The Judge vs the Father

Bluebird: "I don’t know about you, but for me things like that happen once in a blue moon in alternate leap years, if then."

Not long after Milady and I got together, we ran into the father of a friend of mine at a local breakfast place, and he invited us to sit with him and his latest bubble-headed spouse.

That was one other time (of, as you noted, so few) that questions of faith came up unexpectedly and I was called upon to be an evangel. In the course of things, the man said he couldn't believe in a Deity who sat there on his big throne, with the big book, and if you ever do one thing wrong, it's the fiery place for you. (Usually, when folks tell me about the God they don't believe in, I have to say, I wouldn't believe in that God either.)

The man may or may not have been Jewish in heritage. I know he was Romanian. And he had the numbers tattooed on his arm. Arrived in America after the war with the clothes he had on and $10. Built up an electronics business that was quite successful (although he kept losing his franchises to his ex's).

From having talked with his son, my age, I knew that the dad was generous to a fault with his daughter, but for gifts he would give his sons, basically, a new work shirt. I could appreciate what he was trying to do (I presume), raising his sons to make their own way from scratch as he had. But his sons didn't appreciate that as much. So, I knew him to be a good father, in his own mind, in his own way.

I tried to build on that by saying, you know, there was a fellow who taught that God is not just a mighty and unforgiving judge, but a loving parent who is strict, but forgiving. Something like that; I was speaking from my own readings and understandings, but as with the cabbie I felt I was somewhat inSpired. (As you said, managed to think of it in time instead of later.)

His bimbette wife sat there with a look like a deer in the headlights; the conversation was completely beyond her, it seemed. But in the end, what he said to me was, "I'll think about that [mindful], I really will." It was that last bit that amazed me. He was hardly a thoughtful or reflective type of person, so the whole conversation amazed me, but especially that at the end.

As I said, we plant seeds and move on, and I don't know if that sprouted in his head before he died, but I'd like to think it might have mattered.