You'd Better Get Good at Playing God

My father would come home

Very late sometimes

Sometimes one or two

In the morning

And, how he liked

To run his house was--

His children could stay up

And wait for him

To get home from work

So that he could say ‘Goodnight’ to them

That was how

We often--my sister and I

Would end up

Awake

Long after

My mother had gone to bed

And everyone else

In the household

My father would come home

And we were to let him

Take off his coat

His shoes

Change into whatever it is

He would wear to bed

And then we’d go to his den

Sit down at his feet

And he’d tell us

About his day

Creating miracles

And, uh…

You have to understand

That before my father

Was a scientist

He grew up

In a very religious household

Nothing like

The household

He’d have us growing up in

But my father didn’t

Abandon his childhood

And the things he’d learned

He, uh, he grappled with it

With those things

He, every day, would deal

With an internal reckoning

And he would tell us

Each night

About how that reckoning

Was going

For him

Because, he would go to a lab

And he would do things

That only god

Was meant to do

The further along

His research got

The more, uh, the more incredible

Achievements he would, uh--

That he would

Come up with

The harder it became

For him to, uh…

Come home at night

And tell us

All about his day

But what he would

Impress upon us

Upon my sister and I

Was that there was no getting around

Playing god

Because we each

Each one of us

Move through this world

As god

Not just scientists

Not just the big

And powerful

All of us

We all go about our days

And as we do

A little godliness

Comes into it

But my father

He…

He took bigger steps

Than most

And so he had more

To reconcile with

As he grew older

He said to us once

As we were sitting at his feet

His two children

He looked at us

And said--

You’d better get good

At playing god

Because it was his feeling

That all this controversy

And all these questions

About whether one

Should or shouldn’t play god

Was a waste of time

We’re already there

It’s already happening

So we’d better get good at it

We’d better make sure

We’re getting it

Right