This art featured in my memoir, Incandescence: Rising Above Darkness is included as a moment of serenity between chapters and does not necessarily have any literal connection to the story.
Incandescence: Rising Above Darkness Excerpt Chapter #49 The Crafty Christian And The Honest Atheist
A tropical island can be a place to repair and replenish. But at any watering hole, predators can be waiting. They are waiting to see the light of innocence leaking out of the holes abuse puts in the heart.
We should not judge people by what they believe, but by how they behave. Those who seek out the vulnerable by seeing their wounds are especially dangerous and vile.
“I went sightseeing with a man who is not who he represented himself to be, so I took off. I asked him to not contact me, and he won’t stop calling. He left some stuff in my car I want to get rid of.”
“I’ll handle it,” he said. “Just give me his number, and I’ll tell him to come get his shit!”
I handed the store owner the phone number and the grifter’s stuff. I held out a twenty, saying, “For your trouble.”
“I don’t want any money, and I don’t want to know your name,” he said with a sweet firmness.
“I knew you were a gentleman when I passed you and your dog the other day. When you call him he is going to try to run his shifty spiritual speak on you.”
“Won’t work on me. I’m an atheist.”
Clare Cooley
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