UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave
Kevin O’Brien
I wrote this to some readers the other day …
I’m beginning to suspect that when we catch wind of something wrong in the lives of our friends or associates, it’s quite likely far worse than we suspect. People soft pedal their sins all the time, even to themselves. In our lack of faith and naivete, we say, “Oh, these priests wouldn’t be child molesters,” when in fact they may be evil to the core. They may not be, but it is only our fear and squeamishness that keeps us from seeing what may be the truth. It is only our lack of trust in God that prevents us from confronting the enormity of the darkness in our own lives and in the lives of others.
In other words, since we don’t trust God to redeem and rescue us, even from the thickest of muck and mire, we put on our rose colored glasses and pretend that everything’s OK. But sometimes things are so much more sordid and corrupt than we can imagine, and sometimes hell is hotter than we think.
The following examples illustrate this. These are all people I’ve known, though I’ve changed the names to conceal their identities.
* All the kids in junior high and high school made fun of Frank for being “gay”. He was a friend of mine, and I knew he was effeminate, but after we graduated, he finally admitted the truth. Not only was he “gay”, he had been having anonymous sex with men through the “glory hole” in the men’s room stall at the truck stop, ever since he had gotten a job there as a bus boy at the age of 14. Dozens of times a day for many years.
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