Joshua A Parable for Today Summary, Notes, Discussion

This post, Joshua A Parable for Today Summary, Notes, Discussion is one that is very dear to my heart. My dear cousin Bob introduced me to this beautiful little book. It’s an absolute gem. If you’ve read it, please post a comment in the comments section below so we can learn from you. If you haven’t read Joshua A Parable for Today, hopefully these notes peak your interest.

The comments below come from four readers, PM, Bob Campbell, Brian Levine, and me, Paz Romano 🙂

I’m enjoying this book very much!  It gives me hope as well as inspiration.  We CAN be like Joshua!

Specific comments:

Joshua A Parable for Today Summary Pages 1-48

• Page 5: “That was a shrewd answer.  He wasn’t taking one side, but he took both sides when you think of it.”  I would like to be more like this – able to give “shrewd” answers!  Unfortunately, I have always “erred” on the side of being truthful, which is often not very tactful.  In the Gospels, Jesus admonishes us to “let your yes be a yes and your no be a no” and I have taken that too literally throughout my life – with awkward results.  Such as “Did you like my new recipe?”  “No I didn’t.”  Which was honest but left the poor cook mortified!
• Page 6 and throughout this section (4 times on page 11 alone!): “simple” or “simplicity”.  Did you notice the number of times that simple/simplicity was used??  One of my favorite words!!
• Page 10: “You make a lot of people happy and that’s a wonderful thing. That’s more than you can say for most jobs.”  I related to this in my own job.  I never really sought to “get ahead”. And I was always trying to keep the environment pleasant and fun if at all possible!  I ran the office pools!
• Page 13: “They were all invited to stop in anytime.”  Welcoming!  Open house!  Sounds like Pope Francis.
• Page 14: “The clergy become insecure when changes are discussed.”  Yes that’s my experience!  Two years ago, a new translation of the Roman Missal was published.  That caused much “agita” among some of the clergy.  However, since I’m clergy, I can state that not all were agitated; I was excited about the changes and was the “point man” for our parish in implementing them.  Actually this whole section must have caused a great deal of agita when this book was originally published in 1983.  Although it really was – in my opinion – correctly understanding Vatican II on things like ecumenism (relations with other religions) the “establishment” was not pleased with this book.
• Page 16: “He was always ready to stop what he was doing and spend a few minutes socializing.  It was almost as if that was his real business.”  Again, that’s how I have tried to live my life – being available!
• Page 18: The entire paragraph beginning “As the days…..” really spoke to me.  I aspire to be the kind of person described here!
• Page 19: “Always optimistic, always positive, always understanding and patient of what had to be.”  Again this is who I would like to be!
• Page 21: “Nor was praying a drudgery for Joshua.  It was as if he was enjoying a dialogue with a dear friend, with someone he loved intensely, and someone who was intimately involved in his life.”  This is how I have come to pray, in dialogue with Jesus.  And that translates to our “quintaloguing”: dear friends, loved, intimately involved.
• Page 32: “Joshua was not a pious person………………He was just an ordinary person who radiated an enthusiasm for life and for everything that had life.”  This resonated with me because I am not a “pious” person either.  And I am enthusiastic too (as are all the Quints!)
• Page 35: “Do you think he’s gay?………..To me he’s a very normal person.  He loves what he does, and he’s just content to be by himself.” Well, I certainly can relate to this, having lived the single life.  Although it never was overtly asked, it’s possible that this same questioning could have gone on behind my back.  But if so it never bothered me.  I too have loved what I’ve done in my life.
• Page 42: “Joshua didn’t like being evasive.  It was against his nature, yet he had no right laying bare truths that would not be understood.” I’ve always struggled with this – see above re “yes/no”.  People are constantly seeking answers but aren’t always ready for an answer that they might not like or agree with.
• Page 43: Paragraph beginning “Real religion is in people’s hearts.”  The author takes a number of hard swings against “the establishment” which truly hit home for me!  Again, listen to Pope Francis on this!  It’s not a knock on formal religion but on some leaders.
• Page 44: “Jesus….washing the feet…telling them to be humble and serve rather than dominate and dictate.”  Thismcontinues the subject of page 43.  And once again, that’s what we’re hearing from Pope Francis.
• Page 44: “A kind shepherd will put people before the law, like Jesus did.”  I have come to understand that rules are important to “guide” but not to “govern”.
• Page 46: “Joshua believed that people were more important than schedules.”  Pretty much summarizes all that we read so far!

OVERALL IMPRESSION SO FAR: Joshua is fictional; I don’t sense that we’re supposed to believe that this is Jesus come back to earth again. But what I think the author is proposing is that we are all called to live as Jesus did.  That’s what Joshua was trying to do.  And I totally identify with Joshua.  I would like to be seen as a “Joshua” by the people I am connected with!

