“Yes, faith. Mankind has yet to produce any concrete evidence of the existence of heaven or, outside of talk radio or network TV, hell.
Sara Miles sat in the first row of pews at church and admitted to herself she was nervous. She had tried to avoid making this admission, but it was no use. She was a good girl, more or less, and wasn’t nervous for the same reasons that other, certain less good young ladies might be nervous while sitting in the first row of the Lord’s house, but she was nervous.
Sara Miles was nervous because she was about to be baptized.
That Sara Miles was nervous was hardly a bulletin to her boyfriend Neil Foster, who could tell she was nervous as soon as he had picked her up that morning. Sara, normally not one for small talk, simply would not shut up. She had spent most of the morning blabbing with an incoherence normally reserved for tweakers on speed or FOX news anchors.
“Sara, you’re getting baptized, not joining the convent…” Neil had reminded her as they had sat down to breakfast before church.
Sara picked up a menu and it took her a bit to realize it was upside down as Neil ordered coffee for both of them. Among other things, Sara’s new coffee habit was proof that Neil was leading the young lady down the trail of sin.
“…I mean, there’s no commitment involved. There are some responsibilities attendant with baptism…”
“There are some responsibilities attendant with baptism…” Sara said mockingly, smiling.
Neil laughed.
“You and your bonus sentences,” Sara said.
Sara actually liked it when Neil used bonus sentences. Sara was considerably younger than Neil, 15 years younger to be exact, and was even still in high school though she would be graduating this June. Sara liked having a man that could use bonus words. It was a lot better than the boys she had gone out with who tended to grunt and use monosyllabic phrases. Plus, she also enjoyed having doors opened for her and being treated like a lady and not a girl.
Sara’s parents – an older, successful couple who were still wondering how they had had Sara after four other children and 20-plus years of marriage – had taken Neil in stride. They were neither wanting nor expecting a child when Sara came along as they were on the verge of shooing what they had thought would be their last kid out the door.
The first couple of Miles children had been treated like royalty, regaled with birthday parties, baby books, the whole nine yards. Gradually decreasing interest had been paid to subsequent kids and by the time Sara was going to school Ted and Lynn Miles were requiring Congressional approval to review her report card.
Sara’s parents had provided what amounted to a parenting short course for their youngest daughter. Mainly for their own convenience they taught Sara the meaning of the word ‘no’ early on and taught her some manners, but otherwise it was a very laissez faire upbringing. The only custom held over from the other kids was the family had dinner together every night.
But that was about it. After four kids they had grown weary of boy and girlfriends being trotted home and were prepared to rubber stamp whomever their final child chose to bring home as long as there was even the tiniest prospect he could have her out of the house by 18.
They seemed pleased Neil didn’t wear his pants halfway down his ass and that he could talk in complete sentences in a form of English they understood. That wasn’t always the case with some of the boys Sara had brought home before. Since they, too, were funny people, they laughed when Neil said he was 18 when Sara had brought him home. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Miles had actually believed Neil Foster was 18-years-old, this because not only was Neil not 18, he didn’t particularly look 18, though they would have believed he was 25.
For his part, Neil felt they would have pulled off lying about Neil’s age had Sara not been giggling the whole time, or would have pulled it off until Neil was obliged to explain how he had started his career umpiring professional baseball when he was twelve.
Neil, honestly, wasn’t looking to date a girl who still had homework, but he had found that as America got fatter, the number of women eligible to date him was shrinking alarmingly fast. Neil didn’t date large women mainly because he didn’t have to, unless he was on the road and looking for a slump buster. He had asked Sara out on a lark, figuring she’d say no, and almost wet his pants when this cute girl who made him laugh said “yes”.
The waiter came by and took their order. Neil, as usual, ordered for Sara, which made her feel special and important and ladylike. Also as usual, Neil forgot some of the options that came with her order, so Sara was obliged to actually speak to the waitress, but she loved the thought.
“Were you nervous when you were baptized, Neil?”
“I was a month old when I was baptized, lover.”
“That’s not what I asked, was it, Neil?” Sara said, smiling. She liked it when she took command of a conversation. Neil was fairly well read and a man of the world besides, and this wasn’t always easy to do.
“I didn’t ask how old you were, I asked if you were nervous.”
Neil smiled.
“Well, honestly, I don’t remember. I was only a couple of months old. I could’ve been, I suppose, that’s a pretty big responsibility for a baby. I mean, you’ve probably got relatives there, and the church was probably packed, too.”
“Well, I’m nervous,” Sara announced in a manner that sounded as if all currently unresolved matters under the Sun were now settled.
“Just try not to drown.”
“Thank you, honey. That’s a big help.”
(Two)
Neil and Sara had met, and Neil tried not to feel like a child molester here, at the mall. Neil wasn’t in the habit of cruising malls for teen-aged girls, at least not in the vicinity of his hometown, but he comforted himself in the fact he was legitimately there to buy a book or two and not pick up chicks
Sara was in a bookstore leafing through a copy of 365 Tao by Deng Ming Dao, a book Neil had owned for years. It was a collection of meditations, one for each day of the year. A fellow umpire had introduced him to the book years some ago. In addition to the book she was reading, Neil noted that Sara was pretty cute, with dark hair that went a bit past her shoulders and a figure that indicated an appreciation of a good meal while knowing the importance of not over-indulging.
“Uh, hi,” Neil said, employing his standard pickup line. “That’s a really good book.”
Sara turned her head. She was accustomed to males hitting on her, but they usually weren’t this old, but he was cute and seemed like a nice guy, though she didn’t believe for a second this obviously dirty old man had even heard of this book, much less read it.
Sara, turned on by a dirty old man hitting on her, smiled and turned her head towards him.
“I don’t think you’ve actually read this book. I think you are merely trying to spit game at a pretty girl.”
Neil had no clue what ‘spit game’ meant, but correctly presumed it was something along the lines of drumming up lame conversation with a pretty girl. He assumed a thoughtful pose, crossing his right arm over his torso while resting his left elbow on the top of the right hand. He cradled his chin in his left hand.
“Yes, yes,” he said, nodding his head solemnly, as if were considering an interest rate on a loan. “There could be some truth to that, certainly.”
He’s old! At least mid-twenties!
She’s pretty young. Probably in her mid- twenties.
“In fact, I plead guilty to the second count, Your Highness. To the first count, however, I must respectfully and ardently plead not guilty.”
“Really? “ Sara asked. “You’re probably on parole and I don’t think you possess the mental faculties required to read this book, not to mention the cash required to own it.”
Neil laughed. Sara, fresh off an appearance in the school play was clearly enjoying her latest role and turned up her nose and haughtily turned away from Neil.
“Plainly, you are the last word in reprobates,” she said, sounding like a snot. “I am tempted to call the authorities and return you to custody.”
“You are gracious,” Neil said, bowing. “I deserve no less. But…”
Neil left the sentence hanging.
“But what?” Sara asked haughtily.
“What if I’ve actually read the book?”
Neil further pleased his case by nodding hopefully and pointing to the book in her hand.
Rather regally, Sara turned and faced Neil
“Very well,” Sara said, looking Neil over from head to toe, obviously looking for lice or festering sores. She opened the book and turned to face Neil so he couldn’t peek at its pages. After a couple of seconds she came to the first entry.
“If you possess the knowledge you claim, what, pray tell, is the first entry?”
Neil smiled. Since he not only owned the book, but had actually read it, this was easy. The first entry contained one of his favorite passages in the book.
“This is the moment of embarking. All auspicious signs are in place.”
Sara was floored. That was, in fact, the aphorism for the first entry, January 1 in the Northern Hemisphere, July 1 in the Southern Hemisphere. The daily aphorism was followed by a meditation based on the day’s principle.
“Holy crap, that’s right!”
Sara stared blindly at the book for a few seconds before remembering where she was.
“Neil Foster, your ladyship,” Neil said, extending a hand. “At your service.”
Sara still stood there blindly for a few more seconds before recovering and offering her hand in the manner required by Anglo-Saxon custom.
“I’m Sara. Sara Miles.”
Neil bowed royally as he kissed Sara’s hand. When he straightened up their eyes met.
Oh my. There is something about this man.
“So, what brings you here Sara?”
“I’m looking for a religion, Neil,” Sara said as if they’d been together for ages.
Neil nodded encouragingly.
