Ever Listening Ever Patient

I have, many times, been ticked off for writing that which some interpret as blasphemous.

Now there’s a word from a different age!

As a child and even into middle age, it was a word that struck dread in me.

Countless people in every century have been controlled by formal usage of that word, especially from the pulpit, especially the fundamentalist brigade … I’m just thankful I threw that over the side as baggage long ago. Judaism, Christianity, Islam.

All stand in the dock of public opinion;

and the public at large

find all three guilty as charged.

And before the other lot, whichever religion they be, herald today’s news that for the first time less than half of the population call themselves christian, the writing is on the wall, to use a very Judeo-Christian phrase for the whole damned gamut.

Religion is no friend of faith. Faith looks on aghast at what religion will do in order to propagate itself and moreover, always at the expense of life.

Here’s the funny thing. My faith remains as resolute as ever.

Oh how good it is to be outside the box!

No! I will not get inside the box. Be gone!!

Or shall I say it in the Liverpool City way,

or as we do in the Shires, on the Land?

I don’t mind admitting

Walking with You

Is damned difficult.

You don’t give me an easy time

do You?

Sometimes, You take all this

Wilderness experience

a bit too far Mate,

and then I get angry with You.

Then I end up fighting You.

I wrestle all night,

And You play along

‘til the dawn…

then wallop!

You hit me for six with a double whammy!

Didn't You do this before?

To Ya’akov, yeah that was it.

Yeah. The night You both wrestled

And he stuck up for himself,

And he wouldn’t let You go.

How much is true?

How much is the warmth of campfire

storytelling?

How much is embellishing facts?

What’s that?

Facts that are already

interwoven with fairytale

become what we call fiction?

Still!

The point of the story,

its importance.

So long as we learn

from them, even fairytales,

and apply a timeline’s thinking

to 21st century thought!

Easier said than done, hey!!

I admire him, though, Ya’akov.

No, I do.

But I sometimes wonder whether

laming him was kosher Mate!

To me that’s dirty play.

But then again I guess

You had Your reasons.

And You weren’t going to give

this upstart a new name

without some sort of payback.

Odd. That character failing of Yours

just doesn’t sit well with my idea

of You.

It smacks of us here trying to make

You like us,

then saying we’re like You.

And I guess that’s the teaching

Isn’t it.

Yeah, I can see it now,

All the way through my life

I keep clashing with You.

Just as I think

We’ve got everything sorted.

But I admit You’ve pushed

My faith to its outermost limits

this time!

I mean to be tantamount

to denying You …

Now that’s serious!

Mega Serious!!

Funny thing is though

That even when I

tried to deny You

I just couldn’t.

I got this picture of You

Musing

Biding Your time…

Which let’s face it is rich from You

Given that You created time

And are therefore outside time anyhow!

Now don’t get me wrong.

I'm still with You. Too right.

But don’t You go trying to get me

Back into the fold

Because I know that’s not

How it is.

I've understudied You too long now

for You to pull that one on me.

So give me a break, hey?

Yeah that’s right.

A break.

A bit of a let up.

I like being who and what I am.

It’s how You made me anyway.

And I don’t like people trying

To change me back again.

I don’t like that iron mask.

And I aint gonna put it on again

Not for You or anybody else

Period!

You made Your point

So get ‘em off my back.

I know they all mean well

well!... … ermmm …most of ‘em

Some are just plain out of order

Some others are just plain evil.

And you know the two word phrase

I've got.

And thanks too for letting me know

That it’s alright to say that phrase too.

You’re a guddon!

Just bear with me Mate

Because it’s:

Damned hell on earth here

and know you damned well

the context I'm talking about

from aeons past

aeons to come

In my opinion,

My Lord ... you and I will have these

endless collisions

29 November 2022
All Rights Reserved

© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2021

First Written on 21 January 2015

Steam Boat off shore in a snow storm by J W M Turner - all rights reserved to the J W M Turner Trustees