Words in the Dirt

He had just come from a hilltop. He had come to teach. The people gathered around him, so he sat and began to speak. The rulers came also, but not to learn. The religious came with them, dragging the woman along. And they clapped their ceremonially clean hands to get his attention - "Look at this woman! See her face, the guilty! We caught her right in the middle of her sinning. Our religion tells us to kill her. What do you say?"
But he just bent down and began to write in the ground, with his finger. And ignored them, or did he? What was he writing? 
The people who came to learn waited. The rulers and the religious fumed. So they asked again, louder, "We caught this woman right in the act of her sinning. Our religious laws say to kill her. What do YOU say?"

He straightened up and looked them right in the eye - "If any of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

9-11: To many, this 10th Anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC symbolize a lack of tolerance for others and their beliefs. It was, and still is. Yet it also symbolizes the strength and tolerance of those who refuse to give way to fear and hate after such a hateful, evil act. 


Definition of TOLERANCE

1

: capacity to endure pain or hardship : endurance, fortitude,stamina

2

a : sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one's ownb : the act of allowing something : toleration

3

: the allowable deviation from a standard; especially : the range of variation permitted in maintaining a specified dimension in machining a piece

4

a (1) : the capacity of the body to endure or become less responsive to a substance (as a drug) or a physiological insult especially with repeated use or exposure tolerance to painkillers>; also : the immunological state marked by unresponsiveness to a specific antigen (2) :relative capacity of an organism to grow or thrive when subjected to an unfavorable environmental factorb : the maximum amount of a pesticide residue that may lawfully remain on or in food

Examples of TOLERANCE

1. a tolerance for other lifestyles
2. The plants have a high tolerance for heat.
3. Some patients gradually develop a tolerance for the drug and need to be given a larger dose.
4. Some patients develop greater tolerance for the drug's effects.