Pinocchio revisted

Yesterday I visited my sister and my 3-year-old niece and played with her for a bit. Kids today have fun toys. The best toys are those that are safe: nobody needs lead paint, and those that teaches a lesson or two.
Books are of course standard part of a healthy kids growth. I picked up a simplified well known story book: Pinnochio.

I have some vague memory of the story...there was a carpenter and a fairy, and if the doll lies, the nose will grow long. So I revisited the story last night. I remember my parents took me to a musicial of some sort when I was 4 or 5 on the same story. All I remember was there was a scene inside a fish. Ok, I was just 4 or 5 years old. Thanks mom and dad!

The storybook is made in Taiwan, targeted for kids to learn Chinese AND English. It is easy to tell because it is in traditional Chinese: only HongKong and Taiwan use traditional Chinese. It has the rather strange looking pronounciation keys that only Taiwan people use, so it is from Taiwan. My complain is that the words are too hard in either language in the story book for young kids.

So I revisited this fairy story, probably a simplified version: so there was a lonely carepentar who made a doll as companion whom he named as Pinocchio. A fairy turned it to a kid! Then the kid go to school but he wasn't behaving, met some bad friends that eventually led to the bad magician who turned him to a donkey! He was sold to a circus and had some horrible times. Then the fairy appeared again and rescued him, when Pinnocchio go look for the carpentar he was out looking for him all over, even on a raft. Pinnochio now go look for the carpentar, and wind up eaten by the whale! Of course the fairy rescue them again. He then became a real boy and turned good.

Ok, this is not just a children's story. Some profound questions and observations can be found in the story.

1. Why did the old carpentar create Pinocchio in the first place?
1. Why doesn't Pinocchio behave at first?
2. Bad friends: look what they can get you to.
3. True love: your parents can go way beyond comfort zone to look for you.
4. Fairy: is there really such things to help us in time of trouble?

Does that remind you of Sunday school talks such as sin, repent, salvation?
Pinocchio is a profound story.

Here is a long circulated joke:

Jesus is walking through heaven one day, a little bored, when he passes the Pearly Gates and sees St. Peter talking with an elderly gentleman and decides to go over and hear the man's tale.
"Where are you from, old man?" Jesus asks.
"Well, I lived my life on the shores of the Mediterranean," the old man replies.
"Hmmm. I spent some time there myself," says Jesus. "What did you do for a living?"
"Well, I was a poor carpenter," says the old man.
"Wow. So was I," says Jesus.
"And I had a son," says the old man. "Well, he wasn't my son really, but a miraculous spirit came into him and he became a very famous person."
Jesus can't hold back any longer. "Father!" he cries.
The old man falls into Jesus' outstretched arms. "Pinocchio?!"