After reading some doaist stories, I started to chuckle about the over-the-top fanstasical details and characters. I thought, "How can I take this serious!? What a bunch of supertition and hookem."
In my mormon upbringing, we take our stories very seriously. Not only do we hear the details and morals of the stories, we hear how the people really existed and it happened exactly it is printed. This has been difficult for me lately.
Then it hit me: what did I learn form the story. It doesn't the quirky characters, the writer's personal/cultural bias, the history, etc. are not the purpose of the story. Imagine if we couldn't discuss the parrable of the 3 vinigar tasters, because we couldn't agree on the historical facts. Crazy, right?
So I guess I'll need to read the Chronicle of the Tao and such again and ask search not for what happened but what is the writer trying to teach me and accept the power of just stories.
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