Bon Bons In This World And The Next

There is a scene in the movie I, Robot where Detective Spooner is arguing with Dr. Susan Calvin. At one point Spooner says to Calvin "you are the dumbest smart person I've ever met." A little while later in the conversation Calvin says to Spooner "you are the dumbest dumb person I've ever met." Formerly, I thought I could never be considered part of the later, but lately I wonder if I was ever part of the former.

I have been praying the Our Father since I can remember, thanks to parents who saw the value in passing down the religious traditions that they had received from their parents. I had recited the words with reverence, but I don't really think I ever much listened to the words. They were ritual words, said because I was supposed to say them. It was kind of like the phrase "how are you?" spoken when I greet people. It's something to say, an acceptable greeting that is supposed to convey the idea that I care about the other person. The reality is that I don't really want to know how they are. In most cases, I don't really have the time to listen to their response even if they cared enough to answer my question, which of course they don't. They're "good" even if their head is in a basket under their arm.

So I've been saying "thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven" for more than fifty years now, and never really been giving much though to what it was that I was saying. The other day, as part of my daily  reflections, I decided to think about it. What I was asking God to do was to order the affairs of the world in the same manner as they are ordered in heaven. Set up and enforce the same rules here as exist there.

And why not? Heaven is where everything is done for me, and I can eat bon bons or go fishing whenever I want. Right? Maybe not. Filtering down through the miasma of age was another phrase I learned as a kid -- we were created to love and serve God in this world and the next.

Rather than asking God to impose his will here and now and create for me a paradise on Earth (which is a prayer that doesn't seem to get answered), perhaps what I have been asking all along was for God to teach me how to act here like I would in heaven. Give me the things to do now that I would be doing then.

There remains the hope that in heaven I will be the designated bon bon eater. I mean, somebody's got to do it, right? But I think that someone will also have to take out the trash, on Earth as it is in Heaven.

I'm just saying.