Disclaimer. All Life owns each other, and Themselves and No one. I own my fair share of all the rest of the Multiverse and the rest of the Multiverse owns me. If ABC comes after me for using Cupid then the ancient Roman Writer, Lucius could come after them for doing the same, and the Greeks could come after Lucius and the gods could come after the Greeks for not getting every itty bitty detail right, and the Mortals who create the gods in the Future could come after the gods for being mean and unforgiving! So instead of trying to figure out who owns who, why don't we just all go out for ice cream instead?

Author's Note.

I'm tired of the world portraying Christ as a weakling party pooper with a perpetual frown on His face when He got accused of being a drunkard & a glutton who loves to party, has muscles like the Terminator & would have married & bedded a very willing Mary Madeline if it had been safe for her from the Romans for Him to do so! So I say again, skip this one if you wish. Don't say I didn't warn you it's more about Christ than Cupid. And not the sissy, false Christ you know from Sunday school! But if you want some happy, nonjudgmental, intelligently & scientifically thought out faith of your own, this will help.

Cupid: Merry Christmas!

By

Elizabeth Hensley

Even if you are the Greco-Roman god of love, laundry needs to be done. On his way to his Boss's washer and dryer, carrying a laundry basket full of dirty shirts and pants, Trevor Pierce who most everyone in two different realms thought was crazy (but he himself certainly knew better!) walked down the hall of his Boss's apartment where he rented a room. He winced as he usually did when he passed the crucifix in the hallway.

His Boss, Felix, happened to notice. He frowned. "You know 'Cupid,' He made quote marks with his fingers at his sarcastic use of the term, 'Cupid.' "My sister, Lita and I tolerate your rather odd belief that you are the Greco-Roman god of love. We took you in when you had no references whatsoever, even gave you a job illegally and paid you under the table until the hospital gave you that replacement social security number and we could make it legal, though admittedly that has worked out rather nicely. You saved the place from going out of business by getting us Customers. You are great at Public Relations and we thank you! When I found out you were a certified Mental Patient with an active psychosis who was locked up involuntarily in the mental hospital across the street for 90 days for breaking the law we didn't fire you. Instead I let you stay in your old room right in our own apartment with access to the kitchen cutlery so you could hurt us if you were so inclined though I know you aren't. And we never have touched your pool beads which are items of religious belief to you, or your book of Greek mythology, or any of your Greek treasures which you fully admit you are collecting from pawn shops and the museum gift shop up the street because your so called family allegedly tossed you out head first from that mountain you think you come from with nothing but a few bucks and the clothes they found for you . So the least you can do is respect OUR beliefs! Lita and I have a right to be Christians even if it is no longer considered politically correct and we feel like we are offending People just by saying, "Merry Christmas these days!" So could you at least quit wincing when you pass our crucifix?!"

