Posted by pine boy
(here)
Parable Of The Nuts
Once there was a purveyor of nuts-all kinds of nuts. In order to determine the quality of his nuts, and so set a value on them, it was necessary for him to open and taste some of each species. The soft shelled pistacios he could open with his fingernail. The almond and the hazlenut he could open by simply squeezing them togetherin his hand. But the Brazil nut required a nutcracker. And the black walnut because of its extreme hardness, it was necessary for him to fetch a sledgehammer.
The lesson to be learned from all this inanity is that, if God chooses you, you might as well relinquish your shell, because you don't have a chance of keeping it anyway! Or maybe the point is that the thicker the shell you construct, the more force will be necessary to free you from it. Or maybe just that black walnuts must have their own special value, or God would stick to pistacios !