ancient Roman Saturnalia, an obscene orgy of indulgence and
idolatry. And in Yeshua’s eye, Christmas in America was not much of
an improvement.
But had
anything
changed? After two millennia of supposed
development, were humans essentially the same creatures they had
always been? Here in America, the most developed nation on Earth,
had humans themselves improved, or was it only the fruits of their
imagination, their tools, that had developed?
Yet America was just like all the other nations on Earth, all
enormous artificial extended families of cultural cousins, mentally
inbred and clawing for respect. Hoarding heirlooms, fussing with the
neighbors, fighting amongst themselves. Sending the kids off to
school if possible. Fixing up the mud hut. Of these nations, America
was not only the most developed, it was also one of the largest, most
religiously diverse, and all too often the focal point of global
attention. Among these myriad feuding families, America was the
biggest and most bossy. It was just like all the other nations on Earth,
only more so.
Which is why Yeshua and his associates had decided America
would be the best stage for their united reappearance. Krishna had
initially voted for Sweden, for obvious reasons, but in the end had to
concede that America was far more appropriate. “Well, at least
California, then,” he insisted, to which no one had any real grievance,
other than the lousy traffic.
The other five came in to the restaurant and sat down at Yeshua’s
table. There was only room at the table for four, so Zarathustra was
left standing.
“Hey you guys, scoot over,” he said.
“Who said that? It sounded like somebody highly insignificant,”
joked Krishna. Zarathustra shook his head in annoyance and pushed
Krishna over so that there was enough room for him to sit down.
“Come on you guys, stop it already,” he complained.
The others had been kidding with Zarathustra ever since they
arrived because he was clearly the least successful of the group,
commanding only a tiny fraction of the world’s religious population.
“Serves you right,” Moses said when they tallied up the figures. “You
had to be first. Look where it got you, smarty pants. Now no one’s
ever heard of you.”
“Alright now. Stop picking on him,” said Gautama. “We’ve got
H O L Y S H I T !
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