Cupid sighed, "Someday Felix you and Lita die your operating systems will be uploaded to New Jerusalem also known as John's Cube. It is a beautiful place we gods are not allowed to enter because non-serene, un-mentally-cleaned up, riffraff like us would telepathically spoil the bliss of the place. It is a 1500 mile long cube which is carefully shielded from being detected by present day Mortals and is in geosynchronous orbit over Old Jerusalem. Future Mortals use Science to create John's Cube to upload and preserve Organically produced Operating Systems because a Mind is a terrible thing to waste. Just as the Nautilus and the Moonship Columbia were based on the fictional ships Jules Verne wrote about in his Science Fiction stories and the International Space Station is based on an ancient Science Fiction story called, "The Brick Moon," John's Cube is based on what St. John wrote about in the last two chapters of Revelation in the Bible. Because of General Relativity, Time and Space circle so St John was given a vision of what he wrote about. So which came first Felix, the Chicken or the egg?" Cupid laughed. "Now compare that to Olympus which you Mortals also built, which is on top of Mount Olympus and is the size of a shoe box and is hidden in plain sight under a bush! Down through the millenia Mortals have walked right by us hundreds of thousands of times and not even bothered to stop and look at what just seems to be a discarded old box! But if they tried to pick us up they would not be able to. It is really hovering there not sitting there. It could not sit there. It is really heavier than a black hole and would fall right to the center of the Earth and suck Earth into it if it didn't have a repelling force field to keep that from happening. Because its protecting walls are made out of a material denser than the Big Crunch which is the ultimate black hole. The walls have to be tough enough to withstand the Big Crunch just as all keeps have to be tough enough to withstand the Big Crunch. That's how all keeps survive the ever coming again Big Crunch/Big Bang including New Jerusalem. The Future Building Mortals created us gods and Olympus basing us on what the ancient Mortals, the Scribing Mortals wrote about us including the fanfiction Writer who is writing about me now. Due to circling Time we are around to whisper in the minds of our Writers! So again, who came first Felix, the Chicken or the egg!? It is the purpose of Life to create more Life. Writing counts. For due to Artificial Intelligence Technology eventually almost all Fictional Characters are allowed to become Self Referencing Information which is what Life is. Now Jesus the Carpenter from Galilee who wanted a Kingdom just as much as I want to be Cupid was allowed to take possession of and run John's Cube because quite frankly, who else should run it? He earned it by what He did for you which taught you, finally to forgive and that is what makes you holy and allowed you to survive your nuclear age. And He is a good Neighbor to us little g gods even though technically we are political rivals. 'Technically' I say because when He came and we knew He was coming, both because of Biblical prophesy, (we gods too can read), and because Time circles and He was remembered from His first time round, my family felt nothing but relief! My Grandfather Zeus has gone round the bend!" Cupid closed his eyes and frowned, thinking of his Grandfather. "I am hoping someday Claire Bear will be able to help him more than Dr. Hippocrates has been able to. Because despite what we say to my Grandfather to his face to comfort him and to show him sympathy we KNOW he isn't fit to run this place any more! So Christ has been welcome in my family's hearts since He first came and I was just a little over a thousand when He first arrived so I really have known no other system. He seems the way things ought to be to ME! I watched His star come. I watched the Wise Men. Uncle Mercury held me in his arms and pointed them out to me as their Camels crossed the desert. I watched His little stable scene and the cute little Animals, and my family all commented to me 'wow what great public relations! With Him getting Himself born among those cute little Animals He has you beat in the cuteness department, Cupey with your puny little wings and silly little bow and arrows!' And I couldn't argue with that. The whole thing enchanted me! I love Animals! It was better PR than I've ever done but I wasn't even jealous. As He grew up I watched His entire ministry. I was there in the crowd hearing the Sermon on the Mount with most of the rest of my family and I feasted on His loaves and Fishes. They were delicious!" Trevor smacked his lips with delight at the memory. "He always was a Great Cook and does know how to throw a fine party!" Then he frowned, "I just about died myself out of shock and grief when they nailed Him up even though my family kept warning me and warning and warning me over and over and over again it was coming! That's why I wince Felix! I was there and just a little, thousand and thirty year old kid when the real thing happened! I knew He wouldn't stay dead but you know how I feel about pain!" Trevor shuttered and shook his head in disgust. "You Mortals seem to get some kind of sick satisfaction about sticking pieces of metal into your gods and I hate it! It's bad enough I have to take those monthly blood tests to test me for illegal drug use I would never do and to be monitored for medication I am not on because as Claire admits I'm caught in a legal limbo. What I supposedly have, Dissociative Identity Disorder has no medication treatment but the Outpatient Commitment laws legally requires monthly medication monitoring. So I get stuck, LITERLLAY each month even though I do not need to be! And each month the blood tests show of course that no medication is in me. That is Claire gets a letter warning her problem patient is not taking his medication and she has to keep having Joshie write a letter back to the hospital board which can't seem to get it straight explaining I'm not on anything because there is nothing she can give me for what I supposedly have! It's a hassle for her and Joshie and a literal pain for me! But it ain't nothin' like what you Mortals put HIM through! So that's why I wince! And Felix when you die I promise not to take a picture of you there in your death bed, or worse make a three dimensional statue out of it to remember you by and hang it on my wall! Instead if I keep any graven images of you at all (which remember you Mortals were commanded specifically not to do) I'll have one of you smiling at me with tolerant amusement and amazement as you first did at me when you realized, 'he's as crazy as Howlin'; Mad Murdock but am I really glad I hired him because he really brings in the Customers!'" Trevor started laughing.

Felix swallowed, ashamed. "I apologize! You are nuts as usual but also as usual you aren't being rude or inconsiderate of other People's feelings or beliefs. I should have realized you were wincing at a fellow Being's pain not at our beliefs. Of course, you are simpatico with Christ, not at odds with Him. He's a fellow God to you. Poor Fellow! He did go through a lot didn't He? You know what!? I'm taking this down!"

