I love pilgrimages to holy places, sacred trees and rocks, and all those cool customs and ceremonies in exotic far away places. I don't want to have to like science nor to abandon all that poetic mythology draped over sacred centers in deep dark architecture. I like that the Catholic Church has the same service no matter where I go in the world and I am always free to be part of it all.

Yet too, I need to believe my God is real, and not some disciplinary tool, contrived by frustrated parents of teens. I want to feel the details have been thought through, before I lie in a hospice waiting for death. I want to know what has become of my deceased wife and the actual consequence of her suicide. I do not want to fill my kid's heads, nor my student's syllabus, with anything but authenticated knowledge. If I am telling a story I want to say so. I want to maintain the distinction between non-fiction and creative license.

I understand this is a lot to ask, but ask I must..."Is there a God?" But, please, be careful of your answer. If you say 'Yes', I may ask you to prove it. And, if you say 'No', I may look at you with incredible bewilderment.

In my case, I always keep an extra myth or two stuck in my pocket, just for luck. I love tales of theology, superstition, and speculation and I half believe them willy nilly to season my existence. Of course it all seems like nonsense in the final analysis. Yet, like sex, despite its comical absurdity, I still do it.

Frankly, I am not quite sure You exist, but I am talking to you anyway.