“That would be an adequate explanation for you being here in the Spiritual section of the bookstore,” Neil said. “How’s your search going?”
“I dunno. Mixed results.”
“You didn’t grow up in the church?’
Sara shook her head.
“No. I wouldn’t mind going to a church, but I haven’t done it yet.”
The two stood there thinking for a bit. Neil was pleased to note the silence in no way seemed strained.
“What is Tao, Neil?” Sara asked, looking at the cover of the book. There was a great deal of curiosity in her voice.
“Tao is a lot of things,” Neil said, considering the matter. “It’s the sun rising and setting. It’s the seasons changing. It’s taking advantage of what nature and circumstance provide for you.”
“Do I have someone to pray to?”
Neil shook his head.
“Tao doesn’t have a deity to pray to or a scripture to read. Also, there’s not organized worship or a priesthood. There aren’t any sacred truths, either, except for perhaps making your time seve you.”
Sara seemed sort of disappointed.
“Oh. I was kinda looking for someone to pray to. Some sacred truths would be nice, too.”
“Why?”
Sara shook her head.
“I dunno. It seems normal for a religion.”
“I’ll tell you what. Permit me to buy this book for you. It would be my great pleasure. Then we’ll get a coffee and discuss this further.”
That seems harmless enough. Besides, there is something compelling about this man, despite the fact he has to be twenty-five.
(Three)
“So, Tao is not a religion?” Sara asked after they were seated. Neil had, in fact, purchased the book for Sara, who had insisted on buying Neil’s coffee and her hot chocolate. Neil, however, had said simply that he would pay for it in a manner that indicated compliance was expected as a matter of course, which Sara found rather erotic.
“No,” Neil said, sipping his coffee. “It’s not a religion.”
“Then what is it?”
Neil considered that a moment.
“It’s more or less a spiritual discipline, if you ask me, though many insist on classifying it as a religion. I really prefer to refer to it as the path.”
Sara chewed on that for a while.
“What kind of path?”
“Your path. The path you were meant to take on your life’s journey.”
Sara sorta scowled. Based on her early research, religion promised a Supreme Being with a plan for your life already laid out.
“You seem disappointed.”
“Well, one of the reasons I’m here today is because I am looking for…”
Neil let her think.
“Something,” she said. “Something is the best way to put it.”
“Something tangible, perhaps?”
Sara touched her nose with a forefinger, indicating Neil had hit it right on the nose.
“Religion is pretty good with tangible. You have a building, the pastor, stained glass windows, the works.”
“Oh, so you have been to church. You’re not Satan incarnate?”
“Well, I don’t have wings or a pitchfork or anything. I had thirteen years of Lutheran schooling. I still go to church from time to time.”
“Why?”
Neil shrugged.
“Familiarity, I suppose. I grew up there. The pastor who baptized me is still there. So are a lot of people I still like.”
Sara found that kind of personal history fascinating. She had not been raised in the church, or with any kind of spiritual guidance outside of parental love. Not only that, since her parents had her in their 40’s, and by mistake to boot, she hadn’t been bothered with too much attention. Sara Miles had had a very laissez-faire upbringing and her parents made more money than most people need and she had more than her share of material possessions. Now she was starting to wonder if there was something more to life.
Sara and Neil sat there, again comfortably silent for a bit.
“So,” Neil said after a while. “You’re just starting your spiritual journey?”
Sara nodded her head.
“I am. You appear to have been on yours for a while, though.”
“I have, but some of the best journeys never end.”
“I like that. Is it from the book?”
“Actually, I just made it up.”
Neil and Sara stood there looking at each other.
“Read the first entry again?” Neil asked.
Though Neil put a question mark at the end, it was a command and for reasons Sara Miles could not explain she complied immediately. She took the book out of its bag and quickly found the first entry. It hadn’t changed.
“This is the moment of embarking. All auspicious signs are in place.”
“Apropos, perhaps, if I may boldly suggest, of our journey?”
Sara’s stomach froze.
OMG! He’s going to ask me out for real! And barring a phenomenon on par with planetary alignment, I am going to say yes. I’ll worry about his upcoming Medicare registration later.
Instinctively Sara curled some hair behind an ear.