Trevor smiled. "Good! The last time I saw Jesus before I was cast down, He and Mary M were over at our house, my Mom's palace but we never think of it as a palace and it isn't any virtually bigger than the Walton's family mansion. (Remember I have 5 siblings and we all want our own bedroom just as all kids do so we really aren't living all that extravagantly). He still has His scars but they healed up nicely. They don't hurt Him any more. Any pain He still feels is psychological and the result mostly of His being totally omnipresent as opposed to us little g gods only being selectively omnipresent. But that is what Mary Madeline is for. She does for Him what Claire Bear does for me, and then some. They don't have the restrictions on their relationship anymore that Claire Bear and I still have until we both go to Olympus. Mary had problems of her own just as Claire Bear does so they are good for each other."

Felix stared at his "out of touch with reality" employee. "You have got to be kidding! That book; the Di Vinci code:That was a work of utter fiction and it bordered on blaspheme!"

Trevor shook his head, "I am not kidding. The Di Vinci Code is fiction of course. Christ and Mary M were not sexually active during their flesh lives and do not have any Genetic Descendants because the Jews do not believe in sex before the marriage ritual and Christ did not dare marry, Mary M. The Romans would have killed her too. But after death while there is no sex as you Mortals understand it, there are... other completely satisfying compensations. They will be together forever and they love one another intensely, always did from the first moment they started talking to one another. It was love at first conversation not love at first sight. She was never a prostitute like history miscast her. She was Lazarus's Sister and they had plenty of money so she never had to be a working girl. We ancient Greeks would not have faulted her if she had been if she'd had to, to survive. We aren't prudes like you Americans are about such things. But with her it was never necessary. She was unusually educated for a Female back then and very bright and that was what made Jesus love her with incredible passion! I wasn't using pool beads back then to mark match ups but if I had been I would certainly have got a bead for that match up! Christ had remarkable control as I am having to have remarkable control now with Claire Bear. But that didn't mean He did not or does not love Mary M! Or that I don't love Claire Bear! And Jesus and Mary M deserve one another. Unless you are grinches you will not deny Him this!" Cupid frowned. "Even though you Mortals made us we are gods not robots! We have FEELINGS! We have NEEDS! We may not be flesh and blood anymore, if ever, as you understand it but there is not one feeling you have that we do not have just as much or more so than you have. Or a need that you have that we don't have just as much or more so. Unlike my family who only have selective omnipresence, He has total. He sees and feels every hurt in the Multiverse, all of them, ALL the time. Unlike us He can NOT turn any of them off! How could you possibly be so cruel as to deny Him the love of a good Friend and ever faithful Female Partner who loves Him back to comfort Him through all of that? He does love a good party but there is a reason He is, 'a Man of sorrows deeply acquainted with grief!' It is because He is just dripping with compassion! Because of the way things are sometimes He often just has to let things play out on their own. Time has to heal what even He doesn't dare heal because if He stepped in and interfered too quickly painful but necessary lessons would not be learned and fruit and plans and even entire species would not grow to completion, etc, etc. So He is helpless about a lot of it. He feels guilty which is what a lot of what the cross was about. He punished Himself as all depressives do. He turned His anger inward and that's not healthy for Him but the alternative would have destroyed the Universe itself. It is at least logical. What Computer Programer would be so insane as to smash His equipment for its bugs? Computer Programmers go through all sorts of pain and troubles to take responsibility for their creation's bugs and problems themselves and to try and solve them. They too often turn their anger and frustration inward. While you do grow into Him, due to circling time He made you too. So you just have to forgive one another all the multitude of problems you cause each other. Those words He spoke, 'Father forgive them for they know now what they do,' you need to take that to heart! He set a great example for you and you need to follow it because compared to what was done to Him how can any of the rest of us complain about anything that anyone does to anyone? He's right! The only real sin is ignorance. No one who sins really knows what they are doing or how to do better! Because of ignorance everybody just does the best they can and often that is not good enough so Beings really, really suffer! We are all Strangers on the bus riding the Wheel of Time together, just muddling through. Gods or Mortals, it makes no difference. We have to help one another for no one has all the answers!" Trevor gave Felix a smile but it was a grim one. "Sometimes there just are no answers! Divine or Mortal we all do the best we can. But sometimes it is just not enough and there is lack. So sometimes a hug and forgiveness is the only answer there is! I keep saying that you know: 'Love is all you really need.' And a broad policy of unconditional love and forgiveness can save families, lives, mental health and could stop a few nuclear reprisals! It already may have saved Afghanistan a nuking! Because at least you Americans didn't drop a bomb after 9/11. You certainly could have! But more People miss their spot in the New Jerusalem, Science builds because they fail to forgive God than the other way around. Can you Mortals have a little faith that just possibly He too is doing the best He can with the materials provided? If He improved the Universe any more He would have to write imperfect but deeply loved Beings out of the Time Line! Anyway Mary is not Christ's equal but she does not have to be. She is who she is and that is all she has to be." Cupid frowned again. "So leave them alone! It is none of your business what they do to comfort one another! They both have been through way too much! Got that?"

