not fall down. 

If they had fallen or if the roof had fallen, people in the crowd might have been injured.  The little boy might have been injured. 

At the time, I thought this guy was just your typical swaggering macho-type with a need to play the hero, but now looking back, I think he might have been the little boy’s father, frantically pounding at the pillars, overcome by fear and desperation.

“We have to try to bend the pillars,” another man shouted, and he began pulling on a pillar, straining with all his might.

Other men joined in and they tried to force the two pipe-pillars apart. 

Evidently, these were men of action, and they were doing what came naturally.  They didn’t waste time talking to each other or planning.

Did they wonder, “How did the little boy get stuck here to begin with?  Did this little boy bend the pillars?”  No, they didn’t ask these questions.  They just kept struggling to bend the pillars.

Of course, the pillars would not bend at all.   They were made of thick metal.

Somebody else shouted, “We have to cut down the pillars.” 

By then, lots of people in the crowd were shouting advice.

I wondered about their rescue attempts but I didn’t have a clue how to get him out or what to tell his would-be rescuers.  These well-meaning people could not get his head free of the pipe-pillars, no matter how much they tried. 

Finally somebody shouted, “Call the police.” 

Keep in mind that people didn’t carry cell phones back then.  But apparently, someone went into one of the nearby stores and made the call, because after a while a police car came. 

The policeman didn’t bring any equipment to cut down the pillars.  He had a clipboard with some paper and he stood there and wrote on the paper.  He looked at the crowd.  He looked up at the bolts at the tops of the pillars.  He looked at the little boy.  But the policeman didn’t go over to him. 

Perhaps the policeman was thinking to himself, “I don’t have a clue.  Maybe I should call for a fire truck and ambulance.”  But no one knew what he was thinking because he didn’t say anything to anyone. 

After a few more minutes of this, a woman came forward and approached the little boy.  She seemed very calm, very much in possession of herself.  I don’t think she was his mother – I hadn’t noticed her earlier.  Also, she seemed a bit too old to be the mother of such a young child.  That’s the way it seemed to me way back then, anyway.

She went around to the little boy’s head and knelt down in front of him.  She whispered something to him so low that none of us could hear it.  The little boy continued to weep, but now it was just a small whimper and not a wail. 

He put his little right hand between the pillars and into her waiting hand. 

She gently grasped his hand and gently drew his arm through the pillars towards her.  Then his right shoulder went between the pillars.  Then he put his right leg between the pillars.  Then his skinny chest went between the pillars.  His skinny little hips were a tight fit, but as she encouraged him with a soft voice (oh, so soft !!!), the little boy managed to slide his hips between the pillars, and then . . . . he was free!

How had he gotten himself trapped?

The little boy had slid all of himself between the pillars – except his head.  Then for some reason, maybe because he became upset by the crowd, he was unable to figure out how to reverse the process and get out.  He couldn’t get out by pulling his head through, because his head was too big to fit through.  Because he was so young, his head was still wider than the narrowest width of his hips.

The crowd dispersed.  The show was over.  But I suspect that all of them were as awed as I was by that gentle woman with her wise ways. 

The moral of the story

When confronted with life’s puzzles and quandaries, or entrapped in one of life’s dreadful predicaments, we have a choice of two paths: 

(1)  We can shout, pound, use force, and struggle to move an inherently immovable object, or

(2)  We can opt for a better path that involves calm, intelligent, logical analysis; understanding of root causes; and dealing with others in the gentle, caring, soft-spoken, civilized way we would like them to deal with us.

We can treat ourselves gently, too.

Slide show and music on my main page.

-2007-

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A CHRISTMAS MYSTERY

“She gave birth to her firstborn, a son . . . and placed him in a manger.” 

In the Bible’s nativity story, Luke says it three times, “in a manger,” . . . “in a manger,” . . . “in a manger.”  Like this is some sort of riddle.  He says, “This will be a sign to you.”  Like this is something we are supposed to “get.”

Well, what is there to “get”?  I’ve puzzled over this.  According to my Webster, a manger is “a trough or open box for livestock feed or fodder.”  Are we supposed to think that the manger is filled with grain?  That this baby who later reportedly fed five thousand people miraculously with only five loaves of bread (Luke 9: 12-17), is lying on a bed of wheat grain? 

