"God is good,...

...God is great, thank you God for this food on our plate."

I was not accustomed to saying Grace before meals while growing up (or since, for that matter) so that little ditty, probably learned at a Boy Scout camp or some such place, is about all I have to offer if somebody is unwise enough to ask me to lead the table in saying a prayer of grace.

I've been thinking a lot about God lately, perhaps because I am at that stage of life where our meeting is imminent (I'm thinking not more than 40 years or so from now, maybe 50, tops). But God is a controversial figure and not easily understood; wars have been fought (maybe still are being fought?) in the name of God! A local theologian recently wrote a column in the paper which included this: "I do not know who or what God is. Nor do I know what God purposes in giving us being." So that's the thing - NOBODY knows who or what God is! Some would say, and they may be right, that there is NO God. So I have a suggestion to resolve all of the controversy and uncertainty about God: we simply add an "o" so "God" becomes, literally, "Good".

Think about it - who doesn't like Good? Every religion has prescriptions for doing "Good works", and even atheists, as far as I know, want to do good deeds. So let's just replace "God" with "Good" and live our lives accordingly. "One nation under Good" works very nicely, I think. The whole "God versus the Devil" thing reduces down very nicely to "Good versus evil", where Good is always the right choice. How about, "In Good we trust" - that has a nice ring to it, don't you think? "Praise Good!" - I definitely think that I am on to something here.

So there you have it - if we all start doing things "in the name of Good" the world could be a better, happier place. Now if we can all just agree on the definition of "Good" (let's start with this - it's not all about me, or you)...

"For the love of Good" - see, it works in any phrase where God is invoked. We disagree on who God is or if there even is one, but we all agree on Good, don't we?

I'd like to buy a vowel please, Alex - an "o" to add to "God".