Waiting for God, Still

One of our favorite British comedies is a show that was aired during the 1990s, called Waiting for God. It is a story of folks, some cantankerous, who reside in a senior living quarters, with separate living “apartments” and a shared dining room, where they are served whatever the facility chef has concocted for that day. All the residents are independent, but arguably no longer capable of living alone, either because of physical or financial limits.  But, because they are “independent” they are also an argumentative lot, often challenging the facility leadership and staff, and just as often challenging each other.

Occasionally, one of them leaves this Earth for that other place.  And that gives rise to the name of the show. Folks there don’t really do anything any longer, they just “hang out”, “Waiting for God”.  And, for most of them, there isn’t too much wrong with them, at least physically. But once they begin residing in the place, they more or less disconnect from this world.  Oh, occasionally, a relative will pop by and maybe take them for a drive, or just hang out with them for a while. But mostly, they hang out together, chatting it up over meals, or the occasional glass of wine in someone’s “apartment”.  And then, periodically, someone croaks, or heads off to that Netherlands.

And, with this pandemic, our lives have begun to acquire a bit of the flavor of that show.  We live alone. Mostly, we dine alone and then watch TV together. We go out infrequently, mainly to pick up something we have purchased online, at some local store.  And that is LIFE, while Waiting for God. Now, I suppose we are also becoming cranky, if not downright cantankerous.  Except that, we have no facility supervisors about whom we can complain. We are the main supervisors, so it’s like complaining about yourself.  And that just ain’t no fun.  And so, we complain about the Drumpf, or the other malenfants who pretend to be government servants.  And they provide daily/hourly motivation for complaints.  I keep wondering, God if you actually exist, why would you ever have created such a bunch of cretins to sit upon this earth, pretending to be humans? See, that is my problem with the whole “waiting for God” thing. People like Trump and his family of gangsters seems evidence enough that evolution actually rules, and that, if there is an actual God, she set evolution in motion and then walked away (assuming God “walks”).  Now, to be fair, she would likely be laughing a lot, having dumped the Trump cretin-crowd on us, however indirectly.

I understand that, as we are “waiting for God”, so actually is everyone else.  I mean, going to work at HSBC at 8 each morning, and pretending to “work” at money creation is really just a sophisticated form of “Let’s Pretend”.  And so, those folks build bigger money balloons, and then, just before they make them pop, they sell out, rake in some cash, and then go have a nice bottle of wine, while the suckers sit around crying at how much money they just lost. It’s a great game, as long as you’re not the one getting suckered.

Or maybe you go in at 8 each morning, and immediately begin laying bricks for a brand new building somewhere. Arguably, when such folks walk away at 5 or 6 that evening, they can actually feel accomplished, because they created something that did not exist before they arrived that morning.  I must confess that, while I did not go to work each morning aiming to screw some strangers out of their hard earned cash, neither did I lay bricks, or mow lawns. I also dealt in mind games, called planning and evaluation.

But, in any case, we are all, brainiacs and useful souls, arriving at that same game of awaiting the arrival of whatever God we favor.  We will depart this Earth for whatever comes next, most likely a void.  And it may well be best that we don’t all dwell on this coming departure all the time.  Best perhaps that we treat ourselves to a laugh now and again, maybe at something stupid the Drumpf has treated us to.  He is reliable in that regard.  Or maybe, we could try to do something kind to someone. That would be nice.

See, that’s what I have difficulty understanding. While we are all awaiting, why do some of us choose to act uncivilly towards other human beings? Whether it was actually God, or it was simply Evolution at work, we all really do seem to be made out of the same star stuff.  We all laugh, cry, feel good or feel bad at similar events. We like to be liked. But some of us imagine that, it we treat other folks who don’t look quite like us badly/harshly, even evilly, that other folks will like us even more.  The problem with that game is that for every person who thinks we are great because we treated someone unkindly, there are even more folks who think we are idiot-malenfants. And so we increase the possibility that our lives will be themselves less than pleasant. And so, maybe we should consider giving up this game of, “I’m better than you are”.

But that would imply that we humans are actually moral, or perhaps humane. And increasingly, I find less and less evidence of those traits. I sometimes wonder whether all those folks looking down on us from you know, up there, spend all their time yelling at us to stop being such idiots. Could it be that’s what all that thunder and lightning is?? 

Hmmm. Better think on that one. Later Alligator.