From: utzoo!watmath!watarts!geo
Newsgroups: net.religion
Title: a Parable about Miracles
Article-I.D.: watarts.1745
Posted: Wed Mar 16 02:53:16 1983
Received: Thu Mar 17 08:23:45 1983
Reply-To: geo@watarts.uucp (Geo Swan)

I have submitted this parable to the net before, in a different
context.

This is a true story.
For you to fully appreciate this story you must realize that

Venezuala is a \very/ Catholic country.  (My parents risked
extremely serious punishment for smuggling in birth control
paraphenalia for their personal use.)

My parents met, and were married while working for Dutch Imperial
Shell Multinational Oil Company in Venezuala.  The base were they
worked was quite large, and there was a large number of European
and North Americans stationed there.  Shell provided these employees
with extra perks.  Married employees were provided with a North
American bungalow, and a Venezualan maid.  
Shell provided a company doctor, a school
teacher (my mother), and a company store.  The company store
provided subsidized North American consumer goods, and foods
that weren't normally available in Venezuala.  Potatoes are
not normally available in Venezuala.

Well my mother taught Dahlia, the maid how to prepare some
of the North American foods.  My mother taught Dahlia how 
to prepare baked potatoes.  As you my know, you must pierce
the skin of baked potatoes to allow the steam to escape,
otherwise there is a danger that they might explode.  Some
people pierce the skin with a fork.  In my family we
put an "X" in the skin -- no particular reason, it is just the
way we were taught, and that is how my mother taught Dahlia.

One day there was a "boom" in the kitchen.  My mother rushed
in to see what was wrong.  The kitchen was plastered with
little bits of baked potatoe!  The maid was weeping hysterically,
"Senhora(sp?), Senhora, Senhora, I am so sorry!"

When my mother got Dahlia calmed down, she said, "Oh Senhora,
I am so sorry.  When you taught me mark each Potatoe with a 
cross, I realized how religious you were, but I was in such a
hurry, and I thought just this once, God wouldn't mind!"

	Cordially, Geo Swan, Integrated Studies, University of Waterloo
	(allegra|decvax) !watmath!watarts!geo