There had been a morning meeting of some of the clergy in the area. The parson had attended. Now the ordained brothers and sisters were gathered around a table at a local BBQ establishment for lunch.
It was bound to happen. The conversation shifted to the Presidential election. Most of the brothers and sisters resisted openly declaring themselves for one or the other candidates. The majority bemoaned their opinion that it was a sorry choice this election year.
The parson listened, occasionally nodded his head, sometimes smiled, all while trying to decipher the ingredients that made up the BBQ sauce. He thought he might try and duplicate it at home. He was interrupted from his culinary pondering.
“So, Parson,” asked Henry Sullivan, pastor of the Heavenly Harmony Church of the Happy Saints, “what’s your opinion on the election?”
The parson looked up. He wiped his lips with the napkin, took a sip of beverage (a beverage of the kind that only he was drinking), and said: “Well, I tell you. When I was a boy folks, where I lived, didn’t have swimming pools in the backyard. So, we had to go to a public pool. Now, I don’t remember the pool we went to as being public in the sense of it was tax-supported. But anyone could swim if they had the entrance fee. We really enjoyed that pool during the summer back in those days before air conditioning. Now every time I see some news report on the TV or the internet I’m reminded of that old pool where we swam as kids.”
The table was silent. The parson took another sip of the beverage.
Finally, Henry asked the question. “How in the world does the election remind you of your childhood swimming pool?”
The parson smiled and said, “Well, you see, just like that swimming pool, it seems to me in this election all the noise is coming from the shallow end.”
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