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This (below) was an afterthought inside the folded card
Well!
Another year, another time!
I feel a bit weary about it all! Well - Hell - when you are 71, recovering
from heart failure,
kept alive by surgical skill and nursing care, and your heart only
functions because a bit of
pig fibre has been sewn in to make up a functioning aortic valve - well, you're
entitled to feel
a bit weary and patched up!
Some would say, "Consider the alternative Mick!" and I mutter
"Heaven?"
"Well - death Mick."
"Och aye, that! You can't have one without the other!"
"No guarantee about Heaven Mick!"
"Plenty," say I. "All coming from the Man who alone can give
guarantees - JC
I mean. I whisper the name in awe, scarcely worthy to speak."
"Still no guarantees Mick."
"Ach, I know. I could mess it up, go to the other place!"
"The big black H you mean Mick? No guarantee about that either Mick."
"There IS - and many go in that way, the broad way that leads to
destruction!"
"Your arse and parsley Mick!"
"No - Information from the same reliable source!"
"So how do you avoid it - the big H I mean?"
"Just go to the other place."
"The other big H you mean?"
"I think we should fix our terminology - right? - one will be the big
Hl,
the other the big Hn. OK?"
"Right."
"So where are you going to Mick?"
"Big Hn!"
"How?"
"I've got a route Map."
"A Route Map?"
"Yep!"
"Where, what?"
"It's called the Way, the Truth and the Life!"
"Oh, that ol' religious stuff!"
"It's still the Way!"
"Who says? - Oh, that ol' guy again….!"
"Yip. That's the Man!"
"Crap!"
"No, Truth."
"We'll see …"
"Yes, that's certain, an' with my pig-reinforced heart I might see before
you
- or I might not, lookin' at the cut of 'y'."
"This is gettin' very personal."
"And the language isn't gettin' any better!"
"So, what are y' yabbering on about?"
"Nothin' much, just about Life and Death."
"People are fed up thinkin' about that --- that … religious
twaddle!"
"No, they're fed up not thinking about it. If they thought about it
the attitude would be different!"
"You're only filling up space in the inside of your homemade Christmas
card!"
"True - I wondered when you would tumble to it!"