Texas Hold ‘Em or Playing Poker in the Universe

Dedicated to the fearless and fabulous Molly Ivins (1944-2007)

Before I begin the essay, I want to remember Molly’s courage and sense of humor which she expressed toward the end of her struggle with breast cancer.  “Having breast cancer is massive amounts of no fun. First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you.  I have been on blind dates better than that.”  We miss you Molly.

The following essay was written by Roy Henry in the spirit of the incomparable Molly Ivins. Y’all will have to imagine her Texas “twang” but not the openness of her heart which she wore on her sleeve and which was as big as the state from which she hailed. Molly found her fellow Americans and especially her fellow Texans fascinating and they always provided grist for her mill which could grind exceeding fine.

* * * * * *

Look! We all know we ain’t gonna make it with this hand. We have three choices. Bluff—but remember that you can’t fool the universe. Fold ‘em and hope for better cards in the next hand which feels like wishful thinking only a fool would count on. Or wait for the rapture. Yeah, I know, some of us have tried that rapture thing before. We’ve followed some charismatic “special soul” to the top of some God-forsaken (and I mean that literally) hill in the desert of southern New Mexico and waited for the UFO or the Archangel Michael to give us a “lift.”

Some of us have waited on a cold, dark and windy night full of hope. We had given the money that we would no longer need to “you know who.” Some of us sold our houses and gave away all our stuff which, of course we would no longer need, to the less fortunate or our next-door neighbors. They were really less fortunate because, of course, they were going to burn in hell. Oh well, at least they could enjoy our hot-tub during the little time that they had left. We couldn’t wait to get off this planet of iniquity.

Well we must ‘av dozed off because there it was, the sun coming up and that sinking feeling in the pit our stomachs that we’d been had. It was “dawning” on us that we were not the chosen people after all. Oh!….we had been chosen alright but that sucker that had chosen us wasn’t God’s representative and he was nowhere in sight and I don’t think that the vehicle that was taking him away was headed for heaven—at  least not the heaven that we had all imagined.

So we can all tuck our tails between our legs and head back to the poker table of life more humble—and wiser—well at least more humble. We now know that we have to play the cards that we’re holding right now—the ones that we’ve been dealt. No one else can play them for us or get us out of the game. It’s not over ’til it’s over. But at least now we have learned the difference between a king and a knave.

P.S. It’s Happening Again—Can You Believe It?

The “End Times” phenomena is part of the survival strategy related to the common human behavior of trying to escape responsibility (not wanting to become self-reliant), the Peter Pan phenomenon of not wanting to grow up, and fleeing the fear and suffering that accompanies our life of conditioned reactions and afflictive emotions. As I write this addendum several years after I wrote the essay above (2007) it is now Thursday May 19, 2011. According to 89-year-old Harold Egbert Camping’s Family Radio website, the world is going to end on May 21 and I’m feeling a little freaked out. He last picked a day in September 1994 as Judgment Day but “oops, my bad” he explained, he had simply made a mathematical miscalculation.

Reporter Electa Draper explains what will happen this coming Saturday. The rapture entails God plucking up true believers into heaven. Camping’s followers, whose numbers aren’t known, estimate this will include about 3 percent of the world population, roughly 207 million.

Although I personally have little anxiety over this imminent event there are many people who think that it is only a matter of time when what Camping describes will happen. A belief in Judgment Day and the return of the Messiah is part of mainstream Christianity. A 2010 Pew Research Center poll found that 41 percent of Americans believe Jesus will return within the next 40 years.

Doug Weaver of Baylor University says that “During times when natural disasters abound, or when the financial picture is particularly bleak, forecasts of the Rapture are more likely to surface.”  Fear and stress obviously present more opportunities for charlatans. “The Rapture is a moneymaker,” Weaver said, “inspiring enough books, movies and toys to sink Noah’s ark.”  

News outlets have reported that the faithful have dropped out of school, quit their jobs or blown their savings…. Camping is still spreading the word through Family Radio’s 140 stations. He says that while he is the network’s president and general manager, Jesus is chief executive.

In his article “The Enduring Appeal of the Apocalypse” (The Wall Street Journal), Michael Shermer explains the rapture phenomenon this way: For human beings, it is much easier to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune when we believe it is all a part of a deeper, unfolding plan….We want to feel that no matter how chaotic, oppressive or evil the world may be, all will be made right in the end.

Believing in the “Rapture” is only one of the many forms of the “great escape” which is ultimately choosing reaction over response, the inability to embrace the reality of life that is unsatisfactory, a life filled with anxiety and suffering. That suffering can include physical pain, habitual hard-to-control emotional reactions and an exhausting, ceaseless, neurotic monkey-mind narrative.  Simple Reality provides a strategy with a much more predictable outcome than the rapture.

Sunday morning, May 22 a lot of people are going to have a hangover of sorts. I wish Molly were here to respond with one of her columns. I can hear her raspy, full-throated laugh. She found the antics of her fellow homo-sapiens a constant source of wonder and so do I.

 

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