If you ever read the Dan Brown books, you may have wondered about Mary Magdalene – who was she? A wonderful resource is the book Mary Magdalen – Myth and Metaphor by Susan Haskings, Random House NY , 2011. From the bible you will find Mary played an important role in the life of Jesus. Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth where Joseph employment was a carpenter, and similar to most people in the world he had relatives – one of the them was Mary Magdalene. Jesus met her when he was young, before he entered the Ministry. The bible talks his birth, a episode when we was a teenager, and his Ministry when he was in his late 20’s and the end of his life on the cross in his early 30’s. He died to so others could live by forgiving their sins. Each of those segments were very important for the Christian church, but what was he doing the other times in his life. Study? living as a carpenter (his family taught him the skills)? married? no one really knows which is where Mary Magdalene comes into the story. At the very end of Jesus’ life at the cross Mary his mother and Mary Magdalene were there. If you look to yourself as an example when a family member has died, who was there at the end of their days – the answer is usually family members. There are many sides to who Mary Magdalen was and who she is portrayed to be, how her role was changed to fit into the image of Christ the formal church wanted to give although Mary’s most important role that everyone agreed was she loved Jesus the man and his message.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the start of every company has some myth attached to it. Why did the company become a success with a similar company did not? What propelled into it into the next generation? What stories are embellished? Which ones are not told very often? Invariably all companies have them because all people have similar stories. Sometimes we are interested in all the stories, sometimes we are interested in only part of the stories for those ones enhance the finest aspects of the company. As long as the existing company is not breaking the rules of the government, and is consistently profitable to pay a dividend, things will be overlooked.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions