Cynthia Rylant: God Went To Beauty School

Ok, I got this on a whim--inexpensive, short...you never know when a short text may be called for.

I read the first poem and a little worry crossed my mind--what kind of religious book did I pick up??

Well, it is a great novella (all in verse) that spins a unique tale of God (however the reader sees that figure) and what he/she might be like.

I read it in the bathtub, the language is manageable, and it isn't very controversial--unless you are against different perspectives on deities. I am glad I have this for my shelves. It was fun to read, and it is always nice to think that a possibility exists that maybe some Omniscient thing never really wanted death/pain for the world, and there might just be a really good sense of humor and lonely being out there.

My FAVORITE:
God Got A Desk Job
Just to see what it
would be like.
Made his back hurt.
God's always had a
bad back anyway--
the weight of the world
and all that.
He thought His job was tough,
'til He sat at a desk all day.
It was torture.
He could feel the Light
inside Him grow
dimmer and dimmer
and He thought that
if He had to pick
up that phone
one more time,
He'd just start the
whole Armageddon thing
people keep talking about.
(Not His idea, not His plan,
but in a pinch, He's
sure He can come up
with something.)
The only thing that got
Him through to the
end of the day was
Snickers bars.
He ate thirty-seven.
Plus thinking about the Eagle Nebula
in the constellation Serpens.
That helped.
(Cynthia Rylant: God Went to Beauty School pgs. 39-40)