Well, great Foster, you’ve all but committed to asking a girl who’s probably still in college out on a date. But I am going to ask her out. I like her. If she says no, I’m still not going out with her, which is where I’d be if I didn’t ask her out anyway.
After some brief negotiations, and in consideration of the spiritual foundation their relationship began on, Neil and Sara decided to make their first date vespers on a Wednesday night. Neil had picked Sara up at her part time job at a law firm, and it was on the drive to evening services that Neil and Sara found out each other’s ages. It started when Sara had informed Neil she wouldn’t mind being home early because she had homework.
“Homework! You have homework!”
“I’m in high school, Neil. High school girls sometimes have homework.”
“High school!”
Neil pinched the bridge of his nose with a thumb and forefinger and made a noise some might have associated with the mating of certain mammals.
“Uh,” Neil said. “Miss Miles, you have reached the age mandated by this great state to legally operate a motor vehicle, haven’t you?
Sara laughed and nodded her head.
“How about the age mandated for registering to and casting a vote in an election?”
Sara laughed.
“Yes. I can vote. I am even registered.”
“But you haven’t yet reached the age mandated by this state for the legal purchase and consumption of alcoholic beverages?” Neil asked resignedly. “I’m just curious.”
Sara laughed.
“No. Not yet.”
“Of course you haven’t, you’re still in high school.”
Neil pinched the bridge of his nose again.
“I’m going to hell.”
Sara was still laughing.
“I thought God forgives? Besides, you’re not that old.”
The hell I’m not.
“The hell I’m not…”
Sara started to worry that Neil might not quite be the age she had thought he was.
OMG! What if he’s almost thirty!
“OK, my turn,” Sara said. “You haven’t reached retirement age have you?”
Neil laughed.
“No.”
“How about AARP membership?”
“Not yet.”
“I’m not your midlife crisis, am I?”
“I don’t think so. I’m not dying young. I am thirty-three, though.”
Sara laughed, and mimicked Neil pinching his nose by pinching hers and snorting a pretty ladylike snort.
“Thirty-three! I could have sworn you were mid-twentyish!”
“I could have sworn you were mid-twentyish!”
They both laughed.
“Well, this actually works out then,” Neil said. “I mean, if I look mid-twentyish and you look mid-twentyish, then, you know, our assimilated age difference is negligible.”
Neil got rather caught up in the moment and actually began to believe his rationalizing.
“I mean,” he said, extending a hand towards Sara. “For all intents and purposes, we have no age difference.”
“Except for the fact I have homework tonight,” Sara said. ”Other than that, no, I think we’re clear.”
Neil, who wasn’t entirely sure the fact their first date was vespers was to his credit or guaranteed his place in hell, didn’t try to overwhelm Sara on her first visit to church. He pointed out the significance of some things in the sanctuary and told her when to stand and kneel, but overall he treated this like an introductory session.
After the service Neil took Sara to meet the pastor, the Reverend Jackson P. Longstreet.
“Reverend, good evening,” Neil said as they walked up to him as he stood greeting parishioners as they left the sanctuary.
“Neil!” the Reverend Jackson P. Longstreet said, obviously pleased. The two men shook hands and hugged. “How are you?”
Reverend Jackson P. Longstreet was 58-years-old, a big, strong man who carried his 235 pounds with a grace most men that big lacked. Most people were not surprised to find out he had earned his way through college by playing football, and playing it pretty well. There was some gray in his red hair, but he appreciated the fact it was hair that was mostly still there. His eyes held both the compassion of a man who took great joy in his service to the Lord, and the sorrow of a man who had buried two wives and his only child.
The Reverend Jackson P. Longstreet had known Neil Foster since Neil was a couple of hours old and, as a newly ordained pastor fresh from seminary, had baptized Neil 33 years ago. The Reverend Jackson P. Longstreet had also presided over Neil’s confirmation and was still holding out hope he would officiate at Neil’s wedding and the baptism of his kids. This prospect was, however, looking less and less likely as the years passed and retirement grew closer and Neil avoided marriage as if he got a tax credit for remaining single.
As always, Neil felt that Reverend Longstreet genuinely cared how he was doing.
“I’m good, Reverend. And you?”
“Humbly serving, as always. And who might this be?”
