Willie!!

Heathen:  Uncultured; uncivilized; savage; philistine; not adhering to an Abrahamic religion.

Willie told me the other day or a few days ago or a year ago or something - I don't pay too much attention when he's talking - that he had started to read The Bible!! again.  He's not the kind of guy that I would imagine reading The Bible!! so I almost listened to him.

I was a really religious kid.  I grew up in a family where my parents made me do all kinds of official religious things but I was intrigued enough, and terrified by life enough, to go ahead and investigate some things out on my own.  So one of my activities, as an avid reader, was to read The Bible!! which I did several times.  I think I read it 5 to 8 times.  I really did.  I really did read The Bible!!, a point I have to emphasize because I'm in the same club as Willie - the You read The Bible!! club.

I told him that as a general rule he never says anything that helps me but I was intrigued that he had picked up that book.  It got me to thinking.  I had rescued my old The Bible!! from the wreckage of my parent's house and it made the trip home to Vacation City.

So I picked it up and started in right where I left off, like I had never missed a beat.  You know, now that I'm not always pissed off about everything I really haven't been able to find anything all that objectionable so far.  As I've often said I believe The Fellowship is a common, ancient form of spirituality that has been made into a pablum that drunks can slurp down.  There's not much tweaking one can do with Love your neighbor as yourself - that worked in ancient India and it works today.

For instance, one of my own personal favorite aphorisms is "any idiot can be happy when he's getting his own way."  Here's a verse from The Bible!!, my version being one of those that has been reworked to get rid of all the thous and thees: "If you love only those who love you, what good is that?  Even scoundrels do that much.  If you are friendly only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else?  Even the heathen do that."

Heathen.  That's a good word.  I think Willie's a heathen