thom day is back

With traveling and all, things have been a bit hectic out here so I never got a chance to reveal my thinking on that passage from ‘The Appeal’. Which had a fabulous ending by the way. About time an author stopped being fake, and started to get real. Anyway, at this point it really doesn’t matter though. My dad stepped into the comment section after ending his battle with whatever old-man illness he’s had the last week or so, and did most of the work for me. I shall let him continue this post.

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Was feeling sick so I waited a while to comment on this one. And since I didn’t read the book, my only comment is to the idiotic mind frame of people that think praying will solve their problems. People pray about everything and anything. Whether to win a court case, get pregnant, get a good job, win a ballgame etc, etc. It’s all bullshit as there’s no one listening to your hollow prayers people. Prayers haven’t stopped wars, the Holocaust, the Plague, famine or any of the other bad things that happen to us. That’s because there is no one listening. Just because people have been brainwashed since birth to believe in all this crap, that doesn’t mean it is all real. On the off chance that someone thinks a particular prayer has been answered, it’s just coincidence. If you prayed for a great job and got it, coincidence. If you prayed for your team to win and it did, coincidence. If you prayed to hit the numbers and it did, coincidence. If I’m wrong, then the crazy Muslims prayers were answered on 9/11 when the Towers came down. And Hitler’s prayers were answered when he killed 6 million Jews. So how come the Jews prayers weren’t answered while they waited in line, standing naked outside the buildings that housed the ovens? It is all bullshit. Based on man and womans fear of death. We fear death so therefore we need religion and God and prayer in hopes that there is something after death. Instead of praying, people would be much better off spending their time trying to fix whatever problem they face instead of praying for it to be fixed by some imaginary character. If people didn’t believe in all this, they would be forced to try and fix things themselves and the world would be a better place. But I’m sure I am in the minority on this one but who cares. The people who disagree will probably pray for me. I’m sure that will be a big help in turning me around. Not!!

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Me again. Oh! Religious burn! Well said. One of the best parts of that entire speech was this: the obviously well thought out points, the utter seriousness, and the clear nature of its coming from a knowledgeable source, all being capped off with a 1980’s/Borat style ‘Not!!’. That’s how you keep the people coming back. I’m reminded of the time in my Business Law class a few years back when we had to write an essay on the Bill of Rights or something and my professor (who is a currently practicing lawyer) pulled out my paper, read it aloud to the class, and then remarked, ‘I’m an attorney, and I couldn’t have said it better myself’. Well done sir.

My point was essentially all of what he said, except I would have switched the Muslims with some random bunch from an obscure 80’s cartoon, the Jews with the Legion Of Extraordinary Dancers, Hitler with Doug Crosby, and BJ Penn would have been in there a ton as well. However, my main point was this: They received a call that the verdict was in. I repeat, in. As in already decided. Decision already made. Unable to be changed. Then they prayed for a positive outcome. What the fuck is the point of that? I would have to say that if God does hear any prayers, it’s idiotic ones like these that are placed after the fact. I imagine he then punishes you at a later date for being an imbecile. Maybe I should try out your approach though before I judge it out of a sense of fairness. Give me a second….. Okay. Done. I just finished praying that the NBA doesn’t suspend Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw just for fucking standing up off the bench, after Robert Horry put an Ulf Samuelsson hip-check on Steve Nash into the scorer’s table at the end of Game 4 of their crucial 2007 playoff series. Wait for it… wait for it… wait for it. Maybe there is a God though. And he’s a Spurs fan. That would certainly explain them drafting David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobli, and Tony Parker.

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I read John Grisham’s novel ‘The Appeal’ while spending my final week in Phuket training. I’m going to post a small section below. This appears somewhere within the first ten pages or so of the book. My time is quite limited at the moment due to traveling, so I’m going to post this, then return in a day or so and explain why I found this so ridiculous. Not necessarily the passage itself, but what it represents.

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The clerk’s first call went to the firm of Payton & Payton, a local husband-and-wife team now operating out of an abandoned dime store in a lesser part of town. A paralegal picked up the phone, listened for a few seconds, hung up, then shouted, ‘The jury has a verdict!’ His voice echoed through the cavernous maze of small, temporary workrooms and jolted his colleagues.

He shouted it again as he ran to The Pit, where the rest of the firm was frantically gathering. Wes Payton was already there, and when his wife, Mary Grace, rushed in, their eyes met in a split second of unbridled fear and bewilderment. Two paralegals, two secretaries, and a bookkeeper gathered at the long, cluttered worktable, where they suddenly froze and gawked at one another, all waiting for someone else to speak.

Could it really be over? After they had waited for an eternity,, could it end so suddenly? So abruptly? With just a phone call?

‘How about a moment of silent prayer,’ Wes said, and they held hands in a tight circle and prayed as they had never prayed before. All manner of petitions were lifted up to God Almighty, but the common plea was for victory. Please, dear Lord, after all this time and effort and money and fear and doubt, please, oh please, grant us a divine victory. And deliver us from humiliation, ruin, bankruptcy, and a host of other evils that a bad verdict will bring.

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Feel free to weigh in with your own thoughts on the matter. I think it’s fairly simple to see where I’m going with this one. Until I return…

I finished reading two books so far. They were both fairly quick reads but extremely appropriate for the beginning of this journey. I won’t really go into too much detail at the moment, but I may end up with a bit to say when they are posted to the Books I’ve Read. Both are titles by Richard Bach. Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions.Anybody who wants to see an interesting perspective on life should read either of these. Or you can just wait until I get home, listen to me stammer through my half-assed interpretation of the 10% I actually remember reading, and gleam any tiny lesson you can from that. All the while, just barely hearing a word I’m saying as you are completely lost in the endless ocean that is my blue eyes. Cheers.