I once freaked my dad out one day when I was taking him to the doctors to have his kidney stones treated. One the way there we had to stop for gas. I went in to pay and a large chubby guy was there who seemed so defeated yet still maintaining his joy. I said "fill it up on 3, please" to which he said "tell ya what, if you'd smack me over the head with something heavy, I'll do it for you" to which I then responded "damn dude, someone doesn't like their job" to which he replied eh, just done with my life it seems. I said to him "no matter what dude, you gotta stay positive, I promise it's there", and to that he oddly agreed despite his complaining. I left, pumped my gas and off the the hospital I went. I told my father this story to which he replied "that's the problem with youth today, so pessimistic, so easy to roll over and be defeated" I had actually agreed with him for once, for the first time in my life it felt like I could talk to my father. As time went on we somehow wandered down a conversation about religion of all things. My father being a devout baptist christian he whole heartedly believes that "God" or what we know of it literally wrote the Bible. I had to correct him some what, not enough to offend him but enough to challenge his common sense. I ask, "the Bible you have, who is the printing manufacturer on it?"
to which he replied the brand it was made in. I then ask, who commanded you to do your job?. He claimed "I do". I said, "what is your bosses name at work?". He then said "Mr. Thompson", to which I said, "I thought you were your the one who commanded you to do your job". He didn't like that answer. I said, "dad, think about cavemen, at one point in time in the days of adam (atom) and eve (hiva) did you ever think that there were first generation cave men running about? " to which he replied, "well, I guess so, you got to get started somewhere", and then I asked, "well, at least one caveman has to jump off a cliff first to know that our bodies can't fly like the angels, right?", and he replied, "yea, I guess that's true, but what are you getting at?". I said, "Language is Everything, if the other first generation of people weren't around to tell that guy about not jumping off of cliffs how would they know", he quickly said "what does this have to do with the bible?" I say "I'm getting to that, in order for people to tell people for ever NOT to jump off of the cliff then perhaps the best solution would be to put up a sign with words on it, A Warning you would say." and my dad said "gotcha, they had their first form of language", and naturally I said "Exactly!".
(Keep in mind most of this is exaggerated, the actual conversation was way sloppier.)
My father then said, "yea, but don't you still believe that God wrote the bible". I replied, "Kinda, but what is your definition of God?", this got him a bit mad, not furious but enough to make him think I was denouncing his faith. He remained cautious in his voice and then asked "the God of the universe, the one that created it all". I say, " well you have to really wrap your mind around what that really means, I mean, do you know what it feels like to be in control of the whole of the universe, looking after every grain of grass, feeding every starving person, sparking every type of intelligence" he stops me and says "whoah whao!!!, too big, that doesn't even make sense", I took back a sec to catch my breath and said "if you really beleive in god, you have to consider everything", for example, your bible was written by a machine, correct? He said "no it was written by God ", I said, "yes, but there was a printing companies label on it correct?....let me give you an example, man told the first generation not to jump off the cliff, the 2nd generation invented a sign, the next invented paper to pass out those instructions, those instructions were turned into books, then into information and then later machines, each form of language that is created becomes more and more of "the God"" He then stops with a bit of horror in his mind and says "whew....that's a bit over my head".
Without trying to talk to much more weird into him, I simply say "that's the definition of Deus Ex Machina" , my father being very old school asks "whatsat mean?", "and said "it means God in the machine"....
we arrived at the hospital, very quitely, I got out of the car and said "I'm sorry dad, I know all that was weird, do not let me step on your faith at all, I'm not saying I don't beleive in god, I'm just saying I got a bit bigger journey with that as an answer and..." he stopped me from talking and said "no, don't worry about, you beleive what you beleive , I'm not sure if any of us will ever have the right answer"...to which I proudly said "thank you pal, I think it's good to have faith in something". I dropped him off, we had a few more nostalgic moments about when I was a child and maybe some chuckles I poke at him, he may be a dummy but he's a good man. and I had to leave him there for the day to have his procedure done.
Life really does have a way of "Speaking" to you if that makes sense.
Language really is everything, and if that weren't true, then how are you reading this experience I had,
RIGHT NOW
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little something weird but it's a thing that happened in my life and I thought it be fun
to capture it in a short story, hope you all dig it.
