Saint Augustine's Prayer

A Second Letter To My Brother, Whom I Call L'Innommable

19th November, 2009.

Speaking purely for myself, and who else can I speak for, I would be prepared to offer you an indemnity, if that is what you seek, in order to restore fraternal relations.

We must bear in mind that the truth is a double-edged sword, it cuts both ways. I would want an equal, opposite indemnification from you. Never ask anyone to give you something you are not prepared to give yourself. Let no one stand on their high horse.

'Girlie' said you are not asking for indemnification, I said you were. We don't understand what your letters mean, Girlie said you don't understand them yourself. Sentences without verbs are incomprehensible.

An agreement that neither of us would ever seek to take advantage of the other and would never give the other cause to seek justice against each other is agreeable to me, if that is what it takes to satisfy you. Each of us should be prepared to meet the other half way, to go the extra mile. I am. Are you?

All of us (and I include you in that number) should bear in mind that saying of our mother's, when you sup with the Devil, use a long spoon. Selling one's soul for a mess of pottage is a bad deal which, as a deal maker, you should know. A deal signed with the Devil is not worth the paper its written on, because the Devil only tells lies. Let us not treat each other as the Devil.

May our prayer not be Saint Augustine's one, Lord make me good, but not yet.

We have all had ample time over the length of our lives to demonstrate our humanity, and our time is not up yet, but may be shorter than we think. Let humanity prevail.

When we were 'conspiring' Girlie said we (including you) should sort it out around a table. I said that would not work. She said we should be Christian. Bishop (you know who I mean) said 'We do want to be Christian, we want to crucify him because of what he did to us'.

The law took its course. We (excluding you) literally danced in the street at the result.

Let us not crucify each other. I remind you of a time during the existence of our family firm when someone rang asking for one of the three of us by surname and it turned out to be Bishop they were asking for. I said 'There are three Mr. Whatever-our-names-are here'. Bishop said 'Three divine persons'.

Shall we show our divinity?

Speaking of our mother, her grave has lain unmarked for twentyseven years. As it appears to us, you had money and we had none, Mr. Moneybags. A burden shared is a burden halved, or divided by six in this case. Are you prepared to come in with the rest of us to erect a suitable memorial? It could be done through me costing, possibly, not as much as one thousand euros each. Please reply to this part of the message, if no other.

Not wishing to end on a mercenary note,

I remain,

Your loving brother,

Signing myself as,

Uncle Aesop