Mark 4:15

The people meant by the seed that falls along the path are these – where the message is sown, but, as soon as they have heard it, Satan immediately comes and carries away the message that has been sown in them.


explanation ends a quest
a habitation of dragons
turns into self-projection
misrepresenting size and shape
of other places with resources
complemental to our own
but never given freedom

a source of blessing is a single dove
a source of gluttony is any old bird
in such a small specific
is the entire hazelnut universe
in such a broad stroke
everything contracts to a point
and poof consigned to gone

pathway seed has no implanting
yet suddenly out-of-the-blue
satan is explained through misreading
such is religion’s perpetual downfall
saying ever so much more
than words can ever mean
keep it simpler always simpler


The meaning of the seed is found in its reception. This variant on Marshall McLuhan’s assertion that “the medium is the message” can apply here.

When we are considering evaluating our lives, this is a difficult one to maneuver on our own. We do need others to assist us in hearing beyond ourselves.

As you consider who you might invite to assist you in discerning your ability to discern a call that will invite your best to surface, consider this perspective from The Translator’s Handbook on the Gospel of Mark:

…it is to be noticed that in the explanation of the parable (vv. 15–20) the demonstratives, prepositional phrases and participles are all masculine, not neuter. The explanation of the parable has in view men (not seeds), i.e. the listeners, those who in one way or another receive the word (proclaimed to them)….
          In the explanation [of the parable], by a change of figure, the various kinds of soil become various kinds of men who (literally) are sown therein. Properly what is sown is the (same) Word, and the soils represent the different classes of hearers: in the explanation, however the various classes of hearers are sown. Though there is inconsistency in figures between the parable and its explanation, the meaning is clear throughout….

The “masculine” here noted is to be read as inclusive of all gender identities. For now reflect on yourself as a class of soil.

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