“Reverend Jackson P. Longstreet, this is my friend Sara Miles…”
Friends my left foot. Foster men have been chasing skirts in this town for generations and you have systematically ignored the many fine Lutheran women in town when they were looking for husbands. Good women, women who know how to take care of a husband, run a household and raise a family. But you were never looking for a wife.
“…Sara, Reverend Longstreet. I can’t remember not knowing this man.”
The two shook hands.
“This is Sara’s first visit to our church, Reverend.”
This piqued the Reverend Jackson P. Longstreet interest. He knew Neil was taking a spiritual journey that, for now at least, did not lead him to his pulpit every Sunday, and he was curious he would bring a visitor to a church he seldom attended anymore. He was pleased to note Neil had used the phrase “our church”.
“Your first visit young lady? A special welcome, then.”
Fabulous. I am thirty-three and the pastor who baptized me just called my 18-year-old date – who still has homework to do – ‘young lady’. I suppose that’s better than him pinching her cheek and saying what a cute ‘little girl she is’ but still, I am probably going to hell.
“Thank you, sir.”
“Tell me, what path led you here?”
There’s that word Neil used. Path.
Sara was bright enough to know the good Reverend need not be bothered with the tasty tidbit that this was their first date. Still though, she could see no reason not to tell him the truth.
“Neil and I met at a bookstore. I was reading a Tao book.”
“Ah yes, the Tao. Neil’s been on that path for a number of years now.”
“This is Sara’s first visit to any church, Reverend,” Neil said, putting both hands in his pants pockets. “I figure if she’s hell bent on going to one, we might as well keep her away from the Catholics.”
The Reverend chuckled.
“Indeed. Well, hopefully you intervened in time, Neil. Tell me, Miss Miles, what sent you to the bookstore?”
“I don’t know, really. Well, yeah I do. I’m looking for something…”
Sara let the sentence trail.
“Ah, yes, the ubiquitous something. It would be a great pleasure to show you the something the church offers. Neil, Sara, if you’ll excuse me, I have my flock to attend to. Neil, do you talk to your parents?”
“I talked to them last week,” Neil said not entirely sure if that was true. With typical Lutheran reticence he didn’t call his parents much, though he loved them dearly. “They both send their very best, as always.”
“As I do to them,” he said. “Neil, I certainly hope you bring Ms. Miles again. And that you will come to dinner soon.”
(Four)
That had been in late September, and their second date had followed shortly thereafter, a Saturday trip to a museum, after which they had lunched at White Castle. Sara still had a couple of hours free, but she wanted to be home rather early because she had an AP physics quiz to study for.
They had finished lunch and Neil and Sara were both drinking coffee. It was Sara’s first cup ever.
“You guys actually like this stuff?” she said, making a face.
“You get used to it.”
“I suppose I’d also get used to drinking Drano.”
“Drano does less damage to your insides, but it’s a good analogy.”
Sara put a few sugars and a quart of creamer in her coffee so it tasted less like an engine additive.
“I kind of liked going to church, Neil.”
We have got to be the only couple on the planet for whom vespers and a museum were our first two dates.
“It was fun. I hadn’t been for a long time.”
“I liked Reverend Longstreet.”
“You should. He is as good a man as our species has produced.”
“I’ve also started reading the Tao book you gave me. I gather the church and Tao are different.’
Neil thought about that for a second.
“Yes and no,” Neil said after a few seconds of thought.
“Well that clarified a lot,” Sara said, smiling. “Thank you.”
Good gravy, she’s beautiful. That smile could light a thousand lights.
“Well, as I said when we first met, I am at your service,” Neil said.
Sara laughed.
“Clarify that, then, Mr. Service.”
“Very well,” Neil said. “Yes, because church involves a deity to pray to and a scripture to read and it makes demands of its adherents. Tao has none of these things. It merely requires you to be in tune with yourself and to put nature and circumstance to work for you.”
“And no because…?”
“Both more or less are leading to the same point, providing structure for a meaningful existence and a life making your time serve you. It’s merely a question of what you choose, or not choose, to believe in.”
“Structure for a meaningful existence,” Sara said thoughtfully. It was half question, half statement.
“The church would have you believe you need God for that to happen. The church tells you that you are a sinner and can only achieve eternal life through forgiveness and God’s son Jesus dying on the cross.”
