Categories
Cosmography

Bunny!

A rabbit on the grass. Nothing unusual about that – except this is not a pet. It’s a completely wild rabbit, apparently the same one I caught on camera a week or so ago, but it let me get within a few feet. It’s either remarkably brave or just too young to have learned a fear of people yet. Or too stupid. Maybe it’s a dumb bunny. Either way I hope it sticks around.

Been a lot of encounters with wildlife recently. A mouse has been eating my nuts and fruit. So I set a trap for it, a humane one, baited it with cashews, and woke the next day to find it empty. Empty of mice, and of nuts. The trap is set off by balance, and the beast is so light it was getting in and out without setting it off. I modified it to make it more sensitive, and soon I had a cute little mouse in a box.

In fact over the last few days this has happened twice. So we either had more than one mouse, or I’m not releasing them far away enough.

Categories
Cosmography

An Alternative Easter

Abraham embraces his son Isaac after receiving...
"What the **** was that about, Lord?"

Eggs and rabbits, sex and death. Easter is weird. But then, the whole of Christianity has an odd feel to it. It’s the kind of eccentricity you only get when very different cultures meet and blend. A sort of… theological jazz. Greeks give the Jews the idea of the half-human demigod, Jews give the Greeks the idea of monotheism: Result, a god who is his own son. Which is pretty original, you must admit.

Another reason it’s strange is that it has such a satisfactory narrative. I mean, by mythological standards. It’s got structure, a beginning and an ending. A twist even. Like Judaism and Islam it really begins with Abraham, whom God told to sacrifice his son before relenting at the last moment. Weird in itself, but apparently just the stuff to start major religions rolling; keeps the audience off-balance I suppose.

But Christianity culminates with a dramatic reversal of this. Where before he’d demanded a son, now God sacrifices his to us. Yet instead of saying “Ha, had you going there!” at the very last opportunity, the humans just go right ahead and kill him. It’s the greatest of all surprise endings – the cavalry doesn’t make it. Humanity completely blows their one chance to return the favour God showed Abraham. It’s pretty shocking really. I’m imagining God the Father watching this unfold and shouting “Hey. Hey hold on there, I thought we had a deal.”

Wouldn’t that have been a better ending? A last-minute intervention by a stranger in the crowd. Christ is released. Everyone feels embarrassed and wanders away. The mysterious figure looks up into the sky and says, “OK, square now?” From then on, humanity and supernatural beings leave each other the hell alone.

I’m building the time machine as we speak.