The Wolf Comes

Parables and fables are a way for us to hear a story without putting up our defenses. We're sort of tricked into seeing our own faults, but it comes from our own examination. It's a popular tool for teaching children. It was one of Jesus' favorite things to do- tell stories that made you think, and hopefully transform you. It's actually a fairly gentle way to teach.

One of these famous stories that many children have learned is the boy who cried wolf. I honestly don't remember why he felt the need to cry wolf- was he bored? Lonely? Either way, the shepherd boy did it enough while watching his sheep that when a wolf actually came and he "cried wolf" no one came. No one believed him. The moral of the story is often presented as "don't lie" or even "don't take advantage of those who will help you." 

Here's a moral we don't pull out of this story as much: the wolf comes. As cynical as we are, we still don't think THAT could happen to us, we're far too advanced for that. It's important to remember that the wolf comes. 

We have been inundated with conspiracy theories and false information (fake news). We hear ridiculous things all the time. We are so used to discarding what we don't want to accept (and often there is merit in discarding it), that when the real thing comes to us, we're the townspeople who have lost the desire to find out the truth. We just disregard it. It's all a big fat lie, nothing is true or verifiable. There is no such thing as a cold, hard fact.

Now, I have a background in philosophy so I am especially good at making logical arguments for things that may not even exist. Give me enough time and I will convince you that it is very possible we are all brains in vats. However, facts are important. There has to be truth. It might be on a sliding scale, but we have to care enough to sort it out. We have to care enough to know when it's dangerous. If we don't, we turn into the townspeople who are so tired of the boy and his stupid wolf claims, that we're almost fine with it if the wolf does come and devour his flock and him. Serves him right. Too much work to figure it out.

If we find ourselves agreeing with that, that's not good. We need to hear the story again. The wolf comes. The wolf (if it is actually a thinking being) might even be waiting for just this moment to come. The moment when you no longer care or can discern his arrival. And that wolf will devour everything if you let it. That wolf will not be satisfied with a flock of sheep. This next thought is for another blog, but I want to make the point here: negative events (war, etc) are not confined to their notch on the timeline. The consequences stretch further than we realize. We are more connected than we realize, and therefore the web links of despair are not cut off from you. You shouldn't need to know that to want to help the boy who cried wolf, but we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking the wolf does not also come to us. The wolf comes, and if you don't care, the wolf will come again and again until you do.

I'm stretching the limits of this story, but I think it's important to recalibrate our BS meters. We need to still seek truth and lies and call it out. When you see an obvious money trail correspond with power- this is a problem. When you have someone hesitant to call what happened in Aleppo war crimes, that's a red flag. Something (or someone) is tying his hands. Maybe he just doesn't want to get his hands too dirty. But we should be looking for the truth in this. Even if it is as simple as "the wolf has been here." 

I had the privilege of interviewing a woman named Anni in Berlin who was in her 90s. She was one of my grandfather's best friends in their Quaker youth group. They banded together in a spiritual and intellectual oasis in the midst of Nazi sponsored "Hitler Youth" groups. When I sat down with this woman, her eyes were haunted with her life's experiences. Her parents had spent the war doing everything they could to help Jews and other racial/disabled/sexual/political undesirables leave the country, hide, or at least survive. Her brother, faced with military service or death, chose the longest and most difficult training path and prayed that the war would be over by the time he had completed his training so that he would not fight. She and her sister remained home, both interrogated with their parents whenever the Nazi's suspected anything, which was often. 

Anni was obsessed with facts. Everything we said had to be clarified and bracketed by facts. We had to establish first the facts, then we could discuss it. For Anni had experienced a time when facts had lost their value, they had lost their power to persuade and convince. She guarded the importance of facts with every breath. I'll never forget that. Anni knew that the wolf came. She knew and so many around her didn't. She watched the wolf tear her world apart. The wolf haunted her even to that day. She died two years ago and I felt relief for her, the wolf will never come for her again.

When we lose the facts, when red flags no longer concern us, when we don't care to inspect and ask questions, that's when the wolf comes. That's when the wolf tears the whole flock apart.