No Surprise

"It's the third time I've missed Sunday Mass since I've had the use of my reason," he said. "But God understands."

― Gabriel García Márquez, "Love in the Time of Cholera"

*********

Dear Kate,

Last week was a week of surprises, water turned into wine and vice versa, dreams that we thought were only dreams, the unimaginables that we did imagine, the wished-aways that came back our way riding a ferocious wave, the surreal that we knew all along all too well that has been the only reality.

There was no surprise last week.

Does the most exposed need any further exposing?  Is there anything more the naked can be striped of?  Why would Death want--demand!--publicity?  Who are we to evangelize to Creation our fragility? Can we the helpless be reduced to anything even less helpful, hopeless even less hopeful? 

There is no surprise, not at all, that we have the use of reason but are rarely rational, that even as we are rational we are rarely honest, that even as we try to be honest we are rarely generous, that even as we attempt to be generous we are always moralistic about it.

Back to normal, fast please, we say.

Are we sure?

Yours, Alex