Muchas Gracias

Dear God,

It’s the weekend after an especially taxing week. Thank you for allowing me the time to volunteer, even though I was kind of forced to do it. It was a really amazing experience – thank you.

Thank you for what seems to be a fantastic Cinco de Mayo, that I can spend with amazing friends that you have so lovingly and mercifully blessed me with. I do not deserve them.

Thank you for the time to rest, relax, sleep in, and eat great food.

Amen.

Power

Dear God,

So I was kind of wondering … I sat through this presentation about Catholicism today for work, and the video kept talking about the Pope and showing pictures of him and everything. I realize that I grew up Baptist and all, so Catholic hierarchy doesn’t make a lot of sense to me …

… But why does someone who lives in a huge mansion … nee, his own city, really … feel that it’s okay to tell me that I should contribute my salary to helping the poor when he wears Prada shoes, Serengetti sunglasses, and sits on a throne in a church paved in gold?

I mean, really, if it was really that important to feed the poor and right the wrongs .. which I know it is .. why does he live in such opulence when everyone else suffers?

I know your vision is a lot more widespread than mine and such, God. And I don’t like the Baptists either .. the Falwells, Robertsons, and Meyers of the Protestant world are just as bad … but something there just doesn’t add up …

God, I don’t say this to make myself sound better – I’m no better nor worse than anyone else. But please always remind me, no matter how great or small my personal wealth is, that being a hypocrite is wrong. And to help those around me who are in need, no matter how much or how little it is that I really have.

Love

Dear God,

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Many blessings and thank you’s!

Today I got a great performance appraisal, and a good grade on a school presentation. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Now … I know it’s asking a lot and all, God, but could you please send me a nice guy to share my life’s adventures with? Please? I mean … I don’t think I’m hell-bound just cuz I’m gay, right?

Favorite Things

Dear God, 

Today, I saw the graphic below, and it made me really sad. Sad, because of it’s truth – I totally agreed with the point. Please let us all realize – including especially me, who can be so vain, self-righteous, and egocentric – that our blessings are just that. Blessings. From you. And they can go away as quickly as they’re given. 

Please let me strive to be more humble, no matter how hard it can be, and how easy it can become to be a capitalist, elitist, megalomaniac.

 

Forgive me for being so vain, so self-centered. Forgive us all.

 

Orang Hutan

Dear God,

As you know, I’m often amused by the smallest details of life – from the way my cat paws at my side in just the right place and totally tickles me when I’m having a bad day to the silly joy discovered at finding a penny on the sidewalk.

You know also that I can be a real asshole – and often times people don’t realize my infatuation with the simple, the amazing, the beautiful. Help me work on that one, will You? There’s nothing out there that says simple and complex can’t shake hands and move forward, right?

Today though, thank you so much for giving me a clear mind and love for all animal life. Yep, I eat them and all, God, but I’m pretty sure you’re not opposed to that one.

It’s so fun though, when You remind me that life is so much more beautiful than I see in my day to day routine of going to work, going home, sleeping, and starting all over again. I read an article (even with a photo!) today about an orang hutan that had learned to fish using a spear! I think I may have even clapped with delight!

I’m not going to touch the evolution thing – I’m pretty sure you allowed evolution to happen – be that with Adam and Eve or ApeMan and ApeWoman – either way, I’m pretty sure you had a pretty big hand in that one. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

From the largest, most ego-filled human, to the smallest microbe, You’ve given us so many things to be thankful for, to laugh about, and to marvel over. 

Thank you so much for that – life really is so grand.

Politics

Dear God,

Why won’t Hillary drop out? It seems pointless.

Why didn’t the Republicans find someone better than another war president?

Is Barack Obama the anti-Christ? I hope not, because I kind of want to vote for him.

Politics are scary, God. Why can’t we just be ruled by a big, benevolent, just Lion like in “The Chronicles of Narnia.”

Amen.

Technology

Dear God,

Thanks for the gift of technology – it’s wicked amazing. Honestly! Who would have thought that I’d have the opportunity to share my spiritual growth, heartaches, and “Oh, hell, what did I just do?” moments with the masses.

Technology has allowed me to make my spiritual thoughts known to as wide an audience as the Pope has, even though I can’t afford to wear Prada shoes like he does.

Thank you for letting me be born into a country where technology is readily available – that’s definitely an added bonus. And speaking of technology, thanks for giving me a great job that allowed me to purchase an Olympus Stylus 850SW camera in golden yellow. It’s gangsta, God – the pictures from it are so hot.

Amen.