One of my current bathing nurses, a lady who's very into faith, brought me The Beautiful Side of Evil by Johanna Michaelson. It worked its way through the shelf of unreads, had its turn, and now I've read it. Surprisingly it turned out to be quite helpful, although not in the way Mercedes intended. The thing is the play I've started working on uses the occult—a Ouija Board, tarot cards, a séance, all that stuff—and the book gave me some really good ideas. I dog-eared some pages (There were signs of previous dog-earing so I figured it was okay.), but I think they were mostly ideas for the play. I'll go through them and see.
1) "I began to ascertain that I had not, after all, committed some exquisite form of intellectual suicide by my embrace of Scripture (sic) as the revelation of absolute truth." (page 156) Personally, Ms Michaelson never convinced me of that. Her life prior to the "embrace" had involved encounters with spirits, drug experimentation while a theatre major in college, and participating in faith-based surgeries. I spent a lot of time questioning the validity of the source. Indeed, I still had doubts about her even after the "embrace" when she and her husband prayed one evening about a back problem he had and when they awoke the next morning, he was cured. Call me skeptical.
2) "… my unabashed affection and concern for the welfare of stray kittens marked me as 'psychologically unstable' …" (page 157) No, Ms Michaelson, there I find you reasonable. The rest of the book however …?
3) The author is very concerned about books dealing with the occult being used to interest children in reading and horrified by those who think "the Bible was not the revelation of Absolute Truth (sic), given by the Living (sic) God, but rather the writings of insecure men who were desperately seeking to protect their jobs and status." (page 170) I have to wonder if she ever realized that the Greeks and Romans and even other religions today are just as convinced their god(s) is(are) the real, true deity and all others are dangerous and untrue. Maybe my whole problem with Christianity is that it allows no room for thought, questions or discovery.
4) "Good works don't earn your way into heaven." (page 202) And there's my other big problem with Christianity. George W. Bush lies, sends young men and women to their deaths, but because he has faith in Jesus, he'll be welcomed into heaven (if there is a heaven)? In the vernacular, gimme a break!
5) "It is also important that you collect every book or object related to occultism in your possession and destroy them (sic). … Make sure the objects are smashed, burned or ripped beyond repair." (page 210) NO! Related incident: A couple years ago someone gave Joan a necklace with a cross made out of tiny skulls. It grossed her out, I said it sounded cool, so she gave it to me. Yesterday Mercedes happened to open the box where I stuck it. She saw what it was and, heading to a wastebasket, asked if she could throw it away. NO! Even if the necklace isn't something I look at every day or –heaven forbid!—actually wear, I still think it's cool.
Now I'm pretty much hoping Mercedes and I can maintain the banter we have on most subjects. I like her and, as I learned back in December, it's hard to find good bathing nurses.
(PS: For those who followed the saga, Rachel and I never bantered. We always came out of our corners fighting.)
