"Absolutely not," I immediately respond already on the defensive. "I hate 'em all!"
A moment of awkward silence follows.
I hear muffled noises through the phone when he says, "Trish wants to talk to you."
Trish DePriest runs the Congressman, his office, services his entire constituency, can get a Passport in a nanosecond and is funny as Hell!
"Micheal," she says in her long Southern drawl, "you can't say no."
"I already did," I reply.
She laughs this delightful musical rain of joy into the phone.
Trish laughs better than anyone I've ever known.
We have a great relationship!
The Congressman makes promises he cannot keep so Trish is employed to see what she can do to clean up his messes.
She calls me to house a mentally ill person with AIDS who just tried to kill his mother because ... he votes Republican.
On the other hand, I call Trish when I'm out of the country and my passport's expiring and I'm not ready to return.
"Micheal," she says in her long Southern drawl, "there's no nice way to say this. Get your ass home now. I'll get you a new passport when you come to see me. It'll cost $75 extra for processing."
"Well," she laughs, "why can't you pray before Congress and what am I supposed to tell Jack."
"You've been to Congress right?"
Laughter rains again before she asks, "What am I supposed to say?"
"I don't know," I fire. "Tell him the Rapture's occurred and y'all are left behind."
A thunderstorm of laughter burst through the phone which makes me laugh because Trish DePriest knows how to make people feel better.
"He's going to be mad at you," she giggles.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I answer.
So I didn't pray standing in front of Congress though God knows they need prayer.
So I tell you that to tell you this.
I've been asked to ask the City of Tybee Island if I can pray before a City Council meeting.
I can hear Trish laughing all the way from wherever she is.
At the same time it could be fun.
"Dear Lord, thank you for another pompous gathering of people who believe they are you ..."
Hmmm ... I need to call Trish.
I might do it this time.
