God, Are You Listening?

You really tested us in 2021 and we face another uncertain near-future with the new mutant strain claiming lives as fast as we can refuse to take the vaccine.

Go figure.

I was just checking in to see if you had any surprises for us this year.

Truth is, we could use a small break from natural disasters and viruses right about now.

I’m not sure if it’s your work, but there seems to be a real false sense of calm as the Omicron variant pushes through.

I can read numbers.

The new numbers are staggering.

I remember people panicking when the numbers were half of what they have become.

We can’t just lay back and take it (truly not meant as a sexual reference).

I really hate losing.

But I’ve forgotten what I was fighting about.

I am a Catholic and I speak with God often. I do not feel bound by the physical structure of the Church as God’s domain. I go to confession , but I need to be better in that regard.

I enjoy going to mass.

But it is not the lace cloths, the satin robes, the exotic incense, the gold adornments (and not even all the money that Catholics seem to collect).

It is a place where I feel closer to God.

But Church is not the place that I feel closest to God.

For some reason, the very first time I was completely alone on a mountain at night, and by mountain, I mean about eight-thousand feet up surrounded by fields of white Aspen trees, I felt God could hear me more clearly as I sat on the mountainside tripping my brains out on British Royal Pharmaceutical LSD. This was widely in use in the early twentieth-century, mainly in the field of Psychology.

How I managed to score a rather sizeable amount is a story (or two) for at least another day.

I could hear crickets rubbing their legs together. I could actually hear the sighs of relief from the flora and fauna as they settled in for a cool Arizona night. If I listened, I mean really  listened, I could hear the sound of the last of the sun’s rays fall in a muffled sigh as they dove into the carpet of cooling mountain wildflowers.

Money.

God, I only want to ask of you this one small thing: please do not let this division in our country extend to our last bastion of human dignity—the American Family. Brothers and sisters actually letting the politics of some bloated egomaniac (not naming names—pick one) affect their family ties.

The only real thing that remains the same is the family unit.

Know this: when the alien bugs start dropping from the sky and crawling over the land to eat humans, when you look around you, at the last moments of survival, it won’t be some privileged politician helping you nail boards over your house’s windows.

Family.

Don’t fuck it up.

One last thing God.

Thanks for getting all the rest of it right.

Stay well.