Meaningless Riot

I wrote this many years ago, when I was 19, and serves as a reminder that God, love, life, all are simple and we can be happy if we stop making them complicated.

***

“And there I was,” He said,
“It was me against the world.
It was a huge and nasty riot.
Everyone asked me questions and
insisted I answered every single one of them.”
“Wow,” said the little girl, “What did you do?”
“Oh, that’s simple,” He said, “I told them
to look for the answer within themselves.
No matter what chaos they created, my answer stayed.”
“Did they?” She held her teddy bear closer.
“No, they all ignored me as they have
for centuries now. They expect me to give
them the answer to everything. It’s absurd, really.”
The girl looked at Him, “I don’t expect you to answer,
I will listen and look within.”
She said this as if offering comfort.
He smiled, “I know you would. But you are a child,
your questions are different.
You don’t ask why your life is not joyful,
why you don’t have the job you wanted,
why you could not get married,
why you could not have children,
why you aren’t beautiful,
why life isn’t simple,
why you are in jail,
why you are not in school.
These are really not questions I should be asked.
These are questions people must ask themselves.
But they refuse to believe they hold the fault
for everything and anything
that they think is not right in their own lives.”
The little girl sighed and looked out to the sky,
“Why do we have clouds?”
God laughed,
“Now that is a question I would answer!”

(Also posted on Carlo Lopez's blog and my Medium blog.)