God played no role in Bears loss

As I read Facebook comments, and opened my e-mail, I saw many “prayers,” some fashioned after the Our Father, entreating God to allow the Chicago Bears to prevail.

Perplexed, I asked God if She cared who won athletic contests and this is what She told me:

Dearest, on each side of any contest there are people who think they have right, and sometimes God, on their side; think Notre Dame. Truth is relative and I am impartial.

This is my reason: Since time immemorial, men have waged wars and indulged in the ritualized war which you call athletics. On each side are supplicants asking me to intervene. In Mayan culture, athletic competitions often ended in the ritual execution of the losing team. On each side were mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers, entire clans asking for victory and for their loved ones to be spared. Their prayers were heard ... but canceled each other out.

Sometimes it was the orphaned players who prevailed in these contests. They were among the victorious who survived. To have it otherwise would be the equivalent of favoring the team with the best cheerleaders.

I have Sudan, Ivory Coast, famine in North Korea, floods and stolen elections and oil on pelicans on my mind. I must remain impartial for I love all creation and what I have set in motion is now governed by rules of physics and sometimes just dumb luck. I don’t tinker. It wouldn’t be fair.

Anita Mitchell

Sugar Grove