Jim's Corpse

stuff I think about                                                           Time and Space Here's a story that Sister Edna, my 2nd grade teacher at St Francis Borgia, told us (to the best of my recollection). One Sunday afternoon, Jim was struck dead in his basement workshop.  Heart attack.  At the Pearly Gates he was remanded to purgatory for one year, in penance for various venial sins.  Having had a taste of what it would be like to be in the presence of God, Jim was crushed beyond words at being  denied HIS glory for so long.  If only he had gone to confession yesterday!  Too late now. Now, after what was certainly a period of 100 years, or more (certainly more than double the life he had lived on Earth) had passed, Jim was granted an appeal.  When he complained to St. Peter that a huge error had been made, St. Peter let Jim to see what was happening, in real time, back on Earth.  His wife Betty was just now standing over his body lying on his work shop floor.  She was sobbing while a rescue squad placed his corpse on a gurney.  So it was that we were introduced to time and space at a tender age.  I remember that when people attack the Genesis creation narrative.  JMJ