Grandmother, parts 2268 - 2271

 2268. The questioner does not ask for example, “Father, why is there so much suffering in Utah?” No, it is always about, “Suffering in the world.” As if the troubled soul is actually concerned about all those other people. These questions are always followed up with illustrations of individual catastrophes and disasters, as if the implication was that God, what ever he was like, took a droll pleasure in famine, floods, and political terrorism.

2269. But Coromo did not wonder about the suffering of the rest of the inhabitants of the world, what he wanted to know was this, “Why on earth would I be special to God, and why does he concern himself about my affairs, and at the same time seems to be ignoring most everyone else.” Coromo was troubled by being especially singled out, unlike the pet Italian greyhound we mentioned in our previous story who, along with Ivan the Terrible, took their good fortune for granted as a matter of course.

 2270. In short Coromo believed that God was watching over all his affairs, guiding him and advising him at every turn just like Odysseus was looked after and guided by Athena, and at the same time he thought such ideas were silly nonsense and he was not only reluctant to give voice to such ideas, but was embarrassed within himself, even to think about it.

2271. Even as a child Coromo got into theological arguments with his Grandmother concerning this idea that God was pushing his nose into his personal affairs. Grandmother seemed to think that God existed as a kind of Google map application, although she would never have used that analogy, never having heard of Google maps, but God was like Google maps because all you had to do was ask the question about how to get from one place to another and...