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| Messing about with the pigs |
In the story of the prodigal son which is most likely an analogy for our own soul and its foolish wandering, the figures who feature in the story are all boys! The Father and his two sons are there but there is no mention of the mother. I am not so bold as to think that this is a mistake especially as it is an analogy as well as being in the Bible but I have been thinking about what role the mother might have played. Do you think that she kept saying to the Father, "why don't you just call him and see if he's alright?" and the Father replying that it was best to let nature take its course and that he would come back in good time for Christmas...or sometime. Do you think that she worried about him even more than the rest of the family? That other brother was at home and clearly very dutiful and now had the house all to himself and his mother's attention. She probably ironed his clothes and made his meals all the time her other son was drifting slowly downwards towards the pig farm. Do you think she had perhaps always worried about him and even more so when he came and asked for his portion of cash because she knew he had a weakness for the more extreme? Do you think that once he had gone and he never got in touch, that she woke up early and worried about him? I do.
I think that she dreamt that he had run out of all he had gone with, I think she dreamt that he was on his uppers and was reduced to being a waged slave on a pig farm. I think she hoped he would come home even if he was a mess. And then of course, he returned and the Father, who had always known that he would come, opened his arms and held a banquet. I think she cooked it! She thought about what his favourite meal would be...... fish pie and tomato ketchup and ice cream and while the Father was busy killing the fatted calf and placating the other son who was so miffed, she just put on her apron and started to smile again. She knew he liked her cooking best.
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