The Depth of a Donut Hole
I am not writing this entry on the swiftly approaching tradition of Fat Tuesday Fasnachts. There is, however, a foodie blog entry on that topic if you're inspired to make donuts after reading about them in this one.
This blog is dedicated to a book I just started reading called Parables of a Country Parson: Heartwarming Stories of Christian Faith and Life. Yeah, there's going to be a little faith talk on this one. But I'm not going to go nuts, so stick with me. Anyway, I snagged this book from my dad's study a few months back. At that time, I was working on a writing idea that involved interviewing my father and grandfather about their lives in the ministry. I thought that reading short stories about someone else's experiences in the field may help me focus some of the information I got from my family. Other books got in the way, though, and I only remembered this one the other night. The fervor of my former project has worn down a bit, but I'd read all the other books on the shelf already. So I picked it up with low expectations.
I was hooked before I'd even finished the introduction, which is written by the person who compiled these tales. It explains the history and life of William E. Barton, a well-known clergyman from the early twentieth century. There seemed to be a few similarities between his family and my own. His wife was a school teacher named Esther, just like my grandmother. They had four boys and a girl, just like my grandparents. They loved to travel, etc. So those common threads had me grinning.
Then come the stories, written by Mr. Barton for a newspaper he essentially ran in his town. They caught on and spread until he had a following of at least 3 million people. This was long before Twitter or Facebook, of course. People had to actually make an effort to get hold of these publications. In hard copy. Amazing. They're described as parables because, while mostly humorous to start, they always end with a little message or insight on life. He wrote them in a language closer to Shakespeare's but the content is consistent with life in his own time. Here is one that I found especially interesting:
"The Mystery of the Hole": I won't copy in the whole parable here (but you should totally try to find it anyway), but I will summarize. In this story, his wife is making donuts. They sound a lot like fasnachts. He can smell the delicious fragrance of dough and sugar. His wife hands him a donut, fresh out of the frying pan. He comments on the superb taste of the donut, but complains about the hole in the middle. His wife answers with this, "Thou speakest as a Fool, who is never content with the Goodness that is, but always complaineth against God for the lack of the Goodness which he thinketh is not." Ouch. She goes on to say that if the hole were not there, who is to say that the donut wouldn't be ruined? It could be too much dough, so that the inside would not cook and the outside would burn. Well, the man gets to thinking that this is similar to human life and the empty spaces we all encounter that cause us to hurt. He says this to his wife and her answer is, "...the person who useth not the good things which he hath but complaineth against God for those he lacketh, is like unto one who rejecteth a Doughnut because he Knoweth not the Mystery of the Hole."
I loved that illustration. I find myself getting frustrated a lot over little things that don't go my way. And then I find myself getting mad and blaming God or the Universe for not helping me out a little. Why didn't you just help me out a little with getting a really good parking space today? Why didn't you just help me out a little with my physical discomfort? Why didn't you just help me out a little with my really obnoxious cat? I forget to recognize the gifts that are in front of me and all around me. Everyone does it. I think I'd get really annoyed if I ever met someone who was perfectly thankful all the time and never slipped up. I'd probably be saying something like, "Why can't you just help me out a little and get this perfectly thankful person out of my face?"
But I like a reminder that comes in the form of a story about donuts. I can be on board with a reminder like that. I think it's funny how grace finds us when we're not really expecting it. If you're looking for some, I recommend this book. It's by William E. Barton and my version is edited by Garth Rosell and Stan Flewelling. There's a great story about cake, too. Just in case you weren't hungry yet.
This blog is dedicated to a book I just started reading called Parables of a Country Parson: Heartwarming Stories of Christian Faith and Life. Yeah, there's going to be a little faith talk on this one. But I'm not going to go nuts, so stick with me. Anyway, I snagged this book from my dad's study a few months back. At that time, I was working on a writing idea that involved interviewing my father and grandfather about their lives in the ministry. I thought that reading short stories about someone else's experiences in the field may help me focus some of the information I got from my family. Other books got in the way, though, and I only remembered this one the other night. The fervor of my former project has worn down a bit, but I'd read all the other books on the shelf already. So I picked it up with low expectations.
I was hooked before I'd even finished the introduction, which is written by the person who compiled these tales. It explains the history and life of William E. Barton, a well-known clergyman from the early twentieth century. There seemed to be a few similarities between his family and my own. His wife was a school teacher named Esther, just like my grandmother. They had four boys and a girl, just like my grandparents. They loved to travel, etc. So those common threads had me grinning.
Then come the stories, written by Mr. Barton for a newspaper he essentially ran in his town. They caught on and spread until he had a following of at least 3 million people. This was long before Twitter or Facebook, of course. People had to actually make an effort to get hold of these publications. In hard copy. Amazing. They're described as parables because, while mostly humorous to start, they always end with a little message or insight on life. He wrote them in a language closer to Shakespeare's but the content is consistent with life in his own time. Here is one that I found especially interesting:
"The Mystery of the Hole": I won't copy in the whole parable here (but you should totally try to find it anyway), but I will summarize. In this story, his wife is making donuts. They sound a lot like fasnachts. He can smell the delicious fragrance of dough and sugar. His wife hands him a donut, fresh out of the frying pan. He comments on the superb taste of the donut, but complains about the hole in the middle. His wife answers with this, "Thou speakest as a Fool, who is never content with the Goodness that is, but always complaineth against God for the lack of the Goodness which he thinketh is not." Ouch. She goes on to say that if the hole were not there, who is to say that the donut wouldn't be ruined? It could be too much dough, so that the inside would not cook and the outside would burn. Well, the man gets to thinking that this is similar to human life and the empty spaces we all encounter that cause us to hurt. He says this to his wife and her answer is, "...the person who useth not the good things which he hath but complaineth against God for those he lacketh, is like unto one who rejecteth a Doughnut because he Knoweth not the Mystery of the Hole."
I loved that illustration. I find myself getting frustrated a lot over little things that don't go my way. And then I find myself getting mad and blaming God or the Universe for not helping me out a little. Why didn't you just help me out a little with getting a really good parking space today? Why didn't you just help me out a little with my physical discomfort? Why didn't you just help me out a little with my really obnoxious cat? I forget to recognize the gifts that are in front of me and all around me. Everyone does it. I think I'd get really annoyed if I ever met someone who was perfectly thankful all the time and never slipped up. I'd probably be saying something like, "Why can't you just help me out a little and get this perfectly thankful person out of my face?"
But I like a reminder that comes in the form of a story about donuts. I can be on board with a reminder like that. I think it's funny how grace finds us when we're not really expecting it. If you're looking for some, I recommend this book. It's by William E. Barton and my version is edited by Garth Rosell and Stan Flewelling. There's a great story about cake, too. Just in case you weren't hungry yet.
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