Wednesday, July 4, 2012

CONFERENCE AND A ZOO



I’m at some sort of conference, and my friend Adrienne is there.  We need to find a man who is to help us move something.  We can’t find him but another man comes forward to help.  He has a young boy with him, and the boy asks the man, who is obviously his father, about God.  Adrienne and I look at each other and for a while don’t say anything.  He asks again, and this time it’s evident that he is trying to show off his knowledge of the Bible, and says something about God being the Lord.  I ask the boy, “What about the Goddess?”, and he looks at me, totally shocked.  Adrienne and I tell him about the Goddess being the Lady, Her many names, and the boy gets very upset.  He says that Mary is the only Mother of God, and that we are bad people for thinking otherwise.  His father, however, is much more open-minded, and tells his son that he should listen to us.

Another woman overhears us.  She’s intrigued by our conversation and joins us.  She is someone I’ve seen often in my dreams, a middle-aged lady with white hair that’s done up in a bun.  I welcome her into our group and she tells us that she’s an itinerate pastor, to which I respond that I too am ordained by All Season’s Church of Canada and do weddings.  I’m surprised at her next comment that perhaps I can send the overflow of weddings to her.  There’s a sly undertone to her voice, as though now the only reason she’s interested in talking to us is to get something from us.  Adrienne and I leave on a pretense that we’re needed elsewhere.

We are directed through a large group of people into a small car that will take us to another part of the conference.  The car is on automatic pilot and we’re off, weaving through the crowds, until we get to a darkened corridor that is blissfully empty of people, but now two other men are in the car with us.  The car goes through the corridor and suddenly comes out into a large open space that’s set up as a zoo.  There are all sorts of animals there, and they appear as startled as we are.  Out of a pond, a miniature hippo suddenly jumps out at me, splashing us all with water.  I have just enough time to smile and pet it briefly before it bounds off me again, back into its pond.

We are breathless with laughter, as we make our way into the conference space again…

No comments:

Post a Comment