They're So Much Better

The geezers -- old and bitter in soul, if not in years -- talk about celebrities and hippies and other people living irresponsible lives -- especially single black teenage girls who have children -- and they always say: "I live a much better life and no one recognizes me for doing that."

Break up this pity party.

YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO LIVE A GOOD LIFE, YOU GODDAMN SMALL TOWN, SMALL-MINDED FOOLS!

What do you want for your efforts? A cookie? The Presidential Medal of Freedom?

(By the way, that's the highest civilian award given by the U.S. government.)

I guess if you get no recognition from others, it's not enough.

Hey -- God will reward you for living a good life. But tat will be in heaven, not on earth. He's in charge of divine justice.

You know God. Your minister, at that church you attend every Sunday, talks about him a lot.

You might remember that if you went to church for the right reasons: To praise God and thank him for your life, instead of going there to make business connections, or to meet a better class of people to possibly improve your business, or because your family has belongs to that church for several generations and you don't see any reason to change.

If I remember correctly, your church says Jesus is the Messiah.

And if I remember my Sunday School Bible lessons, Jesus spoke with scorn about people like you. He called them Pharisees.

Jesus came for the outcasts, not for self-righteous jackasses like you.

Now I'm not a Christian. I don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah. But I won't get into theological discussions now.

But I know that I was a Christian, and there is a brotherhood in Christ, I will skip as many of those family reunions as I can.