The Unwanted Pelican
IllustrationAnalogy★★★★THE PELICAN is the world’s most unwanted ship. The Pelican has been sailing since 1986 with no place to dock. Everywhere the Pelican goes, it is rejected; it is unwanted; and it is denied. Why does the Pelican wander aimlessly?
In 1986, there was a political convention held in the city of Philadelphia, but during the week of the convention, the sanitation department went on strike. The sanitation workers used the political convention to make their statement. They went on strike and there was nobody to pick up the garbage. The problem got so bad that eventually the trash of Philadelphia was collected by other city workers and put on the bow of the Pelican just to get it out of the way.
It’s a huge boat; it’s a 466- foot freighter. All of that garbage, unaddressed for a period of time, became toxic. The toxicity of the garbage on the Pelican made it an unwanted vessel. So now, wherever the Pelican goes, it cannot remain there because nobody wants a boatful of trash.
Life has a way of unloading its garbage on us, so that over time we become filled with trash and no one wants us around.
The point
The cargo ship Pelican, filled with toxic garbage from Philadelphia, is rejected everywhere; similarly, when life's garbage accumulates within us, we become unwanted and isolated.