My name is constantly coming up as a matter of contention to some. My friends know me as Kim, my business associates call me David, and God knows what others call me. I tend to like Papa to be used by those who love me. As for anyone else, it really doesn’t matter. So here I am driving up to Rhode Island from Virginia to be with my family at Thanksgiving. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday of the year. Nan, my wife has invited the parish priest to come by and deliver blessings and have a taste of true Vietnamese/Rhode Island/Southern cuisine. Nan and the kids have really taken to being active in the local church since coming to Albion. I suppose it’s a credit to her that our children are all being raised Catholic. If it was left up to me, I really don’t know what sort of religious upbringing they would have.
So Stafford, Virginia has been my home for the past six weeks while I have been overseeing a military contract. Another month and I’ll be done, but for now I can only get home every other weekend to be with family. As I cranked up the Landcruiser, and headed north I noticed the first snowflake. Just my luck I thought as I headed home to the ‘Hope’ state. Yep, that’s our motto. I preferred the motto, “Rhode Island…Where Size Doesn’t Matter”. I had that on the bumper of the SUV until my wife made me take it off. It seems like we got too many stares, finger pointing, and giggles from passing motorists. That embarrassed Nan, but I liked the attention. Regardless, I agreed to take it off the bumper to make her happy. As I exited the military gate and went through the traffic signal, my world came to a stop…a dead stop. There will be no Thanksgiving in Albion, Rhode Island tomorrow.
As I opened my eyes I was surrounded by the most beautiful light anyone could imagine; a bright light emanating from a large white room. “Where am I? What happened? How did I…?” As soon as I uttered those words, a fat man with a chewed up cigar in the corner of his mouth answered. “You’re in Heaven Mack. Nice to finally meet you, I’m Gabe. Welcome to heaven where all is good, and the chow hall is always open. Now I suppose I should introduce you to God, you are expected.” As we walked down row upon row of aquariums filled with goldfish, there positioned in the center of the room was a huge octagonal aquarium filled with beautiful colored gravel. Swimming alone inside the aquarium was a goggle eyed fancy finned goldfish of impeccable quality. Gabe turned toward the fancy fish and said, “God this is Kim. Now I’ll leave you two alone to get acquainted.” Gabe turned and disappeared, and God spoke. “Surprised? Don’t worry, everyone is. You didn’t think God was a fish did you? Well, go ahead…say something.”
“Oh my God, I mean Sir, I didn’t…know!” “You presume much by calling me Sir", replied the Almighty. And don’t be too hard on yourself about using the name in vane, everyone has, and I'm a forgiving God if you haven't been told. Everyone gets into heaven. I should let you in on a little known secret...hell is what you make of your life on earth. You didn’t think I would love you so little that I would create you in my own image and then cast you into a burning sulfurous eternity to suffer endlessly did you?" I thought about what I was seeing and hearing and then said, “God, what do you mean created me in your own image? You’re a fish for God’s sake….I’m sorry again.” Oh Jesus!” “Everyone is a goldfish, God replied. You may see yourself differently on earth, but believe me…you are a goldfish. Go ahead look at your reflection in the aquarium and see for yourself…you’re a goldfish.” You don’t have to go to confession, you don’t have to eat fish on Fridays….please don’t eat fish, God reiterated. You don’t have to tithe ten percent of your earnings. All you have to do is love your fellow man as you would have them love you. That’s as simple as it gets. Obey the golden rule. And if you get it wrong a few times, I’ll make an exception, you see…everyone gets a ticket into heaven. Now, it’s your turn to take your place among the school of souls where you will be fed fancy tropical flakes for eternity.” “But I don’t want to be here. I want to be with my wife and family. I want to go back!” At that moment I felt Gabe’s hand on my shoulder leading me out of the great aquarium room and pointing me towards Virginia.
I spent the next two weeks in intensive care at the Bethesda Navy Medical Center. The morning of my fifteenth day in the ICU, I awoke from my coma to see my wife sitting by my bedside knitting a blanket; a blanket monogrammed with the following; Commander ‘Papa’ Pennebaker…My Hero.
I had incurred a broken T-6 vertebrae but no spinal cord damage. I had traumatic brain injury, and had a broken left femur, but I was going to be OK. I knew where I had been, and I knew where I was going. My life on earth from this moment on would be different I thought. I was going to make a difference in my life and the lives of those I dealt with on a daily basis.
I finally made it home to Albion just in time for Christmas. We called it our Thanksgiving dinner at Christmas. The importance of the word Thanksgiving was not overlooked. As the family gathered around the table and held hands I wanted to tell them that we are all going to heaven. God loves us all. But I just couldn’t help but let out a huge laugh seeing them all as goldfish.
Thanks Gabe for leading me back home, and save some of those fancy tropical flakes for me would you? I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other again, though hopefully not too soon.
