“First
of all, we need to clean up the mess I made. It really needs to be spotless.
Jesus, you used to be a pretty classy carpenter. You can make a new table – but
none outa cedar or gopher wood. I want that black ironwood from Vietnam. It’s
gotta be smooth an’ shiny an’ black so you can see yer face in it. But don’t
say nothin’ to yer mother. She gets hold o’ that Nellie Van de Goor an you’ll have
them complainin’ about nepotism. I don’t need another lecture on how to conduct
my business right now. Just keep it under yer hat ‘til it gets done.”
It
seemed that God was regaining his dignified demeanor somewhat. Not that he
apologized for the mess he’d made in the room, but he seemed to be developin’ a
plan of action, judgin’ by the determined glint in his eye. “Family,” he said.
“That’s where it all starts. I sure screwed that up right from the start. Well,
what’s done is done, but we can fix that.
That’s why we gotta clean up this room in pristine fashion. From now on,
this room will no longer be the boardroom, but a family /dinin’ room. This is
where we’ll sit and share a meal an’ talk about things important to each of us.
What we will do here is say what we gotta say, an’ listen to what others got to
say. Then we’ll discuss ways we can come together on our differences – respectfully.
“The
first thing we’ll do is to pull off that Tower of Babel stunt as soon as we
meet again. If they didn’t learn the lesson first time, they’ll maybe get it
the second turn around. That’ll take care of the acronym business once an’ for
all. It should provide some good entertainment while we’re at it. Secondly,
we’ll invite Schwartz to dinner an’ make him welcome as part of our family. I
know that’ll be hard for you folks cause you’re as bull headed as he is, but
you gotta try – no, not try but actually succeed. Remember, I said “forgive us
our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us”. I wasn’t kiddin’
about that. Of course, it ain’t gonna be easy, but we gotta somehow et rid o’
that “us an’ them” attitude. That started right back there in the Garden of
Eden an it’s high time it got sorted out. I should’a never kicked them out’s
the garden where I could’a kept a closer eye on ‘em. Maybe I should’a provided
a dinner table for ‘em to sit an’ eat an’ discuss things. They was so combative
right from the get go, we could’a had a better outcome if we’d had a reasonable
conversation ahead o’ events rather than after the fact.
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