by Sandra Seigle

Created on: December 14, 2008

Echoes
"Half the pews were filled with angels, and the rest wore purest white."

I watched the preacher turn a memorial service into a sales pitch, only vaguely hearing the drone of his voice as he told us to celebrate life, honor God, and pay for his new SUV.

The only other sound was the rain spattering on the roof, and an occasional sniffle punctuating the hypocrisy in his speech. A plastic Jesus stared down from the wall behind him, brutally nailed to a cross and human frailty, weeping tears that would never fall. I wondered if he ever looked that way, the preacher, and if he ever considered how his rhetoric made that image a joke - nothing more that a fairy tale told to keep disobedient children in line.

My father died 3 days past Valentine's Day. Ironic, that while others were still swooning over their flowers and chocolates, my mother and I were in a hospital ER barely aware of anything besides the unraveling of our Universe.

It was then that I began to question faith - not God, just faith.

We as human beings are weak; of mind, of body, of spirituality and conviction. All it takes is a grain of sand on the tracks and we derail.

We seek knowledge with such fervor that we ignore the obvious, and doubt - well, I'll just say that doubt is the seed of fear - and fear is the catalyst for destruction

Sadly, fear is the only common faith among man. We fear failure, we fear the unknown, we fear helplessness and death -

And we put too much conviction behind what we think and believe, without regard to whether it is truth or not.
*

"I know you're busy hun, but would you happen to have ANY idea where I put my keys?" Her mother stood in her bedroom doorway, already dressed in pressed scrubs for work.

She glanced at her, stifling a giggle at the obvious lump in her front pocket. "Have you looked in your uniform pockets?" Her mother's face reddened.

"Oh my God, I swear I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached."

"Might wanna double check that." She winked at her.

Her mother laughed softly and looked around the room, letting out a sigh. There were boxes everywhere. The walls were empty. Even the shelves were bare, save for the screwdriver sitting ominously on the top one, as if to remind her that soon, even the shelves would be gone.

"I can't believe my baby girl's all grown up and moving off to college." She put her hands on her daughter's shoulders gently, watching as she wrapped her picture frames and knick-knacks on her desk. "Seems like just yesterday - "

"Mom." It was the same speech

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