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Joy in cherry commercial
Why I can say “Thy will be done”
and mean it
Sister Alma Rose and I were sitting on Sister Alma Rose’s big grass-green wraparound porch with Joy Brown, who has known Sister Alma Rose all her life, just as I have, except that Joy Brown is almost 30 and I am not even half that old.
Joy Brown used to live in Hilltop, but she moved to Los Angeles to be in films, and she got the first job she auditioned for, which was a pantyhose commercial, and then she was in a commercial for cherries, but she has risen fast in the “industry,” and she has just been cast as a supporting lead in a Major Motion Picture, which is a secret, and she can’t tell me who the famous stars are who are going to be in the movie, because everything is hush-hush, so I probably shouldn’t be telling you about it, but, oh well, too late now.
One of Joy's "publicity stills"
When she lived in Hilltop as a kid, Joy was one of Sister Alma Rose’s “disciples,” as I am, which, all that means is that we buy into Sister Alma Rose’s wisdom. She is our spiritual mentor, and we want to learn as much from her as we can, and besides we meet the most interesting and unusual people, most of them right here in Hilltop,who are Sister Alma Rose’s friends, plus she is fun to be with and she makes me feel safe, like Mama and Daddy do, only even more, because when she tells me that everything will be all right, she really knows, she’s not just saying that to make me feel better.
Me, Fanny McElroy
So Joy has come all the way from Hollywood to Hilltop just to talk to Sister Alma Rose. I am not officially part of the conversation, I just politely went to sit on the steps when I realized that Joy wanted to talk to Sister Alma Rose about something personal, though I can hear every word they say, and, no, I am not above eavesdropping, especially when I know that Sister Alma Rose and Joy wouldn’t really mind, they didn’t even ask me to leave.
Joy’s spiritual crisis
Joy's next job? Photo by Bidgee on Wikipedia
Joy is telling Sister Alma Rose that she is having a spiritual crisis because she can no longer say to God “thy will be done” and mean it. She has worked hard to get where she has got to in Hollywood, and people are always telling her how wonderful she is, which, she says, she is vain and insecure enough to lap that stuff up like a dog, and she is afraid that God’s will for her might not have anything to do with being a Major Motion Picture star, maybe God wants her to be one of those people who climb to the top of transmission towers to replace light bulbs, or something.
Without a word, Sister Alma Rose went into the kitchen and came right back out with something I had written once when Sister Alma Rose cured me of thinking I knew more about what was good for me than God did. And I did feel a little surge of pride, knowing that I had written something wise that Sister Alma Rose wanted to share.
Why I can say, ‘Thy will be done,’ and mean it
- Because the best things in my life have been surprises
- Because I really suck at manipulating and plotting
- Because I can’t see around the corners
- Because God can see around the corners
- Because I know a pinprick’s worth of all there is to be known in the universe, but God knows all of it
- Because if you are going where God (the Universe, Source, whatever) is leading you, there are signs and wonders along the way
- Because if you are going in the wrong direction, you must constantly struggle
- Because sometimes when I am running too fast in the wrong direction, I go off the edge of a cliff, like Wile E. Coyote, but Something catches me, and I do not make a Wile E. Coyote–shaped hole (or a Fanny McElroy–shaped hole) in the desert at the bottom of the cliff
- Because you might pretend to love, but real love is a gift from the Divine
- Because if God wants you to do something, God will, in God’s grace, make you passionate about that something, and it will be the thing that you do best and most want to do
- Because there is total freedom in surrendering
- Because when I try to Control Outcomes, (a) I get a bad headache and have to go to my room and lie down, and (b) it never works
- Because I can’t possibly love myself as much as God does
- Because sometimes it is the only power you have left
I am ashen-faced, my pulse is racing
Then the engine noises change; the plane
God is gracious; you arrive, and
Sister Alma Rose Has the Last Word 