Shiny Things: A Parable

“All the Athenians and the foreigners 

who lived there spent their time doing 

nothing but talking about and listening 

to the latest ideas.” (Acts 17.21 NIV)

There was once a mother raven who in the midst of picking at a juicy worm that would have provided a day’s sustenance for her young became distracted by a shiny object several feet from the worm hole. The raven flitted over to a shiny object firmly embedded in the dirt-mixed undergrowth. After several long minutes of pecking, the raven finally released the object. It was paper-like on one side and metallic on the other. Had the raven been able to read, it would have recognized the “Wrigley’s” logo on the shiny side of gum wrapper. Nonetheless, by this point, the raven had become weary of its promised prize so she looked around to look for the worm she had previously released. It was gone.

For a moment, she thought of the needs of her young, but that was soon forgotten. A shiny object caught her eye on the other side of the park near a park bench where sat several people. The prize was in the grass below the park bench. This should prove exciting. Getting around the people would prove a challenge. So she flew to several feet behind the bench. Then she slowly, stealthily approached the bench. She crept her sleek body toward the gleaming object. It was round and hard but it did not taste good and proved to be not very good as food for young ravens. Young ravens can’t eat quarters. Again, for a moment, the mother thought of her children back at the nest.

But again they were soon pushed out of her mind when she saw—you know it—another shiny object.

This object was unlike any of the previous shiny things. This object was near a fountain and the pigeons seemed oblivious to the object. They simply walked past it in their search for seeds and bread people had thrown down. Our raven would have none of the everyday seeds and bread—that was for pigeons but not suitable for ravens. After all, didn’t she leave a juicy worm earlier this morning in pursuit of shiny things. No simple seeds and bread would be good enough for her young. What are seeds and bread when one can have this . . . hey, this is special. The shining thing was long but narrow. It was an oblong, folded shiny piece of wire. The raven had no point of reference for understanding the true nature of a paper clip, but that was of no concern. The raven did know what a worm was like and this was worm-like in a way. So she swallowed it and prepared to fly away, but she found she could not fly, she could not move and soon she could not see anything. The next shiny thing, the last shiny thing, the raven saw was a bright light in the distance and then nothing. She would never know whether her young survived or not.