Some time ago Thomas A. Harris wrote a book of pop psychology called I’m O. K.—You’re O. K. About that time the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology was holding its annual meeting on the depravity of man. One of the speakers was theologian Dr. John Gerstner, at that time a professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He used the book as a jumping-off point for the following story.
Dr. Gerstner and his wife, Edna, had been in Kashmir, and they were returning from a shopping expedition in a little boat that had just pulled up beside a larger junk near the shore. There was a bump, and some water splashed on them. The owner of the boat got very agitated and gestured for them to get out.
Dr. Gerstner told how he remembered saying to Edna, “See how excitable this fellow is. We get a little water splashed on us, and you would think it was a catastrophe of the first order.”
But the man got more and more agitated.
“It’s okay, Kusra,” Dr. Gerstner said, “It’s okay.”
Finally, the owner of the boat got so excited that he broke out of the dialect he had been using, that the Gerstners had been unable to understand, and shouted, “It’s no okay”
At this they got the message and climbed onto the shore. The owner of the boat then threw his young grandchild up to them and quickly jumped up on to the shore himself.
When the Gerstners turned around, the boat was gone.
You see, apparently the hull had
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