Labor Day weekends....

Note to self:  Stay under the covers, in the dark and out of sight of the universe during future Labor Day weekends.

I've decided that Labor Day weekends and me do not meld. We are not good for one another. Too many life-altering and life-changing events have re-set my journey on this planet during these end-of-summer holiday weekends. Holiday?  Hardly. Heart-wrenching, yes. Holiday... hell no.

The older I get, the harder it is for me to believe in a god.  How can there be a good and just god sitting up there in the heavens dispersing good things to good people and bad things to bad people... I just cannot believe it. I even find it hard now to dignify such a deity with a capital G. Bad things happen all the time to people who are deserving of so much more good.

Decades ago in the 1960s, on the bookshelf of my childhood, there was a Golden Book titled "The Little Red Hen."  I cannot even fathom how many times I read that book. Over and over and over. "Read it! Read it again! Once more! Come on! Just once more!"   There were so many other books on the bookshelf.  But that was The One that was requested. Again. Again. Just once more.

All those years ago, I read it again, and again. And one more time. And one last time. The story was engraved on my brain and I knew it by heart... but each word was read and every page was turned. I have no idea what eventually happened to the childhood edition of that book.

In the early 2000s, a new copy of "The Little Red Hen" was covered up in Christmas paper and when I unwrapped it, I laughed and laughed... we both laughed.... and I read it over the phone. Every word was new again, every page that was turned was a memory. Now we both had a copy.  "The Little Red Hen" has been in my own library ever since. And I have read it from time to time when I go through my collection of Golden Books.

I took "The Little Red Hen" off the shelf and read it this past week. Again. And again. And one more time. Come on. Just one more time.

I find it difficult now, totally impossible, to believe in a god.

However, it is very easy, and beautiful, to believe in a little red hen.