Mother reads the note again

It's too bad I was too preoccupied for NaDruWriNi last night, because I actually had an idea for a story yesterday morning. Although it's the kind of idea that kind of illustrates how having an idea for a story is not really the main thing about having a story. (Who was it who said that there's basically eight different stories ... or thirty, or six, or however many words the Inuit have for ice cream?) Because it's the kind of idea that on one hand is obviously not terribly original and on the other hand is really nothing apart from the details of its working out. Although, having just now googled "blind watchmaker" and seeing that it's actually the title of a Dawkins book and not the name for some kind of deist conception of God (although, I dunno, maybe it's still also that), maybe it's a little more original, or at least a little less archetypical, than I thought. Anyway, the idea came to me thinking about all the rain this year after the drought last year--the lake is around early summer level (at a time when it's normally nearing its yearly minimum due to the fall drawdown from the Hydro taking logs out of the dam down the river--at this time of year you can ponder what the lake would look like if there was no dam, what it would have looked like before there was a dam), you can hear the creek in the back of the bay from my dock as if it was spring runoff time, some of the smaller rivers are up over some of their lower banks, and we're getting lots more rain today. I thought, it's like God heard all these prayers for rain last year--like God is a god who doesn't know what's going on in the world apart from the prayers that reach him (and maybe some other second-hand reports, depending on how you work this out, and maybe this god is a bit dense or otherwise daft, or I dunno maybe not, maybe he's just bloody well doing the best he can, fumbling in the dark)--and so by God he sent rain this year and keeps on sending it. (Climate change, for instance, is answered prayers for nice weather (and, you know, since this is maybe an enlightened God who believes in climate science, he uses GHG emissions as the mechanism). And so forth. The road to hell is paved with well-intentioned prayers!)

Speaking of missives to God, I've just in the last couple of days paid some attention to Leonard Cohen's "You Want it Darker", and heavens what an appropriately Jewy way to go out it is. For ordinary Christians, you can't wrestle with God without worrying about starting blasphemous rumours.

And then there's mother! ... !

Currently at Havelock: 11.2.