I realized I needed some help with this so I asked someone how the original Greek text could be translated.  The original text can mean either, “in a manger,” or “in a stable.”  A stable!!!

Well, “she placed him in a stable, because there was no room in the inn,” makes much more sense than, “she placed him in a manger, because there was no room in the inn.”  Mary, the Holy Mother, could have put her baby in her manger regardless of whether her caravan was at the “inn” (likely a caravanserai, basically just a courtyard where the pack animals could be corralled and watered), or somewhere else. 

I was still asking myself if the baby was placed in a “stable,” when I watched the DVD, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, about a tomb found in Talpiot, Israel.  I was mesmerized by the symbol carved on what might or might not be the tomb of Jesus.  The carving is fairly large, I’d guess about two or three feet high, a circle or ring inside an upside-down “V,” or an upside-down “Y” with a mini-stem, directly above the low entrance.  Could this be what Luke was referring to?  Could this be the “baby in a stable?”  Do I think that there is a nativity scene on the tomb?  No, but could Luke have been pointing to this symbol and what the symbol stood for?

Caption:  The Talpiot tomb symbol, photo by Amos Kloner, March 1980.

But what does the symbol on the Talpiot tomb mean?  Apparently, no one knows for sure.  Whatever it means, someone made a tremendous effort to carve it – it is a relief sculpture (set out several inches from the broad rock face), not engraved in the rock.

I’ve asked myself if the tomb symbol could be just what it seems to be – the circle of a baby’s head appearing within a birth canal, within the outline of a vulva – a symbol of birth or re-birth?  Certainly a fitting symbol for a sect whose central belief was resurrection.

The converging lines in the tomb symbol remind me of the Horn of Plenty or “cornucopia.”  The horn was a symbol of Divine Providence in Greek mythology, a symbol of the fertile bounty of the Earth.  Also, the converging lines remind me of the very symmetrical entryway to the prehistoric Main Gallery in the caves at Lascaux, France (click “discover,” then “virtual visit”).  The entryway there is shaped like an upside-down “V.”  An entryway into the sacred womb of the Earth from which new life emerges?

The tomb symbol reminds me of something in a pyramid.  A corpse in a tomb?  No, not a corpse, but rather the “Ka” or soul of the Divine King.  Not in a tomb, but rather in a womb; the womb of Earthly existence birthing the soul into the afterlife.  Mary and her husband Joseph had spent many years in Egypt and maybe the pyramid, a construction that conveyed the god-pharaohs into the “afterlife,” had some significance for their family. 

Could the Talpiot tomb symbol be the “sign of Jonah”?  Luke reports that Jesus said that no sign would be given his generation except the “Sign of Jonah” (Luke 11:29-30).  Jonah was swallowed by an enormous fish, lived in its belly, and then was disgorged safely onto dry land.  Clearly the Jonah story in the Bible can be one of entering an earthly existence with subsequent resurrection and new life.  The belly of the fish gave up its contents, just as a womb ejects the newborn.

Luke immediately follows his Jonah discussion with a discussion of “the light within you” which is like “the light of a lamp.”  He is urging us to be filled with Divine light.  The upside-down “V” on the Talpiot tomb does remind me of the shape of the functional end of an ancient lamp; the circle of the symbol, the flame.  Luke weaves in a second metaphor here – the “eye” being the light of the “body.”  I’ll guess he means the inner life of the soul illuminates and resides in the body; the light shines forth from us illuminating all we see and giving definition to what we see.

The Talpiot tomb symbol reminds me of the circle within converging lines found on every US one-dollar bill.  On the bill, the circle is the iris in the eye and the converging lines meet in the apex above the eye, above what is a partial pyramid.  Tradition has it that the eye is the “eye of God” – I’ll guess it is not a spying eye, but the Divine spark in each soul.  I used an online translator to find the meaning of the Latin words on the US one-dollar bill over the eye-pyramid thingy:  “Annuit coeptis” means “to obliterate to begin,” reminiscent of death and new life. 

The Talpiot tomb symbol reminds me of the lines of the steeples found on so many Christian churches and cathedrals, the steeple above the doorway opening into the body of the church.

