How easily one week turns into three. I took one week off to spend with my granddaughters, Ella – 5, Vivian – 3, and Emerson – 1 going on two. What a joy it was to be with the girls full time for five days. Then I needed a week to recover. When you are chubby and out of shape, you feel it after a week with three little girls 5-1 years old! Then some important business came up and I had to be out of town and concentrating on some things other than blog posts. So, here we are, three weeks since the last posting of Dancing with the Gorilla.

Isn’t that how writing is? We take a day off and it may turn into two, and then three, and then seven, and then a month, and then a few months. How easy it is to plant that seed of “putting off” and then let it grow.

The best teachers use parables to make their points. Where I grew up, you always talked about one thing when you were really talking about something else. If my uncle wanted to teach you to take care of your tools, he’d teach you to take care of your banjo. That practice is common in Appalachian culture, Southern culture, and in great literature. When I think of great literature and parables, I think of scripture, more specifically, The New Testament. Jesus used beautiful stories to teach His message.

This past week I was staying with a dear friend and went along with her to her church on Wednesday evening. She was leading a lesson on the parable of the talents. Here’s the parable from the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew 25:14-30 (New International Version)

The Parable of the Talents

 14″Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.  19″After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’  21″His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’  22″The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’  23″His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’  24″Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ ²⁶“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.  28″ ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

In this parable, a talent refers to currency, money, and unit worth more than $1000. But if we bring that story into the present and think about the talents we possess ad individuals and what we do with them, it is easy to see how we squander our best selves sometimes because we fear the wrong things. We fear loosing face, losing money, losing status, when those things are given to us to invest in ourselves to grow and become better than we are at the moment.

When I don’t write, I feel like the servant who buried his talent in the ground out of fear. I would much prefer to be the “good and faithful servant” who invests in the talent given and makes more of it by using it.

Use your talents. Don’t hide them. Don’t bury them. Don’t deny them. Become the talented person you are intended to be. And if you don’t know your talents, get busy and find out what they are. That journey can be quite fun if you aren’t afraid.

Assignment: Write a parable. It can be a piece of fiction, creative nonfiction, or a poem. Tell one story, but really be telling us something else.

It’s good to be back. The gorilla  and I are dancing, and I’m not one bit afraid for my toes.