Beliefs and Facts

Note: This story originally came out in April, 2020, during the Muslim celebration of Ramadan.

"I'm worried about Mariah," Emil said, sitting down next to Jolena on the front steps.

"Why?" Jolena asked. "What's wrong with her?"

"She isn't pretending to eat," Emil said. "She didn't have any breakfast, and she didn't come to lunch. I wonder if she's pretending to be sick."

Jolena laughed. "No, she isn't pretending to be sick," she said. "She's fasting. Ramadan (RAH-mah-dahn) has started, and she doesn't pretend to eat or drink anything during the daytime. She will do that for a month. She will pretend to eat after it gets dark, though, and she got up early this morning to have something to eat before sunrise."

"Why is that?" Emil asked. "What's Ramadan?"

"Muslim people and dolls fast during Ramadan," Jolena replied. "Ramadan is their name for the month of fasting."
Emil thought about this. Then he asked, "Why do they do that?"

Jolena had to think back to when Mariah explained it to her. 

She remembered they were on a bike ride, and Mariah didn't take water with her. Yes, that was how the subject came up! She wouldn't even take any when Jolena offered her bottle.

"Mariah told me that she and other Muslim people and dolls fast all day each day during Ramadan. That means that they don't eat or drink, pretend or for real," Jolena explained. Then she thought some more.

"She said it made them feel closer to God, only she used a different name for God. I think she called God Allah (AH-lah). She said fasting also made her feel grateful for what she had, because it showed her what it was like to do without," she added.

Emil thought about that. "I wonder why we don't all believe the same things," he said. "I mean, why is Mariah Muslim, but Charlotte and I are Jewish, and you and the others are Christian?"

"I've been wondering that, too," Jolena agreed. "Let's find Mandy or Veronika and ask. I'm not sure who would know more about it."

Veronika and Mandy were sitting together on the workroom table. Mandy was knitting, of course, and Veronika was reading to her.
"We have a question," Jolena began, as the two older dolls looked up.

"Yes," Emil said. "We're wondering why the dolls in our family believe different things. I mean, why we have different religions. Why is that?"

Mandy and Veronika looked at each other.

Then, as if by an unspoken agreement, Mandy began. "We exist...we are here ...to help children learn how to grow up to be kind, responsible adults. That's a doll's job," she explained.

"Yes," Veronika agreed. "Real children come from families that practice different religions or none at all, and some families, like ours, have more than one religion."

Jolena looked thoughtful. "But how do you know which religion is right?"

"Remember the experiment we did with the salt water?" Mandy asked, looking at Jolena. 

Jolena nodded. "Yes, I remember," she said. "It was before you came, Emil," she added, looking at her brother. "We put salt water in a dish, covered it with plastic, and the sun turned it into fresh water. The sun warmed the salt water and turned it into a gas. The gas rose to the plastic wrap that covered the dish and then dripped down into a smaller dish where the plastic wrap was weighted down with stones. That water wasn't salty."

"You're remembering that experiment well," Mandy told her. "We do experiments," she explained, "so we can test an idea we have. We call the idea a hypothesis (hy-PAW-thuh-sis). If the experiment proves the idea is right, we can call it a fact."

"With the salt-water experiment," Mandy continued, "our hypothesis was that we could make fresh water out of salt water using the energy from the sun. It worked, so we can say that it's a fact that we can make fresh water that way. Every time we try it the same way, it comes out the same."

Jolena and Emil looked at each other. They weren't sure they knew where Mandy was going with this talk about experiments.

Mandy knew what they were thinking, though. "You're wondering what experiments and facts have to do with your question," she said. "I want you to understand the difference between facts and beliefs," she explained. "Facts are things that can be proven, or if proven wrong, then they are not facts, but incorrect guesses."

"Religion is made up of beliefs," Mandy continued. "Beliefs are things we think are true but can't prove or disprove."

"Yes," Veronika agreed. "We may know in our hearts that our belief is true, but we can't prove it, and no one can disprove it, either. It doesn't mean it isn't true."

"So, when it comes to religion, we don't know who's right?" Emil asked.

"Maybe we're all right," Mandy replied. "Maybe the different things we believe are just different ways of seeing the same thing. We have no way of finding out, so you can't make other dolls believe something you believe if they don't."

"At the same time," Mandy continued, "We have to allow other dolls to believe what they believe. We don't have to all believe the same things."
"That takes us back to your first question," Veronika said. "Why don't we all believe the same thing? I think it's because real human people don't all believe the same thing. Real children need to learn to respect each other's beliefs so they will treat each other kindly when they grow up."

"All of our religions," Mandy pointed out, "teach that God or Allah or whatever we call the Supreme Being wants dolls to be kind to each other. Even dolls who don't have a religion think that's a good idea."

Suddenly the dolls in the workroom notice a pleasant aroma reaching their noses.

Charlotte is helping Mariah in the kitchen. They're cooking for Ramadan. Mariah won't eat until the sun goes down, but she is looking forward to it, because she is pretending to be very hungry.

All the other dolls decide to wait until the sun goes down to eat, so they can share the feast with Mariah. It will be fun!


Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia

You can follow The Doll's Storybook here.

Do you have questions or comments for us? Would you like to order an autographed copy of one of our books? You can email us at thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.

"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.

Do you like our stories? Some of them are available in print:

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

Coming soon: Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19832501/?claim=j3fj3mbb8kt">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2020, 2025 by Peggy Stuart

Meeting the Elephant

Mandy looked up from her knitting when Jolena, Charlotte and Mariah came into the room.

