The Writer's Poke

Pawel and his dad performed careful calculations, and they knew that the ice would safely support someone three times Pawel’s weight. Nevertheless, the ice broke, and Pawel drowned.  People from the apartment complex gathered around the lake to watch the emergency crews at work, but the onlookers, including Pawel’s dad and aunt, were helpless to do anything. All they could do was watch as the frozen, lifeless bodies of Pawel and two of his friends were pulled out of the icy grave.  At the sight of the bodies, all of the onlookers, except for Pawel’s dad, began to kneel. They did so as a sign of their continued faith. Pawel’s dad remained standing because he lacked the faith to submit to the mystery of his son’s death. Although he rationally knew why all living things must die, he couldn’t fathom why someone like his son should have to die before his time. His rational understanding of death offered no comfort at this moment of tragedy. Faith offers comfort,...

Two young Yankee men on a camping trip were walking down a rural county road in northern Georgia. Hopping towards them from the opposite direction was a one-legged girl. She was easily the most beautiful girl either had ever seen. "Howdy boys," she said. "Spend the night with me, and I'll promise you a night you'll never forget." The boys looked at each other and quickly agreed to take the girl up on her offer. The next morning, the more forward of the two, a boy named Justin, spoke up: "Say, you're the most amazing girl I've ever known, but could you tell us what happened to your leg?" "Sure," said the girl. "It's no secret that folks in these parts are simple. I made the mistake of telling my daddy that I wanted to go to college. He was alright with that actually, until I told him I wanted to be a horticulturalist. For that, he cut off my leg." The boys exchanged glances. "That's unbeli...

In some ways, Pawel is your average 10 year old. He likes to race and play. He likes to skate. He’s just starting to become interested in girls. In other ways, Pawel is anything but average. He has his own computer, but he uses it to program, not to play games. He likes story problems. And, he’s interested in finding out the purpose for living. When Pawel discovers one of the neighborhood dogs dead, its fur frozen in the cold, it not surprisingly depresses him. More than that, however, it also causes him to consider whether or not life has a purpose. What satisfaction can he take in solving a word problem? How powerful are computers if he can’t program them to explain why the living must die? Pawel’s dad can explain what death is from a rational point of view, but Pawel craves a deeper explanation. His father tells him that the soul is just a term people have developed to make life easier for the living, but even his aunt, who has a strong Catholic faith, probably wouldn’t d...