A man is stranded on a deserted island. For seven years he’s been alone with palm trees and some sand. Finally a bi-plane flies over and the pilot notices the word HELP scrawled into the sand below. The pilot lands the plane on the water and comes ashore.
“Is it just you?” the pilot asks.
“Yeah, it’s just me.”
“How long have you been here?”
“I don’t know . . . years.”
“Looks like you have a whole little village here.”
“I used to be a carpenter, so I made myself some rough tools, cut down some trees, and built myself a house.”
“You built a house out of trees on a desert island?”
“Yeah.”
“And what’s that other little building over there?”
“I also built an outhouse.”
“You built an outhouse? Why? Nobody will ever see you go to the bathroom. You are on a deserted island.”
“Yes, I know. But I wanted to have some dignity.”
“Wow, look at that magnificent building back there. What is that?”
“Well, that’s my church. I’m very religious and I wanted to be able to honor God with a sacred space, so I built a church.”
“I see, but what is that?” asked the pilot, as he looked beyond the man’s church to the largest building on the island. “That’s such an ornately decorated building that it would stand on its own as a fine piece of architecture anywhere.”
“Oh,” said the deserted man, “That’s the church I used to go to.”