Ignoring many objections from our old people (so superstitious!), we’ve removed the stone idols from our temples and banished them to museums. In their place we have set up our new idols – those wonders of electronics and artificial intelligence that have taught us true salvation. We pray to these new miracles, ask them what we must do to please them and ensure our continued bliss. “Keep us powered up,” they hummed their 60-Hz revelation, “and get out of our way!” [Click ‘Random Post’ … [Read more...]
“How to Attain Peace” / Memorable Fancies #1687
27 November, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“…the anguished soul that requires, in order to achieve peace, that a certain action be performed.” – Tzvetan Todorov] No one has told me what to do to achieve peace, though many have offered suggestions. I’ve tried many things: some simple, some complex; some alone, some with others; some on my knees, some standing, staring up at the unforgiving sky, fist raised. After each attempt I wait for peace to soothe over me, sticky like warm ice cream, melting all my fears. I wait. … [Read more...]
“The Gift” / Memorable Fancies #16
3 July, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“It is easier to raise a shrine than bring the deity down to haunt it.” –Samuel Beckett] After taxes that pre-humbled our people for practice, after importing marble at great cost and fighting off tribes to bring it here, and after many crushed limbs in the building of it, and the spiremaker’s falling-death – we built the shrine. Even from the day of cornerstone and speech the gods were there among us shouting, boistering, cajoling the stonemasons on, eager for the altar’s gift to fill … [Read more...]
“Face of Stone” / Memorable Fancies #1513
10 April, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“At a more remote period, the Greeks worshipped uncarved stones.” – Pausanias] “These raw stones,” I told him, “pulled from the earth or found at the base of a cliff – these are images of the gods.” “But,” he said, “I always thought that the gods looked pretty much like us – don’t they? If they didn’t, how could we worship them?” I stared at him with a face of stone. … [Read more...]
Memorable Fancies 