"Mandy, we have a question we thought you might help us with," Charlotte said. The other two dolls nodded. "We celebrate each other's special holidays. All of you celebrated Hanukkah with Emil and me, and Ramadan with Mariah, and we all celebrated Christmas with you."

"Yes," Mariah said, "and we all have special holidays in the spring. We know we will celebrate those special days together, too."

"We know that all these special days have something to do with what we believe about God," Jolena said. "What we don't understand is, why don't all dolls believe the same thing?"

Mandy took off her glasses and put them on top of her head, so they knew she would have a lot to say.

"I can give you my opinion," Mandy said, "but this is something that no one knows for sure. If you asked a question about science (sigh-ence)," Mandy said the word clearly for them, "I could give you an answer that I know, or we could look it up and find out. This isn't science, though; it's something called religion." She pronounced it again carefully for them, "Ree-lih-juhn. It isn't about what we know for sure and can prove, but what we believe to be true."

Mandy thought for a minute. "I think the best way to explain what I think is to tell you a story I read once," she said.

The dolls love stories, so they settled down to listen to Mandy.

Here is the story Mandy told the other dolls:

Once upon a time, in the Land of the Dolls, there was a magical elephant. All the dolls in the land wanted to find out about the magical elephant. They came from all over the Land of the Dolls to learn what they could. They brought their sleep masks with them, because they had heard that no one was allowed to see this wonderful being.

Only one doll at a time was allowed to go into the room where the magical elephant was, so they waited patiently for their turns. (Dolls are good at being patient.) When each doll went into the room, they had to feel around to find the elephant.
Some of the dolls touched the elephant's side. "This feels like a wall," they would say. "The magical elephant is like a wall."

Some of the dolls touched one of the tusks of the wonderful creature. "This is very sharp, like a knife," they said. "The magical elephant is like a knife."

Other dolls found the trunk first. "Ooooo, the creature is like a snake," they would say to themselves.

Some of the other dolls found one of the legs. Those dolls decided that the elephant was like a tree trunk.

Still more dolls found the tail. "Clearly, the magical elephant is a kind of rope," they said.

Other dolls touched the ear. "This creature must be some kind of fan or maybe a sail," they thought.

There were even some dolls who felt around in the room and never found the elephant at all. They said, "I don't think there really is a magical elephant. I couldn't find one."

Each doll was sure they knew the truth and that the other dolls were wrong.

Most dolls like to discuss things, but they don't like to argue, because they know they are supposed to set a good example for the children they live with, so they decided that it was fine that they all believed different things.

This made all the dolls happy, even though they didn't know everything there was to know about the magical elephant.

"So in a way, all the dolls were right," Jolena said when Mandy had finished the story.

"They just didn't know all of it,"Mariah said, "so they thought the others were wrong."

"I see the point of the story," Charlotte said. "The magical elephant is like God, and dolls believe different things because they only see part of what God is like."

"Yes," Mandy said, "but that is just what I believe. We all experience God through our own religions, and some dolls don't experience God at all, but there is no way to be sure that what you know in your heart is true is really the whole story."
"Why is that?" Mariah asked.

"We can prove many things," Mandy explained. "There are things we know that help us know ahead of time what will happen," she said.

"That's where science comes in," Mandy continued. "We use science to learn about the world, and we can use what we have learned to know within a few days when it will rain, or what medicine will cure an illness, or what time the sun will rise in the morning."

"What we know in our hearts but can't prove is called belief," Mandy said. "That's what religion is. If someone believes differently from you, it doesn't make what you believe wrong, just different."

"I think things that are different are interesting," Jolena said, "but I like going to my church on Sunday."

"Yes," said Mandy, "So do I. But Mariah goes to a place called a mosque (mosk) on Friday, and Charlotte and Emil go to a place called a synagogue (sin-a-gog) on Saturday. What I believe is that we are all learning about and worshiping the same God, whether in church, in a mosque or in a synagogue, and the familiar words and music help us with that."
"I like going to the mosque," Mariah said. "I like to pray there with others who believe the way I do."

"I like my synagogue," said Charlotte. "I learn something new every time."

"What about the dolls in the story who never found the elephant? Do some dolls not believe in God?" Jolena asked. 

"Some don't, and I think that's fine. It's something each doll has to decide alone," Mandy said. "No one can make you believe something you don't. You may change how you believe because of what happens to you in life, but your beliefs are your own. Most dolls believe in The Doll Code, though. That's the rule we have that we must be kind to each other, look after dolls in need and set a good example for the children in our lives."
"I've learned we need to set a good example for each other, too," Mariah said.
Mariah and Jolena stood up, and the three dolls got ready to go.

Mandy looked around at them. "I have a wonderful doll family," she added with a sigh. "You prove it to me every day, so that's not a belief; that's a fact!"

Cast--
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Magical Elephant: Himself

Special note from the author: Mandy's story is based on the parable of the six blind men and the elephant, which originated in ancient times on the Indian subcontinent. It was popularized in the English-speaking world through a poem by John Godfrey Saxe.

You can follow The Doll's Storybook here.

Do you have questions or comments for us? Would you like to order an autographed copy of one of our books? You can email us at thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.

"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook and More Classic Tales Untold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are available from BookBaby and other booksellers worldwide, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 

Author's page on Amazon. 

Royalties (net proceeds) go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. If you don't get free shipping elsewhere, buy from Book Baby. Half of the price goes to charity (specific information available upon request). Autographed copies of all three books are available from the author. (Multiple books to the same address have a discount on shipping.) To inquire, email thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19832501/?claim=j3fj3mbb8kt">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2019, 2025 by Peggy Stuart