Philip Appleman

Last-Minute Message For a Time CapsuleI have to tell you this, whoever you are:that on one summer morning here, the oceanpounded in on tumbledown breakers,a south wind, bustling along the shore,whipped the froth into little rainbows,and a reckless gull swept down the beachas if to fly were everything it needed.I thought of your hovering saucers,looking for clues, and I wanted to write this down,so it wouldn't be lost forever - -that once upon a time we hadmeadows here, and astonishing things,swans and frogs and luna mothsand blue skies that could stagger your heart.We could have had them still,and welcomed you to earth, butwe also had the righteous oneswho worshipped the True Faith, and Holy War.When you go home to your shining galaxy,say that what you learnedfrom this dead and barren place isto beware the righteous ones.

GERTRUDEGertrude Appleman, 1901-1976God is all-knowing, all-present, and almighty. --A Catechism of Christian DoctrineI wish that all the peoplewho peddle Godcould watch my mother die:could see the skin andgristle weighing onlyseventy-nine, every stubbornpound of flesh a smalldeath.I wish the people who peddle Godcould see her young,lovely in gardens andbeautiful in kitchens, and could watchthe hand of God slowlytwisting her knees and fingerstill they gnarled and knotted, settling infor thirty years of pain.I wish the people who peddle Godcould see the lightningof His cancer stabbingher, that small frametensing at every shock,her sweet contralto scratchy withthe Lord__ infection: Philip,I want to die.I wish I had them gathered round,those preachers, popes, rabbis,imams, priests _ everypious shill on God__ payroll _ and Iwould pull the sheets from my mother__ brittle body,and they would fall on their knees at her bedsideto be forgiven all theirfaith.

Whatever we are, whatever we make of ourselves, is all we will ever have _ and that, in its profound simplicity, is the meaning of life.

God must have a weird sense of values, and if there__ a Judgment Day, as some folks think, He__ going to have a lot to answer for.

O Karma, Dharma, pudding and pieO Karma, Dharma, pudding and pie,gimme a break before I die:grant me wisdom, will, & wit,purity, probity, pluck, & grit.Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind,gimme great abs & a steel-trap mind,and forgive, Ye Gods, some humble advice__hese little blessings would sufficeto beget an earthly paradise:make the bad people good__nd the good people nice;and before our world goes over the brink,teach the believers how to think.

HEAVEN: The big apartheid in the sky.

This is the only real revelation _ that God is only a trick with mirrors, our dark reflection in a glass.