At Least They're Committed

I’m hanging with Mom again, working from my childhood home for the week to help her out and to just be here for anything she needs.

There are no excuses for the indefensible acts carried out by corrupt priests. As my mom has always said, “There are popes in hell.” That goes for anyone who is at the lowest ring in Dante’s hell and it’s a bold statement from a woman who chooses to see the world through rose-colored glasses.

She’s got a bum leg, at the moment, but I’d already planned on being here for her 85th birthday, so that worked out well. She’s able to sit in the kitchen now, with her lifelong coworkers/friends/fellow retirees.

I’m blessed that the priests I had growing up in the Catholic church were wonderful — albeit sometimes dreadfully dull. Some truly influenced my path in life in extremely positive ways.

Currently, I’ve ferreted myself away in the back room to work, while enjoying the din of old-lady voices rising and falling as the speak of the horrors or aging, dealing with insurance and what hurts on them now and, occasionally, their favorite memories.

Father Tom told me that, although perceived as stupid, he’d watched me and I was actually very smart and essentially played dumb. I was simply a chameleon, he said, who chose to morph into another persona depending on the crowd. Wow! That was the first time anyone other than my dad told me I was smart. Father Tom warned me about ‘The Game,’ how it can be harmful to who I was and who I should be.

The hot topic is PERA healthcare insurance, how it used to be the best you could get, but it is now impossible to find any provider who will take it.

I took heed, I did. But, you know, when people be fucking shit up and you can’t do anything about it except maybe mess with their minds and bring them down a bit, well, not sure that’s all bad? I guess I’ll find out when I die.

My brother and I know this first hand as we try to help Mom make doctors appointments. (Her hearing is bad thus doing it over the phone for her isn’t a thing anymore.)

Before Father Tom, when I was still in grade school at Saint Joseph’s, The Exorcist arrived in theaters. I heard all the stories about people fainting and vomiting in the theaters and running out in terror and I thought that was curious in a disturbing yet intriguing way.

For her kidney issues, I finally found a doctor 40 miles away who takes her insurance. Now, how to get her there!

But it didn’t just end with the movie-goers. The entire congregation was shaken, whether they’d seen the movie or not. The priest at the time (don’t remember who it was) dedicated a sermon on ‘the devil,’ and it still sticks with me.

Thankfully, my mom is adorable and sweet and has a large network of friends and family nearby who love her. My niece — her granddaughter — can take her to that appointment since I’ll have already headed back home.

The priest shook his head and consoled the faithful saying, “The devil will not appear as a leathery red serpent with yellow eyes, horns and a pitchfork.” No, he said, “He’ll appear as an angel, beautiful and radiant, wearing white and shining with a brilliant glow of silver and gold.”

*Sigh* It’s difficult ‘hearing’ the ladies repeating themselves twice or more as Mom isn’t catching what they’re saying. Thankfully, it’s just hearing loss, and not brain loss.

So all my life I’ve been wary of beautiful men (people?) whose promises are too good to be true, but who are so alluring and captivating that people follow them. Huh. As of late, obviously, I’m having to rethink my thinking.

Aw! They just sang to her. So sweet! Noticing all the insurance cards on the table as they’ve been comparing. I took photos of her blowing out the candles. Her smile is radiant. The smile I feel coming through from my dad is even more-so!

But let’s think about it rationally, looking at how things are today. Maybe the devil isn’t the antichrist — or at least not the only one. What if, perhaps, there are several antichrists among us (I can think of two likely suspects — actually Ellen corrected me, at least four) who are to Satan (for evil) what John the Baptist was to Jesus (for good)?

Let them eat cake! I hear the forks clinking on the plates as they talk about who they haven’t heard from in a while and wonder if they’re dead.

If the people who come to mind are antichrists (and they are seriously physically and spiritually ugly) then they might be setting us up for the coming of Satan (if those biblical references are accurate anyway). Think about it: The world is at it’s worst, nations divided, people brainwashed, and then this glorious entity appears and takes over, recruiting minions as demons and then — if there is such thing as the apocalypse — it would begin.

The conversation has turned to assisted living and long-term care. How wonderful to have friends for so long that you started out talking about your children, then your grandchildren, then great grandchildren and then pain and death?

Thus as we look at the gross, disgusting people who hold power and ponder, “Huh, it seems like the devil would have been a whole lot smarter and sexier that that,” we might be right. Perhaps these minor antichrists are acting as a conduit.

That friend assessment might have sounded callous, but it is in no way meant to be. It’s all a part of the life process and you must be pretty blessed if you’ve had such wonderful friends along for the whole journey.

Perhaps we need to be on high alert for who or what beautiful, charismatic alluring individual comes in their wake and be wary, if not afraid . . . very afraid.

The gathering is winding down. It has been lovely and I am so grateful for Mom’s little clique. And I can’t help but think they’ll likely be blessed to be off to the spirit world before the rest of this comes to pass.

For the record, and special effects aside, The Exorcist is still one of the most terrifying movies ever made.