Cana Revisited

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Cana Revisited

Officer, this is my statement. I hope you've got somebody taking it all down, even though it'll read even crazier than it sounds. But I swear it's the truth.

The thing started yesterday around noon. I'm in this lunchroom with a cup of coffee on the counter and wondering about when I'd eat next. This cat comes in and sits down next to me. He's got on jeans, sandals, a peace medal and a beard - I mean he looks just like anybody else, see? The guy orders a cop of tea and starts talking to me. Says he just got in from Los Angeles. I tell him a little about the town and pretty soon the talk gets around to general topics. I ask what he thinks about the Viet Nam scene. He starts off slow and lays it on the line for about half an hour, no sh-- - excuse me, Officer. Anyhow, he's going on about peace all over, the end of wars and how everyone should be brothers and how there shouldn't be any draft cards for those poor slobs to burn. The man really has me psyched, believe me, I mean I'm in a trance taking in what he's puttin' down. I tell him my name. He says his father's Mexican, so he's stuck with some crazy tag like Hey-zoo or something. But I should call him Pancho, everybody does.

He asks me are there any Diggers around, he needs something to chew on and a place to flop. So I take him to see some guys I know, a couple blocks across town. There's about twenty guys who live in this bare four-room place, and they'll give you anything they have. On the way over Pancho starts telling me about God and Buddha and Zoroaster, and how they're all the same. He says how all religions, and even no religion at all, are all doors to the same place. It's really beautiful, you know, and I'd listen all day but we're at the place.

The guys feed Pancho and me out of this kettle of stew they keep going on the hot plate all the time. Pancho says he's changed his mind about wanting a place to sleep. He asks for a smoke and I hand him the whole pack. He tosses them back and walks over to the door and turns around facing us. He gets real serious then and gives out a lot of old-world talk about how he was hungry and we fed him, naked and we clothed him (although that wasn't strictly true) and I don't know what else. Then he takes off.

Anyhow, you guys have got me down here for possession of the Weed and I can't deny it since all those lab people say the stuff is really pot. All I know is, when I handed that pack to Pancho, it was full of just plain Chesterfields.

Pixiedust drawing: Dr. Agon

Take the Cana Challenge

As the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case goes to the Supreme Court, we mark the occasion with the generous offer of a no-copyright short story you can use for any purpose whatever.

This little experiment aims to find out how much free speech remains in America. Especially in schools. Also, it's a message to the anti-marijuana people who claim that Jesus would never approve of pot. We think it would have been very much okay with him.

If you skipped Sunday School, here's the background. One of the sweetest Bible stories about Jesus is how he went to a wedding at a place called Cana. The liquid refreshment ran short, so to keep the party going, Jesus changed ordinary water into wine - good wine, too.

In 1968, the story "Cana Revisited" was published in the literary magazine at a community college in Western New York. Here's the challenge:

The author of "Cana Revisited" invites you to take this story and adopt it as your own. Change the details to bring it up to date, or leave it set in the Sixties. And put it out there. Submit it to your school's literary magazine, or do anything else you can think of with it.

Just tell JJ what happens as a result.