We’re in a long holding pattern

 

 

Glenn Longo was walking his cat and his neighbor said, “He’s on a leash!” to her husband.

“He takes me for a walk,” Glenn said.

That’s as good a metaphor as any for Glenn’s life.

 

 

Glenn Longo stood near a group of people waiting for a bus. They were actors and actresses in a new movie the owners of the New Jersey steer farm, where Glenn had worked, were making. The females were very proud of their work, so, they liked to be called actors, and not actresses. They were waiting for a lift to the City and the Five Boroughs: Brooklyn, Queens, North Jersey, Staten Island, and the Bronx. They were all looking down at their cellphones, so, none of them noticed as Glenn gazed at a spaceship above them. It was for the film.

The spaceship was bright white, in the blue sky. None of the people had noticed, one reason was because it looked like a giant cloud. It had many circles that resembled excited faces. It was like a cloud of witnesses.

A young woman in the group reminded Glenn of a woman he knew, long ago. Like other women in Glenn’s life, she came and went, because Glenn was married, but separated from his beautiful wife. Since she had left him, he had been single. Alone, he had difficulty managing a household of two boys; work long hours raising cattle for three bosses; pursuing spiritual, artistic and entertainment endeavors with others; and maintaining a social life with friends and family. Glenn’s new trophy was to graduate to a better life, unlike others, like the Secular Humanists, who believed the prince of the power of the air’s lie: “Ye shall be as gods,”; and the Modern/Postmoderns, who heard the Truth, but didn’t completely obey him. Glenn was part of the True Believers, gifted both to know and to obey the Truth.

Glenn had been lonely since his wife had left him but he wasn’t too upset about it, anymore. He was close friends with two women and two men, and he worked on a steer farm that was full of life. He wouldn’t be distracted by the young woman waiting for the bus. And he was used to not often getting his way with his bosses, Yahway Von Heimburg, Joshua Davis and Shou Yu Wing. He remembered what Shou Yu once said. “I hear how you cry about how tough your life is… But with us, your life will be your prey; you can come and go as you please. Yahway is good to them that wait for him, to all those that seek him.”

“Even though it seems easy to stay in a safe place, like with Yahway, it’s human nature to want to stray like a lamb,” Glenn said to himself. “I can’t get involved with this woman.”

 

 

I ought to travel on, now
on every side, there’s evil
The lost are evil
because they’re not believing
‘Cause all must have faith of Lord Jesus
or you’re with Satan
the greatest waster

Sweet Jesus
please remember this:
how I obey you
Due to your great faith

My life could be my prey, here
but that is all I’m taking
We – all – are evil
but LORD, you’ll lead me, safely
Ambition’s a wasting pride but
soon, you’ll replace it
though I’ve been straying

Sweet Jesus
please remember this:
how I obey you
Due to your great faith, of course                                                                                  Due to your great faith

There’s evil all around us
Deliver us from evil
Oh, LORD, you’re evil
to all the unbelievers
since all must obey you, completely
your Lawbook states this
though they forsake it

Sweet Jesus
please remember this:
how I obey you
Due to your great faith, of course
Due to your great faith

 

 

None of the actors knew when Glenn had been transported to the spaceship. They didn’t notice as he disappeared, right under their noses.

Inside, the ship, Glenn relaxed. They weren’t going anywhere. They were so high in the West Jersey sky that they could see New York City. “We’re in a long holding pattern,” Glenn said.

No one was going anywhere for a while.