The DeGrading Faith

"What the hell?!"

"What?" I replied.

Rita looked at me with those deep, angry eyes, gazed straight into the windows of my soul and repeated, "What the hell?! I can't believe it! This asshole seems to think that his ideas and opinions are better than mine. What the hell is that?"

I was confused. We had been sitting quietly in the library for hours and suddenly, this outburst comes seemingly out of nowhere. She was cool just a minute ago. I started to wonder if she was bi-polar and was having one of those moments. Then again, I've had my share of moments, so I understood and kept my cool.

She continued, saying, "I just got an email. Mr. Poe didn't like my piece. I've been working on this for months and he says that it is laughable. That is insane!"

"Dude.. Calm down," I pleaded. "What's it about?"

"It's about him being a prejudiced asshole..."

"No. Your piece. Whats it about?" I had to cut her short. She was way too full of feelings and I just wasn't in the mood to hear it.

"It's about God."

"No wonder. You shouldn't write about God in your literature piece. Too touchy..."

"I can write about whatever the hell I want! Just because he is an atheist, there is no reason that he should dismiss the premise that God created nothing perfect."

"Dude, like I said, it's touchy. People around here don't like to talk about God. The old priests and nuns have sort of created this image of a material heaven and paternal, angry, old man, who is out there in the clouds, telling everyone what to do. They were so traditional and thought so lowly of 'the common folk' that they thought they could teach bullshit, steal, power trip, and get away with it. They were all righteous about it, too, damning people to hell and stuff. Now, people are pissed. They think it's stupid, this whole 'God' idea. People like Poe would rather think and focus on what is they can see and prove. That's real to them. The rest is bullshit."

She seemed to have calmed down. With sadness in her eyes, she looked at me and asked, "Do you think it's stupid?"

"Who? Them? Not at all. Maybe a bit proud, but who isn't?"

"No," she said, "This whole 'God' idea.. Do you think it's stupid? Or cheesy? Or weird? Or weak?"

"No. Not at all."