casual perceptions influence our beliefs or rule our actions. I bet
on Outside Chance because he previously has consistently
outperformed the other horses in today's race, or horses that have
beat the others. I care not about his name. Read where it says
that God does not judge by external appearances, and imitate him."
"But I still like Looking Good and I wanted him to win," his
daughter said perversely, wiping her tears and stamping her foot.
"Outside Chance is a creep."
"And now, my daughter," said the man, "you have first felt the
conflict between reason and passion. May you learn to resolve
it well."
The Oppressed Girl
This may seem like a tall story, but there was once a teenage girl
who didn't get along with her parents. "I'm sick and tired of all
these oppressive rules," she would complain. "I feel just totally
controlled. I want to be free!" So she ran away from home. "Now,"
she thought, "I can stay up all night and listen to loud music and
watch awful movies."
When she told her friends of her new freedom, they said, "Great!
Let's celebrate and get drunk."
"Yeah, why not?" she replied. "I can do anything I want." So she
drank and laughed and vomited and passed out on the bathroom floor.
A little while later, she met an older girl who seemed to be
experienced in the ways of freedom. "Hey," said the older girl, "to
be free, just take these pills and free your mind from all your
cares." So the teenage girl took the pills and felt strange and
didn't sleep for three days and then closed her eyes and woke up in
the middle of the following week.
Another time she met a young man who seemed to know about the free
life. "Let me help to liberate you," he said, putting his arm
around her. And so they went to his van and drove to a vacant lot
where the young man kissed her and "liberated" her and told her to
leave and drove away.
Many days later--days that passed without recognition or
remembrance--the girl found herself sitting on a bench waiting for a
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