THANKSGIVING 2023:...A Precious Few Moments With Our Ever-Forgiving God...In The Age Of Rage & Ruin...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...He was lounging by the roaring fireplace when I walked in, his fingers on a good-sized, frosted cinnamon roll and his legs thrown over an ottoman of the sort one sees in old photos of the Norman conquest.

He'd summoned me for no great reason, is what he was saying.

This was just an opportunity to talk about me and about him and about everything that crossed his mind.

The Holidays, he went on, are my noisiest days. Everybody's talking and singing and praying, some quietly and some aloud, along with those guys who represent me down there. It's a tribute to my work, I suppose. You know, the good torch being lit while hoping for salvation, for forgiveness, for my acceptance. I do hear them all, as you may imagine. But what can you say about the rest of the year, when they do their best to do everything but honor the Father?

Here, throw another log in the fire. My feet are getting cold.

How have you been? Are you still writing that sappy stuff about your great search for real love, those stories about your mythical American West? I can't say you don't make me smile.

That's better. Nothing like a nice, warm fire at your feet, is what I say. Sitting by the fireplace. You know, I invented that.

"My turn to laugh," I said. You invented everything. No, he corrected, I didn't invent cheating, killing, lying and whining. That was you all.

I said I would take credit for inventing cuddling with my women and he said your women have always been able to see right through you.

He laughed uproariously at saying that and, after a few seconds, I joined him...

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