“Do we have to do this?” said the angel, who like all of God’s agents felt Compassion above all. “It seems so cruel. One more day, and she can see him become President.”
YES, said God. SHE HAS DONE HER JOB AND KNOWS THAT HE WILL SUCCEED. SHE WILL NOT SUFFER.
“But what of him? She raised him. Does he not deserve to show his grandmother all he managed to do in honor of her?”
HE WILL GRIEVE. THAT DOES HER HONOR AS WELL.
“But – one more day – ”
HIS LOSS WILL PUT IN HIM A GREAT RESOLVE, TO DO EVEN MORE TO BE WORTHY OF HER MEMORY AND LINEAGE. FROM THAT RESOLVE GREAT THINGS SHALL BE WROUGHT. THIS IS A TIME OF NEED. ULTIMATELY HE WILL DRAW STRENGTH FROM IT.
“It just doesn’t seem fair, is all.”
THAT IS BECAUSE IT IS NOT. IT IS MERELY NECESSARY.
(crossposted from a comment at MetaFilter)
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20 users responded in this post
Aw man.
May her memory bring him more inspiration and strength than grief. RIP.
It’s a good reminder that the world that begins tomorrow was forged in the imagination of many people who didn’t survive to see it. Hell, how many of us thought we’d never live to see the day?
She knew. She had such a formative role in making tomorrow happen, she had to know, I think, long before any of us even entertained the possibility. History will remember her kindly; he, of course, infinitely more so.
Woah, that’s deep.
[...] I’m sorry she didn’t live to see her grandson win the election. But she lived to see her grandson win. (It’s times like these when I really do wish there was an afterlife.) [...]
Very Pratchett.
Cool, Yahweh fanfiction
I don’t know if I believe in persistence of consciousness after death, or of any invisible hand on the world’s wheel. On my most spiritual days, my picture of the divine resembles Grant Morrison’s picture of an emergent consciousness rising from the inter-related complexity of everything in space and time, including each of us and every thought we’ve had. But other days I just tell myself that that’s my brain trying to fool itself, and that really all I am is the all-singing all-dancing crap of the world.
But wherever ‘Toot’ is, even if it’s just the past, I’m glad that she got all the days that she did, even as I mourn the loss of all the days she didn’t get. And I hope that her grandson is a good president, and that we can finally put the wounds of this inglorious decade behind us, and realize that what we have in common can be stronger than what drives us apart.
Please; she died weeks ago. Obama just defrosted her while he was in town to forge his birth certificate, so he could snag some last-minute sympathy votes.
RON PAUL!
Pure awesome.
I take my hat off to you – it’s heartbreakingly beautifully done.
Please; she died weeks ago. Obama just defrosted her while he was in town to forge his birth certificate, so he could snag some last-minute sympathy votes.
I applaud you if this is satire. I condemn you if it is serious. Sadly, I’ve seen too much stupidity this election cycle NOT to believe that there are people who seriously believe this.
Mate, it’s a lot less cruel than one day after the election.
Agreeing with Rachel Hartman; very Pratchett. Terrible timing. That’s gotta suck.
And there are Free Republicans who believe that he murdered her for sympathy votes. They happen to be scum.
It is quite iluminating to see how much of republicans’ hate (and, believe it or not, Ron Paul’s folks have way too many of those streaks — like a Alex Jones’ fan, their priorities is quite a good tell) is a weird sort of projection of what’s going on in their minds, what they would do, how they see and relate to people etc.
Aw, sad face.
I WIN AGAIN, LEWS THERIN.
*cough**cough*
Sorry…something just came over me, there…
[Immediately afterwards]
“Necessary? I thought you were all-powerful. You couldn’t get things back on track without killing his grandmother?”
WHERE WAST THOU WHEN I LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE EARTH? DECLARE, IF THOU HAST UNDERSTANDING.
“I was right over there, saying that this tectonic plate business seemed pretty pointless. Why did you think earthquakes were so necessary?”
YOU ARE SO GETTING SMITED.
Man, it’s always so beautiful when the Invisible Sky Wizard kills good people for his Plan.
Well, this is the best explanation I’ve seen of this.
When I read that this morning, (That she died, not this little god piece)…I thought “How much more like Hollywood could this be?”
I mean, seriously. The grandmother that sacrificed to raise him, dying *one day before* him being elected? Wow.
[...] Fans of Touched by an Angel and Dead Like Me will appreciate this piece about the death of Obama's grandmother. [...]