“Because,” the young pastor sighed, “God has disappeared.”
He made a right turn onto Wilshire. The ghost of his father sat in the passenger seat beside him, looking very much like the day he died; except the short mane of hair, Pastor Gilroy noted, that might be a darker shade of gray.
“What do you mean God has disappeared?” the spectre grumbled. “Hey, isn’t that where the Ambassador Hotel used to be?”
“They tore it down a long time ago, Pop.”
“Damn. I gotta get out more often.”
Pastor Gilroy didn’t like this part of the city. Korea Town. Too many strip malls with neon signs in Asian script he could not decipher.
His father’s ghost squirmed in his seat, craned his neck out the window to gaze at a blue steel and glass high-rise they were passing. “How has God disappeared?”
“He’s disappeared from people’s lives, Pop. God has disappeared. Or gods even. Right now I’d take polytheism over a culture, hell, a whole planet maybe, that doesn’t believe in some kind of deity.”
“So you’re saying that’s why there’s so many crazy people around these days.”
Pastor Gilroy glided the car into the right lane as LaBrea Avenue loomed ahead.
“People don’t believe in anything anymore that they can’t touch taste, see, or feel. It’s unreal, Pop. And do you know what happens when humans no longer have faith in a higher power?”
“I’ve got a good notion,” his father muttered.
Pastor Gilroy smiled. “I’m sure you do. Sickness and pathology, Pop, that’s what happens. Madness gnaws at your brain like a worm when the possibility of anything divine, anything beyond the material existence, is taken out of your life.”
“I see.” The Pastor’s father ran his leathery tongue along a ridge where his upper plate used to be. He wondered who removed his dentures. The morgue or the funeral home? “Well, I guess that about answers that, Mister Smart Guy.”
The light turned red. Instead of braking, Pastor Gilroy stomped on the accelerator and barrelled the old Buick through the intersection, almost trading paint with a Hyundai that had just rolled through the green. He swerved wide into the left lane to avoid making a pedestrian a tragic statistic, laughing wildly as his hands jerked the wheel.
“What the hell are you doing?” the old man shrieked.
Pastor Gilroy grinned. “Just seeing if anybody’s home up there.”
Wasn’t there a saying from the bible… ‘I cannot show you proof, for proof denies faith?’
Nice little bit of the supernatural there, which tells a larger tale than is written, like a page out of a novel.
Bit of a side note, on the photo for this story, the flier says ‘corps of supreme being’ which made me think they found some sort of celestial army.
By: Zel-kun on January 31, 2008
at 6:46 am
And the question was – Write a short story that incorporates concepts from both Nietzsche and Jung.
Rodger goes for the A and a little extra credit besides!
Z – I don’t really remember that saying and I’m also skeptical because in the Bible God is always dropping proof on people.
During a period wherein I was challenging God to prove His existance to me, I had my truck come to a dead standstill in the middle of an intersection about 2 seconds before a car blew threw the red light in front of me.
(Ok, really that wasn’t enough evidence for me and there’s more where that came from, but the whole car going through the intersection to test God’s existance gave me flashbacks.)
By: Julie Scott on January 31, 2008
at 8:37 am
Well, looks like it was from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which is apparently a play on Fideism…
“I refuse to prove that I exist,” says God, “for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.”
“But,” says Man, “the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn’t it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves that You exist, and so therefore, by Your own arguments, You don’t. Q.E.D.”
“Oh dear,” says God, “I hadn’t thought of that,” and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
“Oh, that was easy,” says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.
So, yeah, do my research next time.
And I dunno, a car stalling just in time to avoid getting hit… that plays right into my theory on divinity, that it exists in small ways. I know I wrote about the two seconds that saved my life on zelkun, whereupon instead of simply hitting the gas at the green light, I paused. That was just enough for the SUV doing 40 through the red light to hit my car in front of the driver’s door, rather than directly into me.
I’m not the most religious man, but little things like that really make me think.
By: Zel-kun on January 31, 2008
at 9:30 am
I remember that – I was going to mention the call stalling out story then, but I thought I was insanely close to posting that story for the MLOSLI series. David, however, has made me go back and re-write my posts for that. He thinks I wussed out on a few things in my tale of the month of I decided to play Gideon, but I’m still trying to figure out how to phrase things in a way that doesn’t make you all chase me down with a little white jacket.
Somewhere around here I have the creative non-fiction piece about the time I tried to make my friend Rob vanish in a puff of logic. Hitchhikers is always fun to quote.
By: Julie Scott on January 31, 2008
at 10:05 am
Well, in response to chasing you down with a strait-jacket, I think we all did crazy things in our youth. To ridicule you for them now would be silly.
I once set my bulletin board on fire just to see what would happen.
I should compile a list of similar instances (I have so many) and post in Zelkun.
By: Zel-kun on January 31, 2008
at 10:20 am
Z – That would be awesome!
By: Julie Scott on January 31, 2008
at 10:30 am
You’re really on a roll here, RJ. Las Vegas seems to have sparked your creativity. Nice to see you back in action.
Nice piece, by the way. I’ve been having similar feelings quite a bit as of late, how the world, and younger generations specifically, have come to believe only in what they can verify. Faith seems to be a sign of weakness. A sad state of affairs, I’m afraid.
