The Parable of the Youth Painting the Garage

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, is the secret to the Republicans’ passing their agenda not to listen to the Republicans?”

Josh spoke thus:

A youth was painting a fence.

“Come paint the fence with me!” the youth called to some fellow youths.  

The fellow youths ignored the youth.

The youth opened a new can of paint.

“Look!” the youth called out to the fellow youths, “I’ve opened a new can of paint!”

The fellow youths ignored the youth.

The youth pulled a pair of new paint brushes from a bag.

“Look!” the youth called out to the other youths, “I’ve got two new brushes!  Brand new brushes!  These brushes have never been used before!  Who wants to use the brand new brushes?”

None of the other youths wanted to use the brand new brushes.

The youth pulled a roller out of the bag

“Look!” the youth called out to the other youths, “I’ve got a roller!”  The youth pulled out a roller pan. “And a roller pan!” the youth called out, “I’ve got a roller and a roller pan!  Somebody gets to use the roller and the roller pan!”

Nobody asked to use the roller and the roller pan.

“Well if you don’t want to use the roller and the roller pan,” the youth called out to the other youths, “Then I’ll use the roller and the roller pan!  And I’ll use them with my new can of paint!”

The youth poured some paint from the new can of paint into the roller pan.  The youth rolled the new roller in the roller pan full of paint.  The youth rolled paint onto the fence.

“See?” the youth called out to the other youths, “Look how smoothly the paint goes onto the fence with the new roller!  Who wants to use the roller now?!”

No one wanted to use the new roller now.

The youth went inside to get a glass of lemonade.

“I don’t get it,” the youth said to the youth’s parent while pouring out lemonade, “It worked for Tom Sawyer.  Tom Sawyer started painting a fence and everyone wanted to paint the fence.  Everyone paid Tom Sawyer for a turn painting the fence.  Nobody wants to paint the fence.”

The parent said to the youth, “I asked you to clean out the garage.  Why are you painting the fence?”

The youth replied, “Tom Sawyer didn’t clean out his garage.”