{"id":658107,"date":"2018-08-08T19:35:07","date_gmt":"2018-08-09T00:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/?p=658107"},"modified":"2018-08-08T19:36:20","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T00:36:20","slug":"a-modern-day-parable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/a-modern-day-parable\/","title":{"rendered":"A Modern Day Parable&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-658143 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/604\/2018\/08\/BROCCOLI-TREE-ANDY-GILL-JOHN-GREEN-YOUTUBE-Screen-Shot-2018-08-08-at-8.05.46-PM.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"420\"><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Broccoli Tree: A Parable<\/h3>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"p1\">The other day, I hopped onto Snapchat for the first time in months\u2026<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Opened Snapchat 4 the 1st time in months; skimmed thru their news feed which immediately threw a vid of XXXTentacions murder in my face, then shifted to Barstool who just made fun of Bron\u2019s squats &amp;, I closed out after being informed some dog died.<\/p>\n<p>No wonder we\u2019re all depressed.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 andy gill (@itsandygill) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/itsandygill\/status\/1017253449208090624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">July 12, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It\u2019s as if we\u2019ve collectively, as a society, become addicted to negativity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Over the last few years, I\u2019ve created this new rule for living my life\u2026 it\u2019s this \u201csemi-zero tolerance rule;\u201d in that, if someone relatively new in my life begins to show this major character flaw that involves cutting people down for no apparent reason other than building themselves up or, at the very worst\u2026 for just, \u201cshits and giggles\u201d then, I swiftly and unnoticeably cut them out of my life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">[I say <span class=\"s1\"><i>semi<\/i><\/span>-zero tolerance kind of rule because 1) life isn\u2019t black and white; 2) it feels at times unreasonably ruthless; 3) grace?]<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">But, honestly, it\u2019s this sadistic subtly that if one is not intentionally aware of, it will impositionally force itself into your psyche. It\u2019s when we begin to create a connection through destructive forms of gossip; it\u2019s when cutting people down or \u201cjust being real\u201d turns into co-workers laughing at others over beers while mislabeling this as \u201cventing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It\u2019s almost as if as soon as you experience joy or accomplish a feat there\u2019s a negative gnome waiting in the bushes to just jump out and kick you right where it hurts\u2026<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, to be famous, you have to be one of three things:\u00a01. a masochist; 2. someone who literally feels nothing; or, 3. an innocent naive person who has no idea what they\u2019ve gotten themselves into (usually, and sadly, this is children).<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re probably wondering, \u201cHow do\u00a0<em>you<\/em> know this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Just go and read some of the comments under any given well-known YouTubers video. Not enough? Ask your\u00a0attractive friends (usually women) why\u00a0 they\u2019ve decided to make their Instagram feed \u201cprivate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, not enough\u2026?<\/p>\n<p>Find a famous inanimate object\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">You see, it\u2019s not just innocent people, people love to attack but, it\u2019s inanimate objects; for instance, The Broccoli Tree (depicted in the banner). This particular tree gained a huge following on Instagram as a photographer began to photograph it with simplicity just highlighting it\u2019s beauty, it\u2019s normalcy, and the life and joy being lived around it; here is The Broccoli Tree today\u2026<br>\n<!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2>It\u2019s a Modern Day Parable of Sorts\u2026<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-658122 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/604\/2018\/08\/Broccoli-Tree-Screen-Shot-2018-06-07-at-2.06.43-AM.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"559\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Yeah. Someone literally cut it down when it started to get over 15,000 followers on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Usually there are excuses; usually, these people are able to somehow conjure up BS to justify their cutting down of others. But, in this instance, these inanimate objects have done <em>nothing<\/em> to them except, exist. It\u2019s not like they used these trees for the betterment of humankind; it\u2019s that they\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Well, that\u2019s where I\u2019m at a loss;\u00a0I can\u2019t find any legitimate excuse here\u2026 And, you might be thinking, \u201cAndy, this is one single instance, it\u2019s the exception\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nope. As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ESyJop31cmY\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">John Green<\/a> points out in a recent video of his:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>\u201cThe Joshua Tree from the U2 cover, gone; the sacred golden spruce tree in BC, gone; the oldest tree in the world somewhere in California is kept secret\u2026 because we all know what would happen.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\">It\u2019s so far bad that it\u2019s seemed to be normalized and embedded into our everyday culture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It just is what it is\u2026<\/p>\n<p>But, call me an optimist, I personally don\u2019t believe it has to stay this way\u2026<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no need for any form of existential crisis; as much as the world wants to convince us of the lie that \u201ceverything is meaningless\u2026\u201d Nope, not everything is meaningless; what\u2019s meaningless,\u00a0is what so much of the world chooses to throw at us; all of that is what makes life <em>feel<\/em> meaningless.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s just that our lives have become so far cluttered with meaningless shit; like the MSM, it seeps into society and we find it on social media and within our day to day lives.<\/p>\n<p>Ask yourself today, \u201cWhat brings me life?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And, once you\u2019ve figured out the answer to that then go and do whatever it is that brings you life. Feel like you don\u2019t have time for that? Then start with figuring out what doesn\u2019t bring you life and cut that out by replacing it with what does bring you life.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h2>[check back tomorrow where I\u2019ll be talking more about this and how \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/itsandygill\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">A decade is not a recuperative period of time\u2026<\/a>\u201d until then, if you prefer my other posts more on church and theology then just hit me up on <a href=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/itsandygill\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Facebook<\/a>]<\/h2>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Broccoli Tree: A Parable The other day, I hopped onto Snapchat for the first time in months\u2026 Opened Snapchat 4 the 1st time in months; skimmed thru their news feed which immediately threw a vid of XXXTentacions murder in my face, then shifted to Barstool who just made fun of Bron\u2019s squats &amp;, I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2493,"featured_media":658143,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,16,39,5],"tags":[1023,1026],"class_list":["post-658107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church","category-culture","category-theology","category-post-format-video","tag-a-modern-day-parable","tag-the-broccoli-tree"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Modern Day Parable...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Broccoli Tree: A Parable The other day, I hopped onto Snapchat for the first time in months... 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