By: HeyJoe on January 31, 2008
at 11:02 am
If God exists He should go on the Larry King Show to prove it. I want an explanation for the Indonesian Tsunami and Katrina. Pronto. And don’t give me this global warming bunk either.
Terrific conversation, guys.
By: Rodger Jacobs on January 31, 2008
at 11:44 am
Now, now. The Katrina tragedy would likely have been little more than the latest in bad hurricane weather if our government wasn’t a bunch of cheapskates when it came to taking care of infrastructure.
By: Julie Scott on January 31, 2008
at 11:55 am
“You’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie.”
– GWB
By: Rodger Jacobs on January 31, 2008
at 12:03 pm
Julie, did you notice that one of the tags is Jungian psychology? Thanks for the compliments and the good eye.
By: Rodger Jacobs on January 31, 2008
at 12:16 pm
RJ – I noticed. Although I must admit that the inclusion of both the “ghost stories” tag and the “Jungian Psychology” tag gave me pause for a second. I was assuming you were leaving the actual status of the Pastor’s father up the reader’s interpretation. I may have Jung confused with another psychologist, though. I associate him with the concept of talking to theoretically non-existent people, for some reason. It’s been a couple years since I took Psych 101.
Presenting the spirituality versus cold reason argument in this way is certainly entertaining, however. I think psychological/philosophical concepts are much better expressed via fiction than dry academic works. It’s much easier to see how a concept plays out in day to day life – the infamous “But what’s that got to do with me?” question. Ayn Rand and C.S. Lewis were onto something with that, although I believe that tradition goes all the way back to Plato.
By: Julie Scott on January 31, 2008
at 12:55 pm
Julie, I kind of cringed when I added the “ghost stories” tag myself because it was imposing something into the narrative that might not be there (What do I know? I’m literally making these thngs up as I go along.) I think I’ll remove it, now that you aptly called me out on it.
By: Rodger Jacobs on January 31, 2008
at 12:59 pm
Always happy to help! I think I would go for the philosophy major, if it didn’t seem like the money would be far better spent in self directed study. Business Management at least looks good on the old resume. (Although the minor in English did land me my current job, so who knows?)
By: Julie Scott on January 31, 2008
at 1:36 pm
Oh! Going back to Zel-Kun’s orginal comment –
At first I thought this image might be from Alan Moore’s “Watchmen”, so I did some research, because Moore seems far too anal retentive… I mean, detail oriented, to have made such typo by mistake. (I could see it being a commentary on the writing skills of such rags)
Reading Rodger’s site is often like being sent on a literary treasure hunt. The image is from a comic (“Ruins”) written by Warren Ellis, who also wrote “Transmetropolitan”, featuring a main character is based, loosely, on Hunter S. Thompson (and who bares more than little resemblence to a futuristic Uncle Duke from Doonesbury, who also appears to be based on Hunter), and who is named after Spider Johnson, who wrote the Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon series. (I love comic book authors who are well read.)
The image file itself comes from a YTMND post (thus the repition of the original image) – the folks at YTMND are apparently currently in cahoots with the people over at 4chan (I think I’m spelling that right) in a campaign against the church of Scientology, who take the Jungian concept of the collective unconscious to some sort of illogical extreme.
And, of course, Scientology’s biggest celebrity right now is Tom Cruise, who was in “A Few Good Men” with Kevin Bacon!
My word, I have too much time on my hands.
By: Julie Scott on January 31, 2008
at 2:15 pm
You may have too much time on your hands, Julie, but you make fascinating use of it, more than I can say for most folks.
By: Rodger Jacobs on January 31, 2008
at 2:32 pm
Thank you!
Actually, thanks to the power of IMDB I can do a Rodger Jacobs – Kevin Bacon connection in 3 degrees.
Rodger produced “Wadd” in which he interviewed Paul Thomas Anderson who was in “Minority Report” with Dominic Scott Kay, who was in “Loverboy” with Kevin Bacon.
Which beats the pants off the Oracle of Bacon which couldn’t make any connection.
By: Julie Scott on January 31, 2008
at 2:52 pm
I just posted some reflections on postmodernism, Julie. I can’t wait for you to sink your teeth into that one.
I always knew I had a connection to Kevin Bacon.
By: Rodger Jacobs on January 31, 2008
at 2:53 pm
Does that mean that Julie and I are connected to Kevin Bacon in the Fourth degree by virtue of commenting on this site?
Julie Scott – > Rodger Jacobs -> Paul Thomas Anderson -> Dominic Scott Kay -> Kevin Bacon
By: Zel-kun on January 31, 2008
at 3:08 pm
Yes
By: Rodger Jacobs on January 31, 2008
at 3:12 pm
Did a zen book pick couple night’s ago (strum one’s fingertips over books on the shelf in the dark and snag a couple) and read an early Gabriel Garcia Marquez story (boy, do I like stories!) titled “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”. The perfect pick for my state of mind. This bit of yours reminds me of it, theme if not style, whatever. Majik cynical divinity. Hey dude, glad you are still about and didn’t die in North Beach. Vegas? Write me, should you be inclined.
By: Carol aka Sactored on February 4, 2008
at 8:45 pm
Hey, Red. Good to see you ’round these parts. Yup. Somehow we survived North Beach.
Don’t be a stranger.
By: Rodger Jacobs on February 4, 2008
at 10:27 pm