John McKernan Twenty Questions Do you want to become a Franciscan Sister Third Order Regular of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother Mary How about a gunfighter? A mercenary soldier? A Playboy Bunny? Would you eat the maggots mixed in with the rice? Are you still dying? Were you that skinny little kid in Omaha eating a hot dog looking at a thin gray cloud ? Were you digging up some of the deeper secrets of life? What are you willing to set fire to? What would you do at midnight in a woodshed? Are you willing to live your life as a cripple? Have you gathered the materials to build a bridge to the moon? Are you married or are you something else? Why don’t you try giving up breathing for a day? What makes you different from a crawdad? Where does all your yearning come from? Do you want to spread Allah’s compassion and mercy all over the sidewalks of New York? If you were a vegetable would you fear the gardener’s knife? What should that nun in first grade have told you beside the alphabet?

---