[Sca-cooks] Joke heard from samurai this AM.

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Hullo, the list.

I think my final religious comment (hopefully) in this situation will be
to relate a story I heard this morning from one of my son's aikido
instructors, a man who might have been the inspiration for Gilbert and
Sullivan's Lord High Everything Else, the man who could trace his
ancestry back to the primordial ooze. Sugano Sensei and I were
discussing this list's comments on Fallwell and God's "failure to protect".

In heavily accented Japanese, doubtless due to a dialect some 40,000
years old, this man told me the following:

"This man, Mr. Smith, is a very devout Christian. In his home town there
is an earthquake, and the state militia come to evacuate him from his
home. He says, "No, take care of the wounded and get everyone out, but
don't worry about me, my God will protect me." Later there is a tornado,
and the National Guard comes to get him out. "No, he says, don't worry
about me.  God will protect me." Just as the winds die down the floods
begin to arrive, and the Army Corps of Engineers arrive to get Mr. Smith
out. "No, please," he says, "let God protect me." The waters close
around Mr. Smith and he dies. He arrives in Heaven, and asks God, "Lord,
why did you forsake me? I prayed and I prayed, I always had faith, and
yet you let me die." God says to him, "Smith, I gave you three chances,
what do you want from me?"

Okay, so maybe it's not a laff riot, but I thort it was apropos.

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98