Posted by Phil on February 15, 1999 at 13:50:01:
>>A couple vacationing in Europe went strolling down a little street and
>>saw a quaint little gift shop with a beautiful teacup in the window. The
>>lady collected teacups and she wanted this one for her collection, so she
>>went inside to pick up the teacup, and as the story goes the teacup spoke
>>and said
>>
>>"I want you to know that I have not always looked like this. It took the
>>process of pain to bring me to this point. You see, there was a time when
>>I was just clay and the master came and he pounded me and he
>>squeezed me and he kneaded me and I screamed: "STOP THAT".
>>
>>But he just smiled and he said, "Not yet".
>>
>>Then he took me and put me on the wheel and I went round and round and
>>round and round ... and while I was spinning and getting dizzier and
>>dizzier I screamed again and I said, "Please get me off this thing ...
>>please get me off!!!"
>>
>>And the master was looking at me and he was smiling, as he said, "Not
>>yet".
>>
>>Then he took me and walked toward the oven and he shut the door and
>>turned up the heat and I could see him through the window of the oven
>>and it was getting hotter and hotter and I thought, "He's going to burn me
>>to death".
>>
>>And I started pounding on the inside of the oven and I said, "Master,
>>let me out, let me out, let me out", and I could see that he was smiling
as
>>he said "Not yet".
>>
>>Then he opened the door and I was fresh and free and he took me out of
>>the oven and he out me on the table and then he got some paint and a
>>paintbrush. And he started dabbing me and making swirls all over me
>>and I started to gag and I said: "Master, stop it ... stop it ... stop it
>>please ... you're making me gag" and he just smiled as he said "Not yet".
>>
>>Then very gently he picked me up again and he started walking toward
>>the oven and I said, "Master, NO! Not again, pleeeeease". He opened the
>>oven door and he slipped me inside and he shut the door and this time he
>>turned the heat up twice as hot as before and I thought. "He's going to
>>kill me", and I looked through the window of the oven and I started to
>>pound saying, "Master ...Master, please let me out ... please let me
>>out ... let me out... let me out". And I could see that he was smiling,
>>but I also noticed a tear trickle down his cheek as I watched him mouth
>>the words. "Not yet!"
>>
>>Just as I thought I was about to die, the door opened and he reached in
>>ever so gently and took me out, fresh and free and he went and placed
>>me on a high shelf and he said: "There, I have created what I intended.
>>Would you like to see yourself?" I said "Yes", so he handed me a mirror
and
>>I looked and I looked again and I said, "That's not me, I'm just a lump of
>>clay"
>>
>>And he said: "Yes, that IS you, but it took the process of pain to bring
>>you to this place. "You see, had I not worked you when you were clay,
>>then you would have dried up. If I had not subjected you to the stress of
>>the wheel, you would have crumbled. If I had not put you into the heat
>>of the oven you would have cracked. If I had not painted you there
>>would be no color in your life. But, it was the second oven that gave
>>you the strength to endure. And now you are everything that I intended
>>you to be - from the beginning."
>>