Neil paused to think for a little bit.
“Tao, however, is less tangible. A good analogy is a waterfall.”
“How so?”
“Consider this: a stream follows the path laid out before it and falls to the creek below. It has no other options.”
“In the fall, when there is little water, it does so humbly, going wherever the path directs it. In the spring, when the winter snow is melting, the waterfall is more assertive. The path can only stand by and provide guidance to the stream on its way to where it is meant to go. Either way, water does this willingly and naturally.”
“And we’re like water?”
“Oh, very much so. Like the creek, we are most useful when we follow the path nature set out for us. When water leaves its path it causes damage. So do we. We must follow our path willingly.”
Sara and Neil sat quietly for a while. Neil seldom felt pressured to make conversation and he was pleased to note Sara seemed comfortable not yapping either.
“Making your time serve you sounds good,” Sara said after a while. “Did you make that up?”
Neil drank some coffee and shook his head.
“Of course not,” he said. “I’m not that bright. I stole it from a prisoner, the Birdman of Alcatraz. I read it in an afterword to his autobiography.”
“You know,” Sara said. “I’ve had a very nice upbringing. The folks don’t bother me too much and they make good money so I’ve also had a comfortable upbringing. Something’s missing though.”
“Something clothes and shoes aren’t taking care of?”
Sara laughed.
“Or a car. Hard to believe, but no.”
“And you think the church might have the answer.”
“I don’t know,” Sara said matter-of-factly.” The answer’s somewhere, I think.’
“Oh, there’s no doubt,” Neil said, nodding thoughtfully. “The answer is out there.
“Have you found it?”
Neil shrugged.
“For now, yes. We all have paths we were meant to take, and I think I am on mine right now. But it’s a long life.”
“What does that mean?”
Neil shrugged.
“You know. People change and grow. The path someone is on now may not be the path they will be taking down the road.”
Neil drank some of his coffee.
“The book I bought you actually has a saying that’s appropriate to this, about life taking years to reveal the whole and how you have to be prepared to go the distance.”
“Really?”
Neil nodded.
“Sounds like a useful book. I should expect to have this quest wrapped up by the weekend, then?”
Neil shrugged dismissively.
Funny girl. I like funny.
“If that long!”
(Five)
Neil and Sara had finished lunch and were walking it off in a nearby park. Neil was surprised to see Sara had allowed him to hold her hand, though she had all but announced it was all right by holding Neil’s arm and moving her hand toward his. A veteran dater who knew the signs women probably didn’t know they oh-so-subtly emitted, Neil had almost immediately taken her hand and was not surprised when Sara did not yelp or break free or otherwise protest Neil’s grasping of her hand.
“So right now you’re betting there is no God.”
“I’m not ready to say either way,” Neil said. “All I know is the life I am leading now feels like the life I should be leading.”
“But what if you’re wrong? What if there is a God?”
Neil laughed.
“Then I’m up shit creek and one of Satan’s minions will spend eternity removing small, pointed reptiles from my eye sockets while I am simultaneously lowered and removed from a vat of boiling vomit.”
Neil knew Sara was merely asking an innocent question, but this line of thinking had always bothered him. In fact, he had heard a spot on the Christian radio station this holiday season which more or less posed the same question: What if you’re wrong?
The spot had featured two guys, one a believer and the other an unwashed sinner, talking about Christ and Christmas and the general gist of the conversation was the sinner wondering if all this hullabaloo about Christmas was a bunch of nonsense or whether it had some bite to it and the believer told him well, we do depend on faith, but what if we’re right, which caused the unwashed sinner to immediately declare his intention to go Christmas Eve services, not out of any specific belief in God, but merely to hedge his bets.
“I’ve never really thought that was a good reason to believe. But the church has gotten a lot of mileage out of that through the centuries.”
Neil and Sara walked holding hands a for a bit. Both were enjoying the experience of holding hands for the first time; the first kiss, the first time, all could wait.
“So, assuming one does believe, what are they getting themselves into?” Sara asked.
Neil tried to whistle, but since he can’t whistle he merely blew some air out of his mouth without actually making a sound.
“Oh, lots of great stuff. Midnight walks in cemeteries, pet sacrifices, you name it.”
“Neil!”
