My niece’s first fiancé (they never married) told her, her dog did not have a soul and could not go to heaven. She loved the dog and realized she needed to get rid of him.

God, if it exists, is the only one who can convenience me of it's existence. I am 81 and to date it has never contacted me in any way or showed me anything.

okay here is what i wrote (within the past couple weeks):

today was a weird day on many levels, but one had to do with religion. religion is not something that generally impacts my life at all. thrice a week my guy and i spend a few hours at an adult daycare which is run in conjunction with, while not being a part of, a jewish senior housing/rehab/assisted living/memory care facility. that facility provides the lunches for the daycare, so the lunches (and dishware) are kosher, but people of all beliefs and lack thereof attend (not to mention that the facility also does not discriminate). sometimes we go over to the facility for musical and other entertainment, and that tends to veer toward jewish (and russian) culture, because that's what most of the residents like. most of us are not residents (my guy and i are not). we celebrate the jewish holidays (loosely) but when st. patrick's day rolls around we do stuff related to that, too; we're easy. so it's not a religious experience. my guy and i are jewish. i'm an atheist; my jewishness is cultural. he is a believer, but only in a vague way. he knows less about judaism than i do lol. i think this was true BEFORE he was afflicted with alzheimer's, which is why we go to the daycare at all (he won't go regularly without me).

we had a new client today,a gentleman in a wheelchair, apparently due to a stroke (i don't know how recent) and possibly epilepsy (he wasn't clear about that). i could tell he was somewhat mentally impaired, beyond the effects of the stroke. he was eager to converse and i indulged him, though he was repetitious and somewhat boring. if he's going to be a regular, i guess it wouldn't hurt for us to get to know one another. however, at one point he suddenly brought jesus into the mix, and continued to do so in a more and more pressing way, until i could not avoid telling him that i was not a person who worshiped jesus (i did not put it that way). he was aghast. i had to repeat myself because he couldn't believe i didn't worship jesus. i told him my guy and i were jewish. he wanted to know to whom, if we didn't believe in jesus, we prayed. "i don't pray," i said, "but richard does. he prays to god." the guy's jaw dropped further. i asked him, "haven't you ever met a jew before?" he shook his head very slowly. (this was odd because he had told me he'd visited israel. how do you visit israel and not meet a jew?) i reached out my hand and with a big smile said "how do you do!" he hesitated but then he smiled too. for a second, though, it looked as if he wasn't even going to take my hand! he did so, and smiled, and said "weird."

that sort of ended the conversation, but later, when our music therapist came in and we were talking about elvis, the new guy piped up and said that he didn't call elvis "the king" because there is only one king, and he pointed upward, presumably to heaven and jesus. the therapist laughed it off. he knows he is dealing with seniors and folks with various degrees of impairment both physical and mental, not to mention emotional, so he isn't easily freaked out. most of the room didn't even notice but i sure did, and would have even had we not had our weird conversation. i made a point of telling a staff member about that conversation, asking, "does he really not know what kind of place he's in?" i mean, as i've said, it's not a religious daycare and many of the participants are not jewish, but it IS connected with sholom home; is the name not a clue? did no one tell him? did he or someone representing him not explore all sorts of daycares before choosing one connected with a jewish facility? how did this guy end up in that daycare? the staff member said he'd have a little talk with the guy i know he will be gentle; he's a sweet fellow, that staff member. i like him a lot. (by the way, he's not jewish -- and he IS an atheist!)

g