Good samaritans

April 18, 2007

An enegmatic story courtesy of Chris Collinson:

They have no physicians, but when a man is ill, they lay him in the public square, and the passers-by come up to him, and if they have ever had his disease or have known anyone who has suffered from it, they give him advice, recommending him to do whatever they found good in their own case, or in the case known to them; and no one is allowed to pass the sick man in silence without asking him what his ailment is.

The quote is from Herodotus and you can follow through the reference on Chris’s site. He asks a good question:In our “knowledge-sharing civilisation” I wonder whether we have the equivalent of too many physicians, no public square, a lack of passers-by or just a lack of intellectual compassion?

I wonder, in this connected age, how would we retell the parable of the good samaritan?

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