–God?

—yeah?

[pause]

–am i talking to God now, or to myself?

—what’s the difference? i am everything. i am you too.

–got it. i think. can i ask you a favor?

—i dunno–CAN you? –sorry. sure, ask away. why should you be different from the billions of people who tell me what to do? BLESS this. DAMN that. and those laundry-list prayers!! –sorry. fire away.

–i am lonely. i want a Special Someone in my life.

—what, another one? you have oodles of Special Someones in your life.

–cmon, God, You know what i mean.

—of course I do. but I’m not going to let you get away with anything. it’s for your own good. –okay, you want someone in your life that is not only special but half of a couple, with you as the other half, yes?

–yeah.

—do you have a preferred gender?

–as if you didn–sorry. female.

—okay. that narrows the field by almost half.

–almost??

—right now there are more female than male humans on earth. they live longer, and have a slightly higher birth rate. age preference?

–ideally, my age or older. realistically, over 43 but under 82.

—racial preference?

[pause]

–no.

—why did you pause?

–i had to think about it.

—why?

–because i thought it would be best to review my history. and i have. and race was never an issue.

—but most of your involvements have been with white women.

–so?

—point taken. any deal-breakers?

–no tobacco smokers please. no active alcoholics, please. no hard druggers. [pause] no active gamblers. or if they’re active, nonaddicted.

—that’s a good one. hypocrite.

–hey, i’ve sworn off. [brief pause] look at my record. gave it up for a special someone once, for more than two years.

—stipulated. any other dealbreakers?

–no non-poets.

—everyone is a poet.

–no non-my-kind-of-poets.

—there’s only one of them, and that’s you. and you are not female.

–forget it then. [pause] she should be healthy enough to have another five years in her. she should be strong-willed, but not so much so that she regards me as a fix-and-flip project. she should have, or be willing to acquire, healthy eating habits.

—good to know what you want. you haven’t mentioned tits yet.

–i don’t care about tits.

—liar.

–hey, I’ve evolved. at least two of the most attractive women i’ve known have had double mastectomies. one of them refused reconstructive surgery. am i lying?

—no, aside from some mental gymnastics. sport, there are still thousands of candidates, but in terms of percentage, you’re headed for the one-in-a-million range. anything else?

–god, let’s cut to the chase. You KNOW me. how many suitable candidates ARE there?

[pause]

—none.

[pause]

—yet.

–WHAT??!

—sonny, the real answer is not how many candidates meet your criteria. there are either 942 or 28 or 119 of those, depending on what happens between now and the end of the year. but the problem is YOU. you do not meet all of THEIR criteria. you’re too short for some of them, too irreverant for some of them, not irreverent enough for a few of them, too fat for a lot of them, too lean for three of them. etcetera. and your politics! jeezus meezus!

[pause, with quiet weeping]

–so, am i going to be lonely forever?

—no. yes. depends.

–on me, right? i need to shape up?

–yes. you’re starting to get it. you need to be more Healthy.

–okay. i will.

—and you need to be patient.

–right.

—but you also need to be IMpatient.

[pause]

–always am.

—most of all you need to be Enthusiastic.

–“God within me.” i’ll try to remember.

[pause]

—let’s have some wine. I have some left over from a Wedding.

[wine and two wineglasses materialize]

—to Enthusiasm.
–amen!

[they drink]

—and forget about Me watching. YOU’LL be watching.

[sketchy smile]

Note: There’s a book out there called CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD. I have not read it, despite my friend Melissa recommending it to me long ago. (At least I think I haven’t read it. I have memory issues.) But I imagine I’m in the same (approximate) garden that the author of CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD was tending. It will be interesting to read that book and see if there is overlap.