#iritation

[gaya-mell-blog]

Before I met you I thought I was in love with other people The moment i met you I honestly forgot about everyone else

[justabitofenj]

i hate when couples feel the need to cuddle in public while doing everything, like you're grocery shopping you don't need to be pressed up against each other penguin walking your cart down the aisle and slowing the rest of us down

[javig321-blog]

Learn to be understanding and not so judge mental. That'll push some of the closest people in your life away.

[borsuczy]

[that-is-slightly-raven]

Whoever thought of the idea to put old black and white movies into color, should be sentenced to death

[slack]

Tony Campolo Tells a Story

Many years ago I came across a parable, attributed to Søren Kierkegaard. I've long since forgotten where I encountered it, and even the medium. It goes something like this:

There is a land of ducks. Every Sunday the ducks wake from their duck beds, leave their duck houses, and waddle to duck church. The duck preacher addresses his flock.

“Ducks!” he yells. “God has given us wings! Wings which allow us to fly, to soar on the winds above the dirty ground where other creatures are forced to remain. Let us give thanks for this wonderful gift.”

And the congregation all quacks, “Amen!”

And they all waddle home, without lifting a single wing.

I am not a Kierkegaard expert. At the time, I had been reading some of his work for a class. This parable, easily grasped, and almost light-hearted, struck me as inconsistent with the mood of things I'd been reading (things with titles like Fear and Trembling and The Sickness Unto Death do not lead my mind to anthropomorphized ducks).

With this conflict in mind I set out to fact check this parable. Internet searches show it in a lot of sermon notes, some random blog posts, and at least three books. Whenever any citation is given, which isn't often, it leads back to one man, Tony Campolo (note: Tony Campolo is not a dead danish philosopher with a penchant for publishing pseudonymous works).

Dr. Campolo included this tale in his book Let me Tell You a Story. I haven't read its entirety. Thanks to Google books, I have read the parable in question1, and the notes at the end of the book, which do not cite any work of Kierkegaard's or any secondary source. Every year or so I end up spending an evening looking for both references to this parable, and full texts of Kierkegaard’s work to search for ducks. It has yet to yield anything older than Dr. Campolo’s 1985 book We have Met the Enemy and They are Partly Right (which also contains no citation for the story).2

Of even greater irritation is since then the parable has been reprinted in another book by Dr. Campolo, which does include a proper citation… of his first book.3 Several years ago a friend was at a conference Dr. Campolo was speaking at. I had her ask for a source for the duck parable. I don't now recall what he said the source was (possibly Fear and Trembling?), but I ran out and grabbed it from the college library. There were no ducks.

At this point, I don’t really care where the story originated, Kierkegaard, Tony Campolo, some mysterious third party. I would just like to know, so if anyone does know, could you tell me? I would also like people to start citing things properly, but that seems like a lot to ask.

Campolo, A. Let Me Tell You a Story, (Nashville: Word 2000), 81.

Campolo, A. We have Met The Enemy and They Are Partly Right, (Dallas: Word 1985), 78.

Campolo, A. and Mary Albert Darling, Connecting Like Jesus: Practices for Healing, Teaching, and Preaching, (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010), 128.

[someofusarequeer]

boy problems

Prepare for a rant. Today was very interesting. My boyfriends birthday party was today and he invited his best friend, Jessica, who has had a crush on him for forever. I trust him completely so it doesnt really bother me, okay thats a lie it does but i still trust him. Anyway, she gets to the part, that she knew was gonna be pretty crowded, and the first thing she does is retreat to his bedroom. Apparently shes 'antisocial' and isn't good with crowds. Yep, the first thing that comes to mind when im antisocial is "hey, i wanna go to a birthday party filled with someone else's friends that i dont even like!" Yep, shes admitted that she doesnt like any of us and doesnt even have a legitamate reason, basically she doesnt like us only because shes met us. So Eric would spend a half hour up in his room with just her because shes 'antisocial'. It was a BIRTHDAY PARTY youre supposed to be their to support the birthday boy not crawl into his room and force him to spend time with you and completely ignore all his other guests. Thats just rude. And shes staying the night, she couldnt relinquish him for a few hours so he could see his friends that could only be there for a couple hours. Shes just a spoiled brat who has to have her way. And yes, i am admittidly jealous, he even knows this. I liked her when i first met her, now i only dislike her because she hates me without a reasonable explanation. Whatever, its bullshit that im finally over, shes just jealous and wants my man. And shes staying the night at his house right now. Along with their friend Nik. I did get to flirt with him alot right in front of her though because im a terrible person like that. Alright, i think im done now, sorry for the interesting posts intruption

[consacratio]

I really hate atheists identifying me as idiotic/insane because I have a religion.