Marvin Ready

Marvin Ready was never ready and suffered under the jibes of his friends and family. “Never ready, Marvin Ready,” they would say; not understanding the pain, or the reason for never being ready. The root of never being ready lay in Marvin’s insecurity and self-doubt. “Shall I wear the brown shoes? or should I wear the black?” Marvin would say standing in the closet with a brown shoe in his right hand, and a black shoe in his left.

He would spend most of his life in his closet not knowing who he was, knowing only that he couldn’t decide and feeling strangely guilty. He missed his first love, and he also missed his last; standing in the closet asking, “The brown shoes, or the black?” He missed, he missed everything that mattered, or at least would have mattered if he had been like other people.

He missed his life, and he almost missed his death, for when he heard the angel of death call his name he was standing in his closet asking, “Should I wear the brown shoes? or should I wear the black?” But, Oh, the blessed relief when the angel of death called the second time, “Marvin, come as you are! Barefoot is just fine.”