Letter: Top banana

There is a fabled study where a dozen monkeys are placed in a cage with a ladder inside it. At the top of the ladder is a bunch of bananas. Whenever a monkey tries to climb the ladder, the entire group of monkeys is showered with cold water. Eventually, they learn not to climb the ladder.

Then one monkey is removed and a new monkey is placed in the cage. When it tries to climb the ladder, the other monkeys pull it down before the cold shower happens. That monkey learns not to climb the ladder from its peers, even though it has never experience the cold shower.

Then another monkey is replaced and the new one learns not to climb the ladder. Eventually, all of the original moneys are replaced and learn not to climb the ladder even though none has experienced the cold shower — the moral being because that’s the way it has always been done.

Now, enter “The Da Vinci Code,” an apparently blasphemous story that suggests that Christ took a wife whose lineage truly would have made him King of the Jews. They say that if you insult the prophet, a Muslim will kill you; if you blaspheme Jesus, Christians will shun you; and if you slander Buddha, Buddhists will smile and chuckle.

With that in mind, please consider that the notion of the immaculate conception of Buddha came nearly a century after his death, even though he knew his parents quite well.

David Calhoun/Naples and Cape Cod