Sinister: A lesson from the Bible

[Mrs Murdoch]

Hello, it's Mrs. Murdoch here, Stuart's mum.

It's been an unusual couple of weeks for us here in the Murdoch 
household.  There was a picture of Stuart in the Troon herald last week, 
and lots of people have been phoning me up to congratulate me on my Brit 
Award winning eggs.  I say it's not my doing at all, we just happen to 
have a Brit Award winning postman.  I feel like I'm a bit of a celebrity 
myself, and spend an hour doing my hair and make up before heading down 
to the Co-op for Stuart's fish cakes.   

This week I've been reminded of the Bible parable, Hamish the Frog.  I 
have typed it below, and hope you all read it carefully.

Love,
 Mrs. Murdoch

Hamish the Frog
================

Once upon a time there was a little frog called Hamish.  Hamish was the 
pond hero because he could leap higher and further than all of the other 
frogs put together!  In fact, he could even leap the whole pond in one 
single bound!

One day a Kingfisher spotted Hamish leaping the pond and was astounded! 
"Gosh", he thought, "that's the most incredible sight I've ever seen!  I 
know a lot of people that would like to see this.  I wonder if Hamish 
would make a deal with me, that If I get lots of people to come and see 
him leap, we could charge them a pound each and split the money".   The 
Kingfisher suggested the idea to Hamish.  Hamish agreed, because he was 
skint, and didn't have anything better to do. 

The Kingfisher worked hard and gathered a huge crowd to see Hamish leap.  
The crowd were astounded, and happy to pay the pound charge.  One member 
in the crowd, a little goldfish, had a great idea.  "Kingfisher, Hamish 
is an amazing leaper to be sure.  But it would be better if he had a 
wonderful obstacle to leap over, wouldn't it?".  The Kingfisher agreed, 
so the little goldfish worked for three months solid making the bestest 
most lovliest obstacle any frog has ever leapt over . And the goldfish 
did it for nothing, because she wanted to, because she thought Hamish 
the frog was brilliant.

The Kingfisher arranged another show, advertising the fact that Hamish 
was going to leap over the amazing obstacle the little goldfish had 
constructed.  This time the Kingfisher decided to charge everybody two 
pounds.  The crowd loved this show, and word spread of Hamish and the 
incredible obstacle all over the whole country.   The next time that 
Hamish leapt over the obstacle the Kingfisher charged three pounds.   
And so on and so on until the Kingfisher was charging a ten pound 
spectator fee. And people paid it, because it was worth it.   The little 
goldfish still paid her ten pounds like everyone else, even though it 
was her obstacle that was helping draw the crowds in.  The goldfish did 
it because she wanted to, because she thought Hamish the frog was 
brilliant.  And she was making a lot of friends as they went along, as 
was Hamish.  

One happy day Hamish won the Frog of the Year award for his leaping 
power.  This meant that everyone in the world had heard of Hamish, and 
wanted to see him leaping over the obstacle.   Some of the other frogs 
in the competition were jealous though, and said that Hamish only won 
because the obstacle was so grand.  Which was partly true, but the award 
and the potential earnings that the Kingfisher could make blinded him to 
the fact.   "Of course the obstacle had nothing to do with Hamish's 
success in the Frog of the Year competition", he said in a press 
release, "Hamish won because he is great".   To prove the point that the 
obstacle had nothing to do with it, the Kingfisher put the little 
goldfishes obstacle in the bin, and made one himself.  This upset the 
little goldfish very much, because he loved to see Hamish leap over it.  
And the sad fact is, the Kingfisher's obstacle wasn't as good as the 
little goldfishes.   The people who had seen Hamish leaping over the old 
obstacle said to the Kingfisher,  "Kingfisher, why don't you bring the 
goldfishes obstacle back and bin the new one, it's very nice but just 
not as good."  Even Hamish asked the Kingfisher if he could leap over 
the old obstacle again.   The Kingfisher didn't hear them though because 
new people were coming to see Hamish leap, who had never seen the old 
obstacle to know any better.  He told the goldfish "you never made a 
difference to Hamish's success.  Why don't you just get lost and stop 
annoying me".  The Kingfisher was now charging people 20 pounds to see 
Hamish leap.

And then a sad thing happened.   As Hamish had become more and more 
successful the goldfish had been there.  All the people who had become 
friends with Hamish had also become friends with the goldfish.  They 
decided they wouldn't go and see Hamish leap anymore because they didn't 
want to pay the greedy Kingfisher money.  Which was sad because it meant 
that Hamish didn't see any of his old friends who had supported him as 
his popularity grew.  He began to feel lonely.

Eventually Hamish got sick of leaping over the shoddy obstacle.  
"Kingfisher", he said ,"I've had enough.  I won't leap over that shoddy 
obstacle for you anymore.  You've taken the fun out of my leaping, and 
none of my old friends are here, so I'm off".  But the Kingfisher didn't 
care anyway because he'd made a lot of money.  "I never needed you 
anyway", he told Hamish.

Hamish went back to leaping over the pond like he used to do, and lived 
happily ever after amongst his friends.  No-one really cares what 
happened to the Kingfisher.








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