Sunday, The Morning After--Heaven is a Lot Like Dixie

You know, the guy said the world was gonna end, and we all made fun of him, and we all spread the word of his foretold and impending doom just like we were supposed to...just like he and his followers wanted us to. In fact, I even saw (though I have no attribution for this) that he or his organization raised 17 million dollars. Wow, not bad for a couple of weeks work and a modest billboard investment.

So, all week we quoted Mathew something something (somewhat out of context I'd add just to be the doubting brett we all know and love) to make certain that this guy was "talking out his ass", and we all went about our business. Me and a couple of friends went fishing to pass the time until Armageddon and were happy we caught a mess of fish, then when nothing happened set about cleaning them wishing that the world had ended sooner so we'd not have had to clean so many.

And today, we're all up early making fun of the guy and his ilk because, as one so aptly put it--"So there really is a morning after..." But I still think he got what he wanted, in fact, if it weren't for us and our social networks, I betcha I'd have never heard of the guy. And, perhaps he did make millions of dollars (which causes me to think, as I often do in the shadows of others' genius, "Why didn't I think of that?!")

But even more telling, here in my own home, a little girl tried wrapping her brain around end-of-the-world thoughts--we know it's coming at some point; we've seen The Universe series (think Red Giant smokes the earth in like a gabillion years)--but here she was faced with the unlikely prospect here...NOW. I foolishly didn't think it were possible that my kid could be swayed by a kooky freak on the internet.

So a dusty Bible was cracked open, and confessions of a tentative belief system were made. Was that a tiny spark of a Christianity to come finally glowing in my daughter? And me, the cynical atheist, wanting to crush that little ember but in the end only reading the Mathew phrase as if a single "passage" would calm her worries. Of course she'd be better off knowing the world would cease to exist the second her brain dies from lack of oxygen for whatever reason...wouldn't she?

I didn't say a contrary word, in fact, I might have been proud that she was exploring the possibilities of her existence without any input from her big-mouthed father. Her first steps towards something like a comforting word from above were, to me, something of a first for her, an outward look, but I don't know. For now I'll support her if she wants to delve further into what can be a spiritual awakening for some folks without it becoming a judgmental descent into what I consider madness.

At our house, we have a name for the folks who think that a second coming of christ is even a possibility--godwads, but even my son, a scarily devout atheist is as homophobic as his macho friends without a divine reason. "It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve," they say, smug in their "manliness". And I battle that as best I can, and if my daughter can't believe without escaping the same "westboro baptist church" hate traps I'll fight that too. But for now, they're allowed a certain level of freedom--no one's asking to go to church, thank god!

So was what's-his-name wrong? Sure he was, but he did get some of us talking about him and the good book. He might've given a little girl a reason to explore another possibilty other than the one her dad follows, and, according to one friend, the guy made a huge, stinking pile of money! So he's the winner...

But the really Good News is the fact we're gonna have a mess of crappie for supper tonight courtesy of our good Mother Earth Whom I feel under my feet, and smell in my nose, and see in my eyes, and taste with my tongue, and hear with my 44 year old ears--and I thank Her.

This is called a double, two casts, two fish!