And So Did Bernadette

The Other Reader just brought to my attention this headline from today's NYTimes:"'Conversations with God' Author Accused of Plagiarism." naturally I sent her an email to see if she wanted first blogging rights, equally naturally I am forging ahead before her response, I will therefore keep this short and idiosyncratic! Do read the article. The names and places are a hoot! It is almost tempting to assume that the whole thing is a farce, but I'm afraid such optimism would be misplaced.

I must confess to being blissfully unfamiliar with Mr. Walsch's books, and now discover that the first is called "Conversations with God, an Uncommon Dialogue." I am reminded of- and lets be very careful about attributions, the words, as I understand are by Jane Wagner, and they were revealed to us by the voice of Edith Ann (Lilly Tomlin channelling:)

"Why is it that when we speak to God it's called praying, but when God speaks to us it's called schizophrenia"

Quoting from the NYTimes article:

"He now says he made a mistake in believing the story was something that had actually happened to him...Mr. Walsch wrote that he could 'vividly remember' the incident..."

And so did Bernadette!

Long ago, and far away, I met a man who told fortunes. This isn't a fairy tale, this man was my first partner, while I was in collage in Ireland (well, maybe that does make it a fairy tale.) He used Tarrot Cards. The usual thing is for these people to make vague prognostications like "you will find happiness after a brief trip over water"or"I see a dark man in your future" this guy I'm speaking of is a whole other kettle of fish. One of my many favorites was "This is what I see, but I don't quite understand- I see an automobile accident that affects you, but you are not in it, and it is surrounded by 4 sixes" You always need to watch out when he says "I don't understand" I'm not kidding here- 6 days later, which happened to be both a saturday and the twenty sixth of the month, a Jaguar XJ-6 drove into the side of the house. No one was hurt. He does this all the time.

This is why I bring this up here: People often ask why, with this gift, he isn't wealthy. His answer is something all the clever copyrighting Christians should think about:

"A person who can really transcend time and place, who is in touch with the eternal, can not and never will profit by using the gift- he would be destroyed and it taken away from him- If you ever see anyone trying to profit from their spiritual talents they are charlatans"

I say Amen to that

Oh! by the way, The other reader has just said I can go ahead, so I get to pretend I waited!