Sherry Chandler » Three Years
Three Years
The rampaging sons of the Widow James,
Jack the Cutter, and the Pockmark Kid,
they have to stand naked at the bottom of the cross,
tell the Good Lord what they did.— Tom Waits, “Get Behind the Mule” from Mule Variations
Lately I find myself thinking it would be a comfort to believe in Judgment Day. It’s a concept I gave up years ago when I got mature enough to realize that separating the sheep from the goats would not be such an easy thing. And anyway I always thought that was unfair to goats, who are smart and useful and tough.
Besides there’s precious little evidence that God operates that way.
It may also be a concept I gave up because I was in a position of some privilege, with some belief in human “progress” and hope for a better future. Lately though I’ve had just a glimpse of what it must feel like to live in a world completely beyond control. I’ve been a little stunned at how quickly things can turn chaotic. And I’ve begun to understand why it is a comfort to believe that everybody will have to stand naked at the bottom of the cross and have it revealed to them what they are.
I hope I don’t have to count any more years [of this war!].
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2 Comments
1. Terry replies at 19th March 2006, 7:08 pm :
We’ll count many more, Sherry, and some of them will be victories. I refuse to believe otherwise.
Your talk of separating sheep from goats reminds me of my days in catechism class. Predestination was a big part of my indoctrination, the theory that even if we can’t know if we’re saved ourselves, it might be our destiny to provide the light that save someone else. My minister informed me that even I might be valuable, that through my bad example someone else might see what not to do, even though assured me I was undoubtably damned myself.
So I live to be a bad example, hoping to shine a little light where I can.
2. sherry replies at 19th March 2006, 7:21 pm :
Man, Terry! You have had some bad experiences with authority figures. That is just incredible.
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