Message-ID: <182@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 7-Jan-85 11:35:15 EST
Article-I.D.: topaz.182
Posted: Mon Jan  7 11:35:15 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Jan-85 02:35:59 EST
Sender: daemon@topaz.ARPA
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 52

From: Marshall Rose 

I couldn't resist...

    In ancient times there was a city full of many people.  They
    differed quite a bit in talent, interest, and ability, but they all
    tried to lead full lives.  Many days distant from the city lived a
    great sage who knew all about everything.  One day, an artisan
    living in the city went forth and travelled to the sage, seeking to
    ask him the answer to life and so forth.  This artisan did not
    expect a simple answer like "42" (but that, alas, is another
    story), but something a lot more detailed.

    After a long and arduous journey, the artisan reached the sage. The
    sage instructed the artisan for many years as to the answer of the
    questions posed by the artisan.  Much wiser, and much older, the
    artisan returned to his city.  The elders of the city, upon hearing
    that the artisan had returned from talking to the sage, invited the
    artisan to come forward and reveal to all the inhabitants of the
    city what he had learned.

    Since this sounded interesting, a large number of citizens attended
    the talk.  Included in the audience were others who had visited the
    sage before and we quite wise the ways of sagedom, along with
    people who had heard of the sage, but never met him, and those who
    had never heard of the sage and didn't know quite what to expect.
    The audience differed quite a bit in talent, interest, and
    ability, but were all interested in hearing what was to be said.
    The artisan gave a "short" 4 hour talk in which he used lots of
    audio-visual aids and hand-waving, skipping over some parts,
    condensing other parts, and so on.  After the talk, the artisan
    went home.

    Later that evening, those members of the audience paid the artisan
    a visit.  They demanded to know how he could degrade the sacred
    teachings of the sage by distorting it thus.  The artisan gave
    them two answers.

    1. That's Hollywood.

    2. That the artisan's talk was geared for an audience of many
    talents, interests, and abilities.  Although some in the audience
    could fully appreciate the intracies of the sage's teachings, many
    could not without visiting the sage themselves.  Furthermore, the
    majority of the audience got the gist of what was going on, and
    perhaps would be inspired to visit the sage themselves to get the
    whole story.

    The artisan then mentioned that nearly everyone who hadn't visited
    the sage before agreed that the talk was entertaining.

/mtr