Bingo

 When my mother speaks on matters of God, faith, spirituality, her answers are as clean and straight as Bingo balls. She is not persuaded the Earth was made in 7 days, nor that women should be forbidden abortions. She says that she wouldn't have one herself (the same answer now at 68-years-old as it was when I was a teenager) and that she doesn't agree with everything the church tells her. She doesn't hold opinions about Jesus, the Resurrection, or the nature of divine miracles. But when I talk to her about Afterlife in Heaven, it becomes clear her position is unmovable. She wants to see her parents again. She says that they have visited her in her dreams. And I try to bring her to this world, I talk about philosophy, Buddhism, Absurdism, death. Again, her position is unmovable. She agrees with some of the things I say, but it comes across more as skillful patronization than conversation with her son. It feels like I'm just one of those Bingo balls, or a family member speaking from the Other Side. 




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