<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">Even Though You Don’t Believe In God</font><div style="font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;"><br></font></div><div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9); font-size: 16px;"><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">Like the brilliant thought you had as you drove your niece</font></div></div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9); font-size: 16px;"><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">to Sunday School and she asked a question and you answered </font></div><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">but then your thought was gone, simply no longer there, </font></div></div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9); font-size: 16px;"><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">a whale whooshes and you look as a humpback arcs into the sea, </font></div><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">disappears, is gone, so you watch the sea. </font></div><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">You watch. </font></div><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">You watch. </font></div><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">You watch. </font></div><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">You watch, </font></div><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">but all you see through the smooth water-reflected whitish haze </font></div><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">of the sky are a lone seal, and one log motionless on the water, </font></div><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">as though time has stopped.</font></div></div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9); font-size: 16px;"><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">The seal floats above the undulating swells as though holy. </font></div><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">You know it really is resting on a rock barely below the surface. </font></div><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">The seal knows it is safe and secure. And you are too, </font></div></div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><div dir="auto" style="font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">you and your curious niece, as safe and secure as the seal,</font></div><div dir="auto" style="font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">until that log moves, until time starts flowing again, so you look </font></div><div dir="auto" style="font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">and that log is gone, gone without a trace, as gone as your thought.</font></div><div dir="auto" style="font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;"><br></font></div><div dir="auto" style="font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Bill Weissinger</font></div></div></div></div></body></html>