On some far tangent of the
imagination in a time that never was, Faith
went outdoors for a stroll. Not much
ground was covered before Faith met
Reality. The presence of Reality was
always a challenge to the confidence of
Faith. On this occasion, Faith decided
that attack might be the best form of
defence.
“You might as well face it,” said Faith,
“I have far more meaning than you. I am
comforting, virtuous and dependable,
while you are always changing, always
bothering people with doubt and ambiguity.”
“Virtuous and dependable,” exclaimed
Reality derisively, “at least those brave
enough to deal with doubt and ambiguity
can check their facts to make reasonable
choices. The folk who are addicted to all
your meaningful comfort can barely
recognise me when they crash right into
me, which they often do.”
“That only happens because you keep
getting in the way,” retorted Faith. “It’s
about time we had a decisive contest to
settle which one of us has the ascendancy,
once and for all.”
“Ascendancy.” laughed Reality,
“coming from you that’s a typical concept.
Not to mention this idea of ‘once and for
all’, you don’t hear me spouting about
‘once and for all’.”
“You hardly could,” sneered Faith,
“changeable as you are.” So the two of
them argued back and forth, but before
they could agree on the type of contest to
test each other’s strength, nature
intervened. The sun came out and Reality
began to melt into a puddle. Faith,
incoherent at the best of times, went into a
complete vapour and never quite got it
together again.
If such an unlikely tale has any moral at
all it might be this…
When faith evaporates, reality may
seem to have changed a lot, but at least it
is still there for us.
By Karen Joyce