“How dry do you want it? Bear in mind this is our second date and I want to make a good impression so I can get a third date. Religion is a good part dry, technical matter.”
“Well, we are holding hands, so a third date is probable, but by no means guaranteed, so let’s spice this up a little.”
“Sara, we’re Lutherans,” Neil said in a dry, plaintive manner Sara found really funny. “There isn’t a whole lot of spice. Mainly it’s a bunch of nice, usually dull people, looking for something other than keeping up with the Jones’”
“That’s a good start.”
“Yeah, it is. There’s more to life than keeping up with the Jones’.”
“What does Reverend Longstreet think of your Taoness?”
Neil looked at Sara and smiled at her made up word.
“Reverend Longstreet has some Taoness in him. He realizes it’s a long life.”
“So you’re open to going back?”
“I am open to whatever life puts in front of me,” Neil said significantly, looking at Sara. “But I don’t think that’s going to happen. But you never really get over that type of upbringing, though Lord knows we try to sometimes.”
Like going out with 18-year-olds when you’re thirty-three.
(Six)
“The first thing to know is God, at least the God I grew up with, has three parts. There’s God the Father. He’s the Big Guy. There is also his Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, which is God in spirit form.”
Neil and Sara were continuing their walk.
“So all three make up God?”
“Well, they are also God in and of Themselves. Each one is God, yet they all make up God. They bill themselves as the Holy Trinity.”
“Your church is Trinity Lutheran.”
“Very good. That’s where the name comes from.”
Sara smiled and tapped her head with an index finger.
“So in a nutshell, God created the Earth in seven days,” Neil said. “Which is a belief other religions and even civilizations have.”
Sara thought about this for a minute. Neil had a couple of things he wanted to say, but he wanted Sara to form her own opinions, which is why he had spoken of creation as a belief instead of a myth.
“So if lots of other people have creation stories, then are those stories proof it’s true or proof we’re all just humans grasping at the same straw?”
Jesus H, this chick asks good questions.
“If I knew the answer to that you would be paying homage to me, instead of having White Castles with me.”
“Oooh, you spoke in italics there.”
Neil laughed.
“All right, tell me more then. What happens after creation?”
“Well, God creates the world in six days, while resting and creating White Castles on the seventh, which He mandates to be the Sabbath, where no work is done. He created Adam and Eve and they had kids, one of whom kills the other, and after awhile man became really bad and God destroyed everything in a flood, except for Noah and his family, and some animals, which were in an ark while it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, which is another story a lot of people have in common. Then after a while God sends his Son Jesus to Earth. Jesus is born to Mary and Joseph, though the Bible says Mary was a virgin when she gave birth.
“Wow. Wonder what Joseph thought.”
“No kidding. ‘Uh honey, here’s the deal. I’m having a kid and the Holy Spirit is the Father!’
Neil continued.
“So Jesus lays low for the first 30 years, then spends his last three years ministering, before some soreheads crucify him. Christianity dictates that Jesus rose from the dead after three days. That resurrection is what makes eternal life in heaven possible.”
Neil shook his head.
“No. That’s where faith comes in.”
“Faith.”
“Yes, faith. Mankind has yet to produce any concrete evidence of the existence of heaven or, outside of talk radio or network TV, hell.
“So what was there before creation?”
“I’m afraid that’s another one of those if-I-knew-the-answer-you’d-be-bowing -down-to-me questions. I have no idea. I’ve thought about it though.”
“So what led you to Tao?”
“I’m not sure if I should tell you. You’re just starting your journey. I don’t want to influence you one way or the other. You should find your way on your own.
“But you bought me the Tao book.”
“And I took you to church. You should dive in for yourself and see what you believe.”
“But this is the big question, Neil. What if I get it wrong?”
“You’re young, hell, I’m young, and it’s a long life.”
“What if I die tomorrow?”
“Then your life would have been less long than others.”
“But if I die without knowing?”
“Good question. We actually used to ask that in school to try and stump the teachers: what happens to babies who die before they’re baptized? Teachers never had the answer to that one, though they always cited that God was perfect and loving.”
Neil and Sara stopped walking and faced each other.
“Sort of like us,” Neil said.
He took Sara’s chin with his free hand and kissed her.
Chapter 4
Swords in the Narthex Home