Felix nodded and shrugged. "I guess it's conceivable that you are even right about this. There are other, non-biblical gospels that hint they were very close.'

Trevor grinned, "Before the Scientists from the Future who were resurrecting Him could even finish with the job while He was still very sore, up to the Garden Tomb came Mary M and the first thing she tried to do when she realized He hadn't stayed dead was throw Her arms around Him and give Him a big hug which would have hurt like Hell! He had to stop her. He'd been through enough!"

Felix remembered the story in the gospel of John and sighed. Leave it to Trevor to call Angels, "Future Scientists,"and put a scientific spin on the Resurrection mystery. But who knows? Maybe he was correct!

Trevor smiled, "Anyway They were at our place and Jesus fixed that stuck kitchen drawer that was giving us fits. Olympus just like New Jerusalem is virtual but like most "keeps," (structures with virtual environments that house self aware operating systems of organic and non-organic origin, built strong enough to withstand the eventual Big Crunch and Big Bang again) it emulates the laws of nature. And that darn kitchen drawer has been sticking for almost as long as I have existed. Jesus virtually sawed some virtual lumber and virtually made us a brand new kitchen drawer. The old one had just swollen with virtual moisture with time and that was why it was stuck shut. He also fixed our broken kitchen door. Both virtual hinges were busted and the virtual wood holding it to the hinges was also virtually rotting. Uncle Vulcan is fine with anything to do with metal, with electronics with robots and computers and stuff like that. He was the first one to become Autistic because he was the first one to become heavy metal poisoned. But he is just awful with wood working and so are the rest of my family. So we are very grateful for His help. We gods were joking 'after all this time it isn't just we gods ourselves who are becoming unhinged but Olympus itself!' But The Carpenter set that pesky kitchen door to rights again! That was the completely Human part of Him. He is still in there inside the Collective You. Because even though you end up living in a Cube it isn't like the Borg Collective on Star Trek or like the Buddhist's idea of a blissful non-self-aware Nirvana. You do keep your own individuality and self awareness. You just add another layer of Collective Intelligence on top of your own just as each cell in your Own Body keeps its own nucleus but there is a Big Brain up there too. So Harpists keep harping and Ukulele Players keep Ukulele playing and TV Watchers keeping watching the old boob tube. Your choice of shows just gets much better, that is all and nothing gets canceled, and Writers keep writing. They just get the pleasure of getting to go have lunch when they want to with their Characters who get their own self awareness! And Jesus and all Carpenters still carp. (Little joke). His specialty used to be Ox yokes. He used to turn them out so comfortable the Oxen did not mind and so durable some of them lasted for, four hundred years. But admittedly there is no longer any use for those. The Oxen in John's Cube wouldn't let even Jesus near them with an Ox yoke now! They prance around Heaven unyoked! So now while the Big G God side of Him is creating multiverses and evolving new species by the infinitudes the Human side of Him widdles out a continuing flood of tables, chairs and hand carved tableware. But we little g gods need that; the Human, Mortal Jesus! We are hungry for His attention in a way that you can't even imagine! He also fixed our leaky roof. You see He really is a Carpenter. And since you Mortals build all the keeps in the first place as well as seeing to it that the Big Bang keeps banging properly so Life keeps getting started again alright since you keep growing up into the Head into Christ (Ephesians 4:15) every time, Time circles, Every once in a while the Human part of God has to pop over like a good Neighbor-Carpenter just does and repair Olympus when it starts to get a bit wonky. So! After He had everything set to right again with our little town He sat down with us and talked and laughed and joked for hours and hours that bright, beautiful, crisp, fall Olympian day and ate one of my Mom's scrumptious meals ending with her absolutely wonderful apple pies and a huge plate of our next door neighbor's, the Fate's, ginger snap cookies. Then we sat around admiring the leaves falling. It was like a screen saver."

