Day 49

Jeanette: No, it's not. It's just the question people like you invent because you have found your life empty. If it's empty, fill it with something.

Celeste (returning to the group): Jeanette is right. Existence is not a question; it is a fact. You are here. The question is what are you going to do.

Anne: Well surely, there's some legitimacy to asking the bigger question. (No response) Seriously, you would say you've never wondered why?

Jeanette: Seriously, have you really? I don't mean did it ever get posed to you in class or even sitting around with friends. Just is this really something you ponder?

Anne: Well, no, I don't sit around thinking about it, but, yes, it has occurred to me—on my own thank you.

Jeanette: And have you also asked why is the sky blue?

Matt: There is a reason for that. That's what science does. It's why we do things like go to space. To find out.

Steve: And has knowing that the sky is blue because of the absorption spectrum of its component gasses changed the way you live your life?

Matt: With all due respect to our religious friend here, yes. Living in a world in which we know such things means that I haven't lived in a world where people get burnt as witches, for example.

Steve: That is not quite the same as what I asked. I'm not dismissing the value of knowledge. I'm glad Eve plucked the apple.

Jacob: See. You all sneer at my God.

Steve (snorting): At last the possessive.

Jacob: At God. But everyone of you has used his name to swear or exclaim. You just referenced Genesis and . . .

Steve: And Matt just referenced witches. Is that evidence he believes in them?

Celeste: You have not heard me refer to him.

Jacob: No? Perhaps not. No one else denies it. The point is despite your denials, you instinctively include him in your world.

Marie: Wait. Jeanette makes fun of me for my Catholic school girl ways, but she's right in some ways. These things are inculcated in us. We've all grown up with all this stuff. We didn't invent our curse words.

Matt: Frakking right!

Jacob: What?

Matt: Frak you.

Jacob: What's your point.

Matt: Don't recognize it?

Jacob: No.

Matt: Battlestar Galactica. Can't say fuck on TV, so they invented Frak.

Jacob: I think that actually supports my point.

Jeanette: It does?

Jacob: It says that “frakking” is universal regardless of the word used.

Jeanette: So it's ok with you if I go with my Aztec beliefs because its all the same thing?

Matt: Is my interest in science ok too? Isn't then science just another name for what you are saying? Isn't then the universal, not god, but man's desire to understand?

Jeanette: Monsieur would have said . . .

Celeste: Stop! You've all gone crazy. You are turning the wake for Monsieur into a theological argument and worst, Jeanette, you were about to drag him into it as the leading prophet.

Jeanette: I was just . . .

Celeste (more calmly): I know. It is very hard not to invoke him. But if you do , you dishonor him. I'll give the Hebrews this, I think they meant it when they said don't use his name. Don't think of him at all. Get on with it.

Jeanette: That's just what . . .

Celeste: But you don't need his authority to say it. Say it for yourself. Do it for yourself.

The police arrive