What an uplifting book!

Here are my thoughts:

• p. 3: “Once or twice a week, he would walk up the street to the grocery store and buy food and other things he needed.” Brian, this reminds me of Rory. Bob, PM, our yoga teacher in Thailand usually eats a brown rice salad with hummus for lunch. When asked why he casually & simply stated, “That’s all you need.”

• p. 3: “He just went about his business and smiled hello to whoever he met along the way.” I try to incorporate this in my daily life. It’s not very common in the northeast US & some find it odd but this passage confirms my belief that it’s a Christlike practice.

• p. 3: “When he looked at you you had the feeling that he was looking into your soul.” This reminds me of a post I wrote in Lucid Practice about a Christian athlete named Kurt Warner.

I’d like to get better at this but I feel eye contact is a HUGE part of presence and love. Actually looking at and giving someone undivided attention is rare these days. We’re so quick to multitask but all that does is prevent us from being present in one task.

• p. 6: “It doesn’t bring him much income, just enough to pay his bills. He doesn’t need much anyway.” reminds me of Rory and Bob. Two people who have selflessly dedicated themselves to serving God and not being greedy

• p. 11: “I do everything by hand so I don’t need much space.” A dying art. Again I admire how much presence and detail goes into each of Joshua’s actions. This reminds me of Quote Spiral and how we’re introducing quality hand made products into a world that’s increasingly full of mass produced junk.

• p. 16: “Most newcomers in a town make desperate attempts to be accepted, but Joshua gave the impression he couldn’t care less.” I was once one of the “desperate newcomers” in my middle school years. Trying to climb the social ladder. The “couldn’t care less” reminds me of Brian and Danielle. Danielle quietly excludes herself from the typical college drinking parties and social status means nothing to her. She quietly makes amasing contributions to the Union College community in a humble but impactful way. Brian has always been a leader and someone who would rather be himself and spend time with family and close friends as opposed to trying to “fit in” and do the next “cool” thing to impress others. Consciousness of one’s ego is crucial in living the type of life that we strive for.

• p. 16: “He was always ready to stop what he was doing and spend time socializing.”

• p. 18: “He was a good talker. Not about trivial things but about things he noticed during the day…. Things other people were too busy to notice.” Beautiful. Pure awareness and presence. This reminds me a bit of a post I wrote about avoiding trivial conversation: Ways to Have Positive Interactions with People

• p. 18: “Most people’s problems are of their own making, and making people more aware of themselves would frequently provide the key to the solution.” True, I hope I can begin to realise this about my own “problems.” Reminds me of Buddhist teachings.

• p. 18 “When a person left him  it was usually with a deeper sense of peace and a renewed enthusiasm for life.” This reminds me of conversations with Bob, Quints, and I hope to be a vehicle for people like this. Bob’s Mass a few weeks ago provided a peaceful feeling.

• p. 22 on other people: “Nothing would change them, but beneath the exterior was a goodness and a kindliness that covered a multitude of sins.” Message to me: Remember to see God in everyone.

• p. 43~44: “Real religion is in people’s hearts, not in buildings….. Through page 44 ending with, “The sabbath is made for the people and not people made for the sabbath.” These four paragraphs are amasing & I encourage the quints to mark the book at this point for easy reference later on.

Interesting note: When I was reading page 45, Joshua reminded me of Jesus so much that I read one of the lines this way, ‘”Go ahead,'” Jesus [instead of Joshua] told them.”

• p. 46: “Friends are welcome any time and everyone was a friend to Joshua.” Reminds me of a great piece of advice from one of my favorite poems, The Desiderata: “Be on good terms with all people.”

I think it’s obvious that we’ll all try to be more like Joshua/Jesus. My question is, “What’s stopping us?” I will meditate on this question and ask myself, “What’s stopping me?” Maybe that question resonates with you quints?

So, what’s stopping the rest of society? As Joshua said, underneath all the greed, ego, etc., we are all the same. We were created to love one another and to be present and deeply aware of God’s miracles all around us. What’s stopping us? Technology? Societal norms? The media? Egos? Social climbing? Greed? What’s blocking us from love? As the Indian poet Rumi said, “Your task is not to seek for love but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built.”

The one problem (problem is not the right word) I have with simply being more like Joshua is that it’s not enough. I think massive scaled change is necessary to make a real impact on some of the 7 billion people on this planet. One man living a beautiful simple life in a village is amasing and I’m sure there’s a nice “ripple effect” from his actions. However, more is needed. The message needs to spread further. The social programming needs to be stopped in its tracks. We need to help people get back to God’s love.

I think the solution aside from improving upon ourselves is developing “big ideas” that matter.