THAT DAY

I reread "Perelandra", by C.S. Lewis, about a second Eden in danger of corruption by a snake of a guy from Earth. Lovely beginning--a lyrical description of the strangest landscape Lewis ever envisioned. The guy sure can write. And then... his Christian agenda creeps in, twists it, turns nasty. It's the serpent in Eden--poisons his own book! By the end his hero's bashing Mr. Satanic Earthman with a rock... so much for "turn the other cheek"!

Lewis lumps all non-Christian views of spirituality together, and calls them Hell, since they lack his god. He must save us from this! Whack! Whack!

Say a mysterious stranger tells you you're bad because you don't like his favorite popstar. You're a musical pervert! Why, he ought to beat you up for liking other popstars! Pow!

Now say this jerk can really, really write.

Do you make him your spiritual guide?

THAT NIGHT

The two schools of thought on snakes are: trap or kill every snake you see, to protect other creatures from their poisons, OR... help snakes grow legs and hands, so they can take control of their own lives and grab what they want. Happy snakes don't bite.

Now I grew up in the West, with rattlesnakes on our doorstep. So I can't buy this Old World, Christian obsession with snakes as sneaky. Rattlers are honest! If you're threatening them, they warn you. It takes work to get bitten! So I'm of the second school.

In fact, some of my best friends are snakes.

One has been turning catlike, over time. I helped to stick the cat-legs on, and the ears... Elmer's glue was inflexible and too weak, so on the second try I used scotch tape... but for long-term felinity, I think we need some Krazy Glue ("the favorite glue of Frankensteins"™).

Easterners tell me my friend the rattlecat is dangerous, treacherous. But we've played together for years and I've never been bitten. Never even came close.

And who you gonna believe, your own experience or some self-appointed experts?

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