"Count your blessings, mind your 'q's, it might not much matter what else you do …"

Stumped over what to give this season? Give AGoodGoddamn. The cynically resigned will not give AGoodGoddamn, and will proclaim their resignation from the highest steeples, steeples which were originally erected by those who seemed to care at least AGoodGoddamn, maybe several of them. Fools for their faith, however foolish that might have seemed and still might seem today, they built their ridiculous steeples anyway, then commenced to ring big brass bells from the tops of them, attracting attention as well as lowly curses. How audacious! How goddamned foolhardy! How holy! The commandment insists that we not take the Lord's name in vain, but AGoodGoddamn does precisely the opposite. The stifled GoodGoddamns denigrate the holy spirit, exchanging it for an indifferent, cheap, highfalutin, nowhere knock-off. Just try to be here now and give at least one GoodGoddamn on your way through!

Imagine that everyone really is your sibling, that nobody qualifies as an even half-assed them. Give AGoodGoddamn. Bless the poor rather than cursing them. Give AGoodGoddamn. Appreciate the meek, pity the powerful. Give AGoodGoddamn. Stop at every kid-run corner lemonade stand. Give AGoodGoddamn. Vote anyway. Give AGoodGoddamn. Tend your fecking garden. Give AGoodGoddamn. Eat your vegetables! Give AGoodGoddamn. Signal before changing lanes. Give AGoodGoddamn. Return that tray table to its full and upright position before landing anywhere. Give AGoodGoddamn.

Know enough to become cynical, but choose not to be. Only the naive dare to wallow in cynical resignation, justifying their absent caring by staring blindly into space. Our hearts know better, exchanging empathy even when—perhaps especially when—it's not reciprocated. These hearts beat for a reason mysterious to us. It seems simply unreasonable to withhold this belief pending comprehending reason. AGoodGoddamn stands in for that justifying reason we might never learn. It blesses ourselves and this goddamned world with grace we might never experience earning. AGoodGoddamn stands in as if we each might prove worthy, as if we already are worthy, as if everyone might actually already be worthy as a universal birthright. Retain the doubt if you must, remain just as skeptical as you please, but please flip off the whole damned affair with AGoodGoddamn or two … or three, if only to show everyone, perhaps especially yourself, that you're still there; still here.

It might come most convincingly upon a fabled midnight clear, like some glorious song of old, when some unanticipated angel bends nearer this earth to touch what nobody might have ever suspected was a genuine heart of gold. A certain peace falls over the world as a result, a better grade of goodwill to men and women, too, and even to those whose gender doesn't quite render into a crisp label for you. An unlikely superpower we each possess, perhaps without ever before suspecting it. A genuine faith-based initiative. A universal authentic grace-generating capacity, the humble GoodGoddamn. Pay your taxes, love your spouse, daily discover one less thing to grouse about. Count your blessings, mind your 'q's, it might not much matter what else you do if you give the one great gift that really does keep on giving, AGoodGoddamn.

©2018 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #FallingSideways, #PureSchmaltz