Letters to God – Part 2: In The Beginning

source: http://touchpractice.com/the-brilliance-of-kindness/

Good night God. How are you? I’ve been doing fine since our last conversation (and while to have a conversation you need the other person to answer, maybe I’m getting answers but I have no “matching input device” to take them, so I’ll just assume we are having a conversation). The world hasn’t changed much, both for the good and for the bad. Sun is still shining, moon is still in its place, the sea hasn’t evaporated. Same as usual.

There are a couple of things I wanted to talk about today, hope you have some spare time.

Let’s talk some Torah (Bible) today. This week in the synagogue we read Parashat Bereshit, the first weekly bible reading, and also the first part of the first book of the Torah, which I always find to be a thorough treatise into human behaviour. It’s all there: lies, backstabbing, treason, murder, cheating, you name it. And all done by our great forefathers, read every week with awe, and taught to our children at school (somewhat censored, but less than expected). Every time I read it I learn new things. Great work man! I mean, God!

So let’s talk about Adam and Eve. Two interesting things came to my mind when reading Bereshit. First, you took Adam, put him in Gan Eden, and told him not to eat from the forbidden fruit. Did you really expect him not to eat from it? You are our father and we are your children, right? Adam was also your child, right? What you did is against every parenting 101 book (and as you are omni-know-all-something, you surely read all parenting books, right?). It’s like putting my girl in a room with a bar of the most delicious chocolate just sitting there in the middle of the room, and telling her that she must never, ever, eat the chocolate bar. Nope, won’t work. And as you surely know that, you are probably teaching us something. I’ll keep that in mind next time I put my girl in a room full of chocolate.

Second, after eating from the forbidden fruit, both man and woman hid in the garden awaiting for their father (you) to come and shout at them. The funny thing here is what they do: you say (my liberal translation) “WHERE ARE YOU”, to which Adam responds “heard you are coming and since we are naked, we hid”, to which you answer “WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU ARE NAKED! DID YOU EAT FROM THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT?!?!?!”. And what does Adam say? “this woman you gave me, she gave me the fruit“. So you go on to the woman “WHAT IS THIS THAT YOU DID?!?!?” to which she answers “the snake made me“. Impressive! they just ate from the fruit a minute ago and they already learned one of the basic necessities of humans – having someone to blame for our problems.

So maybe that is your real task in this world, dear God? Are you here just so that we can blame you for all of the bad things that happen to us? It actually makes life a lot simpler. But I don’t believe this is the case, so the search will continue.

This letter is getting a bit long, but I just wanted to add another thing. Today I visited with my son a great place that helps families cope with tumor treatments (we go there after him having his chemo, and that really changes the color of the day). They have so many cool things for children: a playground, a petting zoo, art classes, music classes, you name it. But this is not the point. As I was there, a couple with a kid appeared and they looked really, really familiar. After 5 seconds of looking one at the other, she remembered that the three of us had worked together some 12 years ago. What a coincidence! And why is she there? she looks fine. But things were not fine. She was diagnosed with breast cancer 5 years ago and had been treated. After 5 years she was pregnant with twins and the cancer returned, and now a lot worse. So no more twins, and back to treatment. But she wears a great smile, talks positive, looks and feels very positive, with impressive energies.

So God, the joke is on you. And we’ll talk about this next time.

Letters to God – Part 1: Why?

source: https://christophermattix.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/the-dark-night-of-the-soul/

Hi God. Since you haven’t answered my prayers lately (or as some say, you have answered them and it is me that is not accepting the answer), I decided to switch channels and start writing to you here. I hope you are subscribed to my RSS feed since you are not my friend on FB and I didn’t see you as one of my stalkers followers on Twitter (but maybe your using a pseudonym). But people say you are everywhere, so this will surely get to your inbox somehow.

Ever since my son was diagnosed with a tumor in his brain, I’ve been asking myself (and you) one question: Why? I mean, I’ve been bad here and there (and there, and there…), but what has this child done? How can you explain this in any reasonable and comprehensible way? And if you are testing me, is he just “collateral damage”?

But hey, I have it easy. If I have learned one thing in the last couple of months is that the meaning of “good news” can get very, very low. Oh yes, it is a tumor, but it is treatable (“good news”). Not only is it treatable, but the treatment doesn’t cause  hair loss and stuff like that (“good news”). And I really have to say that we have been fortunate to have a lot of “good news” with my son’s treatment. So thank you God, if that was you.

But looking around, I see many kids that didn’t get so many good news. So many faces with no hair, tubes going out of their little bodies. Most of them wearing a smile, getting their chemo/antibiotics and watching TV or playing on a pad/smartphone. And these are the fortunate ones that sit with us in the day-care clinic. Those that stay for the night have a harder time. And some don’t make it.

And I ask again, why? Why all the suffering in this world? What are you trying to teach us? What do we have to learn?

I have so much more to say, but this letter is getting long and research tells us that most people will never read to the bottom of the page (are you like that?), so I’ll leave some more for next time.