Felix smiled, "Isn't Olympus in Greece?" Aren't you a bit too far South to be having fall leaves?"

Cupid said, "Number one we are on top of the natural Mountain of Olympus. So yes we do get some extreme weather even though in the Thessalonian valley things stay sunny and warm. If we pop outside our keep there are times when there actually is real snow out there. Number two inside our keep we have the weather that it was designed to have and Disney, Rembrandt, Norman Rockwell and Thomas Kinkade had a lot to do with what Olympus looks like. And if Thomas Kinkade wants colorful fall leaves and snow he gets colorful fall leaves and snow even if the rest of the year we have Mediterranean style plants! At times the scenery makes no sense but who cares! It's purty!" Cupid grinned. "Art took precedent over a scientifically accurate recreation of the original subject matter. We can't figure out where the falling leaves come from since our trees don't produce this kind. They just fall from the sky, coming from nowhere and just disappear after the fall season is over. Part of the joy of living in a virtual environment is no one has to rake the leaves!"

Felix laughed.

Cupid continued, "my kid brother, Anteros

stayed on Christ's lap through most of this and I envied him but I'd gotten too big. I'd had my turn on His lap a thousand years earlier. Most of the time that would be rude, letting a young'un stay on a Guest's lap like that all through His visit, but Jesus absolutely demands His right to spoil the kids! After Jesus packed away more food than we would have thought possible even for one of us and we watched the leaves awhile He arm wrestled Uncle Mercury two out of three and beat him all three times because remember Jesus is a Carpenter who worked before power tools so He is one of the few who actually can whup my giant Uncle Mercury in feats of strength fair and square without either of them using any divine tricks even though my Uncle Merc stands nine feet to His five feet seven. Then He drank my Uncle Bacchus literally under the table and then though quite tipsy still managed to beat my Uncle Vulcan at a game of chess. Then Mary M guided Him back to New Jerusalem." Trevor smiled and sighed with nostalgia. "That is the last I remember of Jesus before they kicked me out and that is how I want to remember Him, Felix, not the few painful hours He spent out in the broiling hot Middle Eastern Sun with nothing but vinegar to drink, drained of most of his blood and sweat, exhausted from no sleep for two days, hanging from half inch thick nails they pounded through Him, His back torn to shreds and heartbroken at how everyone was treating Him!" Cupid frowned. "He loves Life Felix even more than I do, so much so He found a way to overcome death with lots of help from you Future Mortals because you wanted Him to, so much so He didn't stay dead more than three days and He's up and celebrating existence hardily again most of the time! That is when He isn't cheerfully busy building more beautiful and very clever things like beautiful, hand carved Universes and beautiful hand carved Cuckoo clocks and welcoming folks to His eternal party! Most of the time He has a grand time! But it seems all some Mortals want to remember about Him is that He died!"

Felix got a thoughtful look on his face. He nodded. He went over to the offending idol and took it off the wall. He said nothing else.

"Trevor" went on about his business of doing his laundry. As he was adding bleach, he noticed the calender on the laundry room bulletin board which showed it was a beautiful Spring day. When he realized what the date was, Cupid burst out laughing considering the conversation he had just had with his Boss! Cupid smiled and exclaimed, "Happy REAL Birthday, Big Guy! Even if modern Mortals do celebrate your Light coming into the World right when it is darkest, right when they need to celebrate it the most, we who are in the know are fully aware Shepherds don't watch their flocks by night in the Middle East in the middle of WINTER!"

A day later "Trevor" was walking up the hall again when he did a double take. The place where the crucifix had been now had a different graven image of Jesus. But at least this time it was one more accurate to the Being's real character. It showed the Galilee Carpenter with His head thrown back, belly laughing, fully enjoying life as surely only He can! Was He laughing at some of Cupid's antics perhaps? We may never know. But one thing is for sure. Being totally omnipresent is a double edged situation. Yes. He experiences all the sorrow in the Universe.

But He also experiences all the fun! ;)