I am never sure these days if I am losing my mind or finding it, I suppose I will never really know and will have to leave the judgement to others. This morning, as I was entering my study, and the sun broke through a sky that had been cloudless for days, it landed right on a tissue upright in a tissue box we brought downstairs, Maria and I are both recovering from colds. The tissue suddenly seemed animate to me, touched by the light of God, if such a thing is possible. Since I am not sure what God is, I can only ask the question, not raise it.

We live in a culture where almost everyone seems sure about what God is, and what politics is, and what animals are, and I think only Pope Francis and I are scratching our heads about the epidemic of absolute truth these days, I can always use some help with humility, and life is strange and wonderful for a Catholic Pope and me to be seeing some of the world in the same way. I suspect in a very curious way that Pope Francis will reach the same conclusion I have, people seem to want absolute truth and prefer it to the alternative, which is tolerance and uncertainty. Even a Pope comes nose to nose with the reality of human nature.

I understand that this is what people need, it must be quite wonderful to understand precisely what God is and to know whether or not he could point his finger at the tissue box – like those aliens who touch people’s brains in the X-Files – and light it up. I thought for a moment that this was a beautiful thing, that the tissue was whispering to me, was about to conduct a holy chorus, I felt something, an  implosion of light and feeling. But then the light shifted, and it seemed the tissue was just a tissue again, and I looked at this image and debated putting it up. How strange, Jon is thinking God is involved in a tissue. But then, I always say there is beauty everywhere, it is my job to look for it. My camera is my secret friend, we are two big and clunky things on a mission.

I kept looking at the tissue all day, I think it was meant to do more than wipe a nose.