Monday, October 09, 2006

Funny That I Read This As A Cough Sets In...

Maybe you can understand how good it is to hear someone say this. Real Live Preacher speaks today about grief. He's put words to the thoughts I have tried to form at the graveyard when I am told "he isn't there" and to the people who offer me comfort with "He's in heaven".

I am down with the Apostle's Creed. I believe it. I believe in an afterlife. I struggle, however, with this picture of some sort of "All Dogs Go To Heaven" reward. If this thing is real, it can't be like anything we know. I like to think it's better than what we'd know.

Somehow, during all of this, I have faith. I am more shocked than anyone to find it's still there. It doesn't cover as much ground as it used to, I believe fewer things than I ever did. It's somehow just deeper. Those few things I believe, I believe deeper and with less explanation than ever before.

Most of all, I believe in people. I am so very wildly grateful to the people who have let me, as RLP puts it, "cough this fucker up"*.

*If this language seems grossly out of context, you didn't read to the end of the RLP entry. Go back to the link and read. We'll all be quiet so you can concentrate.