If you haven't yet discovered “The Journal of Doubt”, hosted by Doubting Thomas, now is the time. His latest Essay Du Jour, The Shroud of Ernie, is a tour de force. I'm still smiling, what a great piece.

"This miracle began, as all miracles do, with all the participants unaware of the divine destiny they were about to fulfill. As everyone sat around the Dover Coal Mine break room, they discussed with this reporter the magical day when they discovered the Shroud of Ernie, the divine sign from heaven that has made this small company in Indiana a worldwide shrine for religious pilgrims..."

The story got me thinking. Do I believe in miracles, of course I do. Ernie and I are no strangers to miracles, years ago an aunt or uncle would tell a story about Ernie in the ceiling. The scene, a family get together, you know the ones everyone present grandma, grandpa, brothers and sisters and of course the kids. Dinner would be winding down the children getting restless when either the aunt or the uncle would begin. "Did you know there's a guy in the ceiling named Ernie?" You couldn't see Ernie, miracles you remember are invisible, but the storyteller would convince the kids he was there. Not only was he there but also he was mighty hungry. "Oh poor Ernie if he doesn't get some food soon he will probably starve" they'd say. The children would begin to quietly chant. This wasn't the first time they had heard the story of Ernie. What can we do, what can we do, and very quietly they'd be told that if they had any extra food they could just throw a little bit of it up to Ernie. Nothing like a little adult encouragement and well. Usually at this point Grandma would catch wind of what was going on, and a loud somewhat desperate, not in my house, would ring out. The children would threaten to carry out the good deed, with pleads of what about Ernie. You wouldn't want Ernie to starve would you Grandma. All great fun to be repeated the next time the family got together. I know, you're wondering if Ernie ever got fed up and I'm not sure if I can answer that, but I do recall what might have been a grease spot or two on the ceiling at Grandma's house.

Well little did I know that Ernie had a life outside of our family dinners, but indeed he did, and Thomas tells it quite well. I'm just wondering years from now if there will be some test devised to determine whether the stain was chocolate as Ernie claimed or ...

So follow the link and check in the archives forThe Shroud of Ernie cause there is little doubt Thomas is a very funny guy.