As a spur of the moment decision, we decided to drive down to a ranch in Curero, Texas owned by Houston’s parents. (Houston is my daughter, Kristina’s, hubby.) I think we kind of invited ourselves while having a random phone conversation with Kristina during our date night dinner. Oops.

I’m a country girl at heart and love the simpler things so being around cows and other wildlife was just up my alley. It’s cool, too, that I didn’t have to pick up after Bella’s poop. I mean, when your dog lays a jelly bean next to a cow patty as big as a dinner plate, you let it slide. 

Bella so wanted to run after the cows. She’d no sooner get within their range than she’d become goo to be cleaned from their hooves, so we had to keep her on a leash on our walks. Plus, there are tons of Mexican Eagles out there that would love to have her for a hors d’oeuvre (also know as “horse’s ovaries” to my mom) before chowing down on a rabbit.  

Houston’s parents, Lisa and Grant, are salt of the earth people. So genuine and easy to talk to. No wonder our son-in-law is so wonderful. We hope it’s only one of many weekends together. I hope your weekend was just as nice.

Enjoy our continuing conversation with Judas!

Me: Erik, what’s up?

Robert: Hair dryer!

Robert laughs. I do my WTF face.

Me: What are you talking about?

Robert: I don’t know.

Me: Are you making a reference to my hair?

Erik (laughing): No, I just told Robert to make sure he said that.

Robert: Well that’s just the craziest thing.

Me: All this moisture from the rain and all this heat is making my hair look like Donald King’s. It’s what my hair looks like if I tried to blow dry it. It poofs all up.

Robert: Do you use a hair dryer?

Me: No, because when I do it makes my hair look the way it does now.

Robert: You should have had me say “wall socket,” Erik.

Me: Yeah, really! So you want to finish up with Judas? Can you get him back here, Erik?

Erik: Sure.

Robert: He calls him “Jude.”

I start singing “Hey Jude” much to my own embarrassment.

Now Robert joins in.

Judas enters.

Judas: I hope you’re pleased with what I relayed to you yesterday.

Me: Oh yes! And I hope we shed some truth on your story today, too, for your sake. I guess you don’t necessarily care, now that you’re in spirit.

Judas: I don’t, really.

Robert chuckles.

Me: Okay, let’s talk about your relationship with the other disciples.

(Long pause)

Judas: I’ll talk about the disciples in general. We were only together when we were with Christ. In other words—

Me: During Christ Time.

Judas: Yes. When we were together in that function. Very few of us were involved with each other’s lives and families outside of that.

Robert: He gives me the impression that their association was mostly professional.

Me: Like coworkers showing up in the office and not hanging around for the TGIF party after work.

Robert: Yes.

Judas: There wasn’t a lot of gossip between us—not that I was aware of.

Robert and I laugh.

Robert: It makes me think he’s wondering whether any of them were talking behind his back!

Me: Really! Was there one that you liked or respected more than the others?

Robert: He brought up the name John. Is he a disciple?

Me: Yeah. What did you like or respect about him?

Judas: John exuded a confidence that I didn’t always have in myself. This is why I spoke so freely at times. I had this anxiety.

Me: Nervous chatter?

Judas: Yes.

Me: Filling the awkward silences.

Judas: Yes. One could say that I wasn’t very grounded in the physical world, and that made me talk all the time without thinking about what I was saying or whether I should say it. John was not that way. He is not that way. He will give his honest perspective of you, and he would put it in a way that was not intended to hurt your feelings, but it did on occasion.

Me: Okay. Were there any that you didn’t get along well with?

Judas: No.

Me: Oh, that’s good. Do you feel the disciples channeled the Bible or was some of it of their own creation through their filters and opinions?

Judas: Paul—

Robert: Paul must have written some of the Bible, I guess.

Judas: Paul is very opinionated about what he feels is right and wrong, and he had strong opinions about societal roles including male and female ones in particular. In my opinion, much of what he contributed to the Bible was from his own personal belief system.

Me: But Jesus said there is no right or wrong.

Judas: Well, in the physical world and its definitions.

Me: Oh okay.

Paul enters to defend himself!

Paul: But –

Robert: Paul looks very opinionated!

Me: Paul came in?

Robert: Yes, he’s here.

Paul: –in the grand scheme of things, everything that is said by anyone, regardless of whether it’s a personal belief, it gives others the ability to think and choose for themselves. Then that perpetuates our evolution as a species.

Me: Well a lot of very religious  take everything in the Bible as fact rather than thinking about it and making their own choices. That’s not evolution.

Paul: But those people, in their non-thinking, are examples to other people that maybe they should think. They’re being an example for other people in whether they should have the same mindset or another.

Me: Oh, okay.

Paul: Many times, things that create disharmony are there because the potential for it was already in us. Someone has to bring it to the surface for others to become aware that others are that way or that they are themselves.

Me: And did you do that? Did you bring that out?

Paul: That was my mission.

Great save, Paul.

Me: Did you know that at the time?

Paul: No. When I was writing, I wasn’t conscious of my motives for it.

Me: All right. Thank you for coming in!

Paul gives a little head bow and leaves.