My Cat Murdered a Mouse


Tom: So how do you explain that one?

God: Explain what?

Tom: My cat Nacho, whom I love, caught a mouse outside today. When I let him in this morning, he had it in his mouth. We got him out of the house before he released it. He then took it downstairs into the yard and stomped it, bit it, flung it in the air, and finally ate most of it. Its bloody remains are still out there.

God: And?

Tom: And what?

God: What part of that do you want me to explain? Your cat was probably hungry. Or maybe he just saw something moving and went after it. They tend to do that, you know.

Tom: But why the suffering? What did you allow that mouse to feel pain?

God: That is the nature of this world. Pain and death are part of it.

Tom: But I too am of this world. Why can't I accept pain and suffering?

God: I don't know.

Tom: What?

God: I don't know. Not at the moment. I only know as much as you know at any given moment.

Tom: Then what good are you?

God: Listen, I'm not some anthropomorphic oracle that you can dial up any time you need encouragement or an explanation. I am the sum of all things your mind can and cannot comprehend, I am infinity, I... well, you get the point. Words can't explain it.

Tom: But... I don't think you're indifferent.

God: Of course not. I am everything. The gentle, loving force that melts away your fears, the very essence of grace and kindness, hope and redemption...

Tom: But, curiously, I must seek you out. That's why everyone from Christians to AA's suggest that each person must develop their own personal relationship with God. For an individual consciousness, anything else would cause mental stress.

God: Precisely. You have to figure it out for yourself. But don't worry: you aren't gazing into an abyss. When you truly seek God, you are imagining the realization of the highest, most noble dreams of humanity: peace, abundance, harmony. But as you can see in the world around you, one must be okay with sadness, one must know death.

Tom: So even though I don't consider myself a follower of any religion, it's okay for me to imagine an afterlife where peaceful eternity never gets boring, you never run out of things to learn or love, and that little mouse is up there playing around with its mouse friends?

God: I don't see why not.

Tom: Even if I don't always believe in it?

God: Sounds fine to me.

Tom: Sweet!