The circle in the tomb symbol reminds me of the modern practice of placing decorative Christmas wreaths on doors, and also, placing wreaths of flowers on graves; (wreaths symbolizing birth and re-birth?). 

Could the Talpiot tomb symbol be an ancient symbol of fertility and new life?  The Talpiot tomb symbol might have been not just the “sign of Jonah,” but also a convenient way to signal opposition to the establishment religion by borrowing a symbol rooted in earlier times.  The symbol does seem to mesh neatly with the New Testament themes of Divine indwelling, abundant Grace, and resurrection.

Maybe the Talpiot tomb symbol is none of the above. 

Maybe it is just a symbol which at the time of Jesus meant “tomb.”  Then again, maybe the symbol can be understood on more than one level.  More theories (scroll down to May 5, 2007 post.

Is Luke melding together nativity and resurrection themes with his “baby in a stable” clues?

Are nativity and resurrection stories inseparable?  Of course.  Each of us is a Child of the Divine.  Each of us has a Divine soul.  Each of us is in this womb of existence.  Each of us will be birthed to a new life.  Or so many believe.

I am remembering the nativity and resurrection themes portrayed in drawings on the walls inside the Egyptian temple at Abydos, far older than Christianity.  In a video shown on public television, Michael Wood, the narrator, explains the temple images and hieroglyphs:

“Here, too, are many motifs familiar to Christians, especially the role of the Divine Mother Isis.  Here Isis is caressing Seti [the god-king] on her knee.  She says to him, ‘You’re my son.  Come out of me.  I have nourished you that you may be Lord of the two lands.  I have made your body strong in victory against all the enemies who may come against you.  Your Majesty is King of Eternity, a falcon abiding forever.’  Here is Isis giving the breath of life to Seti.  Above her, her words are, ‘You have made your mansion, your temple to magnify our nature and adorned it with all the kinds of excellent stone work, and your reward for this will be the life span of the sky, or as long as Abydos shall exist.’ ” – Legacy, Egypt:  The Habit of Civilization

Then the drawings portray Seti, the “King of Eternity,” being restored to life after death.  Interesting.  Some ideas must be very old.

I decided to dig a little deeper into Luke’s nativity story, and opened my newly acquired Greek dictionary (in The Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, 1983.)  I had already noticed that the Bible’s New International Version says Mary “placed” her baby (Luke 2:7), rather than the traditional “laid.”  In my dictionary, I discovered that the Greek word typically translated as “lying” in verses 12 and 16  can also be translated as “be” or “exist.”  So “lying in a stable” could also mean being, existing, or having life within a stable.  Yes, “within” is also a possible translation.  This meshes nicely with Luke’s story of Jonah living within the huge fish, Luke’s story of the spark of Divine life within the lamp of the body, Luke’s assertion that the Kingdom of God (the realm of the Divine) is within each of us (Luke 17:21).  The Greek word meaning lie/laid/be/exist can also mean “destined.”  So at that level we can understand that life is a process – we have a destiny.  The process is one of Divine indwelling and resurrection.

I will always remember the thrill I felt when I looked at the Talpiot tomb symbol, and I suddenly realized I could see a baby in a stable!!!  Can you imagine Luke telling this story to first century listeners?  He says, “baby in a stable” a couple of times, and then the third time, he stabs the air with his index finger making a circle to signify a baby wrapped up in “swaddling cloths” with no arms or legs showing, then he holds his hands up to make the roofline of a stable.  Chuckling, his listeners instantly recognize the symbol of their faith.  They wink and nudge each other.

Caption:  A nativity scene integrated with the Talpiot tomb symbol.

Do you see the “baby in the stable”?

Let me add that for all I know, the Talpiot tomb symbol was carved long after Jesus’ time.  The DVD tries to show that the symbol is not only on the Talpiot tomb but also on at least two ossuaries (bone boxes) taken from other tombs; however, in one case there is no circle under the upside-down “V” and in the other, there is a dot where a circle should be, (but only the first box is presumed to be that of a Christian).  In my opinion, the strongest indication so far that the Talpiot symbol might be a symbol of first-century Christians, is Luke’s lamp story, Luke’s reference to the sign of Jonah, and of course, Luke’s nativity riddle.  An intriguing mystery.

Slide show and music on my main page.

-2007-

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