Although they may at times seem sacrilegious, I think there is something beautiful in the blatantly honest "prayers" that Jim Casy tells when asked to do so. He does not try to cover up his true thoughts with pretty words that mean nothing to him. He just says what is on his heart with brutal honesty and forgets everything else. That is the beautiful things about him no l onger just trying to please people and God with nice words; he says what is really going on in his mind.
Most people try to talk people's lives up at their funeral so that they look like better people. I find Jim Casy's funeral speech a lot more refreshing:
"Casy said solemnly, 'This here ol' man jus' lived a life an' jus' died out of it. I don' k now whether he was good ro bad, but that don't matter much. He was alive, an' that's what matters. An' now he's dead, an' that don't matter. Heard a fella tell a poem one time, an' he says "All that lives is holy." Got to thinkin', an' purty soon it means more than the words says. An' I wouldn' pray for a ol' fella that's dead. He's awright. He got a job to do, but it's all laid out for 'im an' theres on'y one way to do it. But us, we got a job to do, an' they's a thousan' ways, an' we don' know which one to take. An' if I was to pray, it'd be for the folks that don' know which way to turn. Grampa here, he got the easy straight. An' now cover 'im up and let 'im get to his work.
Being a Christian myself I am under the impression that God much prefers when you talk to him in a streamline of thoughts like that anyway. He would rather know you and what is on your mind then hear you drone on about things that mean nothing to you with words that are simply memorized or used for show. So without even realizing, Jim Casy has stumbled across something very important, and that is being in a more personal relationship with his savior.
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