Inter-generational Time: Stories for all ages.

“Seymour the Scallop” Rev. Dr. Betty Stapleford, July 17, 2011

I’d like to tell you a story.  Many of you know that during our travels away from you.  We were traveling to a number of different places and one of them was Nantucket.  And I found this creature.  This is Seymour the Scallop [adorable hand puppet]. 

Now, I had a conversation with him about some things that were on his mind.  He told me a very interesting story.  It was that when he was a very young scallop, he had ideas about what he wanted to do with his life.  So he talked to various other sea creatures. 

A lobster walked by.  Seymour said, “You know, I think it would be really wonderful if I had legs the way you do and I could just walk all over the bottom of the ocean.” 

The lobster said, “Well, I know that that looks really good to you but, you know, what happens to us sometimes is that there are people who like to eat us.  I should tell you about it.  They put down their baskets into the ocean.  And when you go in, they have this great looking stuff.  You climb through this opening and when you get to the good looking stuff to eat, you can’t get back out and they trap us” he says.

And the scallop says, “Well, that doesn’t sound like something I’d really like to do.” 

So, he goes on and he talks to another sea creature, a clam.  Seymour says to the clam, “You know, I wish I had a peaceful life the way you do.  You just kind of sit there on the bottom and things just go by and you can watch them.  That would be absolutely wonderful.  How peaceful and calm.  You could meditate all day long.”

And the clam says, “You know what, though, it gets pretty dull.  You just sit there and you see all these other creatures swimming by or walking by.  I mean, meditation, while it’s a good thing, may be over rated if it’s all you could ever do.”

And the scallop thinks to himself, “Well, I guess that’s true.  But I still think it would be nice to do that sometimes”.  And so the clam says, “Yes, you could do that… sometimes”. 

You see, the thing that really is unique, and I didn’t know this about scallops, is that scallops are the only mollusk who can actually move.  The others just sit there like the clams and the oysters but scallops can move about. 

The fact is that this scallop, after talking to the lobster and to the clam, decided that maybe his way of life was not so bad after all.  Because he could meditate when he wanted to, be still and calm and enjoy his life as a “Taoist”.  Or, he could move along and relate to the “Confucians” among those in the ocean and discover some of the things that he could do by moving around. 

So, Seymour decided, he told me, and he’s pretty old now, that the way he was within was the very best way for him; not necessarily the best way for everybody else. But he thought things were not so bad as a scallop. 

So, it made me feel really good, that he had come to that enlightenment in his life.  Hopefully, some of the rest of us can figure out what it is in our lives that we are meant to do.  And then, follow that path. 

So, thank you for listening and [to Seymour] I really appreciate your sharing your story with me.  If anyone would like to talk to Seymour later, I invite you to come forward after the service and you could ask him for more of his wisdom.