the church of the great unwashed - parables

(draft 1)

1. there was a father who had a wife and a little girl. every day, he would go to work, and after work, out with his friends to relax. most nights, he came home just in time to tuck his daughter into her bed. sometimes when he got home, she was already asleep. those times were the only times he saw her. but one way or another, he would kiss her on the forehead and whisper, 'i love you,' before he himself went to sleep. one night, he tip-toed into her room when she had already been put to bed by her mother, and bent over to kiss her goodnight. he whispered, 'i love you,' and turned to leave. and behind him, he heard her say, 'no, you don't.'
2. one day a woman decided not to go to work. and every day after that, she decided to stay home. she complained to her friends about the way her bosses harrassed her, and about the new reasons she had to come up with daily for her absence. and soon her friends began to envy her, and so followed her example, as did their friends. and finally there came a day when no one anywhere went to work. the next day was the same, and the day after, and the day after. and finally, the woman had no food or water, and her home was cold. she went to buy food, and the stores were closed. and there was no one to fix the water or the heating. she tried to complain to her friends, but they had all gone back to work, and none would speak to her.
3. there were two men who hated each other. the first hated the second because he cheated on his lovers, and the second hated the first because he was constantly lying. and so it began that the second began to steal the affections of the lovers of the first, and the first would make up a reason why he no longer cared for that lover and find a new one. finally, they infuriated each other so much that one of their arguments became a fight. in the end, they were both beaten so badly that they died, within minutes of each other.
4. there was a very beautiful old woman who was the leader of a large nation. she had ten fast cars and three gigantic houses and still more money than she could ever spend. but when she died, the only people at her funeral were politicians who had despised her as much as she despised them. her lovers had settled down and forgotten her, and she had never had any real friends. all her possessions and all her wealth became property of the government, since she had no kin. her time as leader was forgotten in history books, and there was no one with her to watch her beauty crumble and her body turned to dust.
5. there was an old farmer who never had any children. he loved his work, because it had always provided for him. he died alone in his bed. when he was found, everyone in his town mourned. and his funeral was so full that people had to stand outside of the building. those who couldn't hear what was being said simply cried, and everyone told a story to someone else about a time when the farmer had given them something extra he had grown, or when his hard work had produced food when no one else could grow any. in that town, he was always remembered.
6. there was a young woman who wanted to be a teacher. when she had neared the end of her training, she was sent to teach in a school. after a week, she decided she didn't want to be a teacher after all, and went on to pursue other things. but in that week, she spent most of her time helping the worst behaved little girl in the class to understand the lessons. many years later, after the woman had retired, a younger woman stopped her on the street. 'do you remember me?' she asked, 'you came and taught at my school when i was a little girl. and no one liked me, because i was from a bad part of town and i was mean to the other kids. but you were nice to me, and you didn't think i was stupid because i was a bad kid. i just always wanted to say thank you.'
7. there was a boy who wanted to be a baker like his mother. when he was old enough, she hired him to help her in her bakery. one week, his mother had to leave town suddenly, and she left him in charge of the bakery. he tried to make the bread the next morning, but it didn't work out, so he knew the yeast must be bad. but he didn't have any bread to sell, so he couldn't open the bakery that day. the next day, the bread didn't turn out, so he reasoned it must be the eggs, and had to close the bakery again. by the time his mother returned, the bakery had been closed all week. she was furious with her son, and immediately fired him from the bakery. and for the next month, he saw very little of his mother, she was working so hard to make up the money lost while her bakery had been closed.
8. there was a student who would not do her assignments because she was ashamed to be wrong. she felt that the problems were too hard because every time she attempted to do her work, she could hardly understand the questions and was certainly unable to answer them. she knew her assignments would be wrong, so she stopped looking at the assignments altogether. eventually, she failed and left school.
9. a woman decided to start a business. she didn't have any money, so she had to do herself everything that was necessary to open the business. in addition to the work on her business, she had to take other jobs so that she could provide for herself. afte the business opened, she worked twelve hours every day because she could not afford to hire anyone else. later, the business grew to be successful and when she had raised a family, she would tell her children stories of how important the business they would someday inherit was to her, because of all that she'd done to build it.
10. there was a very ordinary man who lived a very unassuming life. in his work, he dealt with people and sometimes made them happy but generally went unnoticed. he spent most of his evenings alone in his home, engaged in things that interested him. he was compassionate toward everyone, but it would have been difficult for him not to be, as people saw in his eyes that he was happy with his life and felt he was a good person, and thus everyone was compassionate toward him.