All Is Not What It Seems.
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After my recent success in showing what a fine golfer Fr. Paul was, this week I can reveal that Fr. Solomon also has a secret passion, he is an outstanding swimmer, but modesty always prevents him from admitting this.
Fr. Solomon recently paid a visit to Kenya, whilst he was there, he established a close friendship with a Kenyan Engineer and they would sometimes share a beer together after work and talk about their families. One day, the Kenyan invited Fr. Solomon to spend the weekend with him and his family, where he lived, in a small village near the river. Fr. Solomon
met all of the villagers and was made most welcome, as they considered it a great honour that he should visit their village. They spent the afternoon sitting by the river, talking and drinking cold beers, as friends do. But then the visitor decided to show off his swimming prowess and impress the locals by swimming across the fast moving river. Before his host could stop him Fr Solomon had jumped in and being a strong swimmer he soon made good progress against the flow of the river. The local boys playing by the river bank went wild and shouted and cheered their support and jumped up and down in their excitement as the man neared the far bank.
Upon reaching the far bank and hearing all the noise and cheering, Fr. Solomon thought he must be really impressing his audience and so instead of climbing out, he turned round and started swimming confidently back towards his adoring fans. The yelling and cheering increased in crescendo as he reached the centre of the river and as he finally reached the bank and started climbing out, it seemed as if the whole of the village had turned out to see what a wonderful swimmer he was. They all gathered round him and congratulated him and one of the village boys shook his hand and said, “You
must have magic skin.” Fr. Solomon replied, “I don’t think so, my skin is the same as yours.” “But it must be magic,” they all insisted, “You must be a magician” Fr. Solomon smiled and said, “I’m not a magician, I’m a parish priest.” “Well God must love you very much, because if we had swum across the river like you, we would all have been eaten by the crocodiles.”
All is not always what it seems, is it? Not even this little story!
We all learn by doing, no matter how much we learn from others, the best way is to experience first-hand.
But sometimes this experience is life threatening, not life enhancing as we’d hoped.
Published Fri 29th Nov 2013 14:26:20