For sister death

The title refers to the last stanza of the Canticle of Brother Sun, composed by St Francis of Assisi, in which Francis thanks God "for sister death".

About a year ago, I remember searching the web for an illustration of a plaque in Edinburgh's cathedral thanking God for the discovery of chloroform anaesthesia. I think that anaesthesia is one of the best discoveries ever and I find that plaque very touching.

I entered the text of the plaque into Google and someone, on some blog, was also commenting on it, saying that those Christians must be the stupidest species on the planet, why don't they thank God for creating all those diseases and conditions for which we need anaesthesia in the first place???

These days, I ressent creation. I think it's too fucked up. If God is involved enough to lead us to the people we love, then God is probably involved enough to unleash a horrible, degenerative illness on my Grandmother. And there is no way in hell I'm thanking God for creating Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, or even for allowing it around. To say nothing of children agonising for days under collapsed buildings. Enough of that shit already!

There are aspects of creation I love and there are aspects of it I hate. On the whole, I think that life is beautiful, and I'll have it anyday. But I feel like I'm closing off half of my brain whenever I thank God for the positives and never ever raise the negatives. We thank God for our daily bread, for our friends, for the people we love, but we don't dwell all to long into the issue of suffering.

Sometimes I want to add: "God I'm not thanking you for PSP. I don't understand why you would let that happen to us. I'm afraid that if You can do something about it and don't, I don't really like You at all, and don't want to pray to You. Whatever happened to the Heavenly Father of Luke 11? If we ask for a fish do You give us degenerative illnesses? I'll have a snake instead"