Nurturing Wonder

“Which way to the obstacle-running tryouts?”

“That way.”

“Excuse me, where are the obstacle-running tryouts?”

“Over there, but they’ve already started, you’re going to be late.”

“Hi! Is this the line for the obstacle-running tryouts?”

“Yes. Name?”

“Lalinda Mckee.”

“You’ve already missed your name-call. Better luck next year.”

“But… I was having trouble finding my way here – the announcement listed the wrong place.”

“Pfa! If an obstacle like that makes you late, there’s no way you belong on the team.”

She awoke with a gasp, wrenching herself free at last from the dream. The nightmare, really, for what else could you call a dream where your lover died, and the sheer weight of sorrow drowned you until you had to wake up?

She stifled her sobs and turned instead to face her lover in the darkness of their bedroom. A little light from the street seeped in past the shades, but not enough to let her see if he was breathing. Was he breathing? She watched him intently, holding her own breath, but she couldn’t tell.

She didn’t want to wake him, if he was alive. It was the middle of the night, they both needed their sleep, and there was no reason to wake him. As long as he was alive…

She laid a hand lightly on his side, feeling his ribs rise and fall, ever so slightly, under her touch. That was enough – he was breathing, he was warm, he was alive. He even shifted a little, changing position and snuggling deeper into the blankets.

She took her hand away reluctantly, still not wanting to wake him but enjoying the comfort of touching him. Instead she lay on her side and watched him until her eyes felt heavy enough, and her mind felt calm enough, to let sleep take her away again. He’s alive, she reassured herself silently. It’s all right.

It’s all right.

“Is something wrong? You seem distant, ever since we got to the city.”

“Oh… it’s nothing. I think I’m just a little overwhelmed. All the sights and people…”

She hadn’t expected him to notice, and wasn’t sure what to do now that he had. Would he even believe her if she told him the truth? More importantly, would he still want her if he knew about the neural augmentation wired through her brain and body? She couldn’t take the chance, but walking through the city with her perception filters unshielded was out of the question.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I guess I’m just not much of a city person.”

I’m fascinated by divination. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to tell the future? Well, maybe not – after all, if we could tell what the future held in advance, what would be the point of living through it? It’d be like skipping to the end of a mystery novel, and then trying to enjoy the book while you know “whodunit.”

Still, it can be a fascinating topic, whether in real life or in fiction. In fiction, it’s often a driving force and ‘real’ – the prophesied hero follows the prophesy, maybe not in the way you expect, but in a way that makes sense in retrospect.

Such ‘real’ prophesies don’t seem to exist in real life, but that doesn’t make the practice of divination any less fascinating!

Every time I read about a new-to-me divination technique from historical or current practice, I wind up thinking about ways in which divination can be a formative part of a fictional culture, or provide local color to a story.

For instance, have you ever heard of molybdomancy?

Necromancers in modern role-playing games and fiction are generally raising the dead to use them as weapons, but historically, necromancy was practiced in order to glean information about the future from the spirits of the dead.

Oneiromancy is a form of divination based on dreams – who hasn’t wondered on occasion what a weird dream might signify?

The Wikipedia article lists over 20 different common methods of divination!

One of the most familiar forms of divination in modern times is tarot card reading, and you can even get an automatic tarot reading online.

Many of these methods seem to operate on the basis of pareidolia, or seeing meaningful images or patterns in randomly assembled stimuli.

The way I see it, using any of these divination techniques is a way of looking inside your own mind, and crystallizing your own perceptions of your question. For instance, sometimes when I’m having trouble making a decision, I flip a coin. It doesn’t matter what the coin toss says to do – it’s my reaction to the result that I’m seeking. If I find I really don’t like the coin’s answer, then I learn from my not-liking that I actually want the other option. Decision made.

I was thinking about this last night, and thought I’d share it here.

Once upon a time, there was a rabbit.

It did typical rabbitish things, like hopping around and eating clover, and it was happy.

Now nearby, there also lived a dragon. It did typical dragonish things like burning down villages and eating children.

But the dragon wasn’t happy – it was lonely.

One day, as the dragon was flying around, it looked down, and there on a patch of green clover, it saw the rabbit. The dragon thought to itself: “Maybe if I had a pet, I wouldn’t be so lonely.” So it swooped down, picked up the rabbit and brought it home.

Now, as soon as the dragon brought the rabbit home, it hugged it and squeezed it and called it George.

As soon as the rabbit was named George, however, it was infused with the spirit of Saint George, and slew the dragon!

Now, nearby, there was a human, a knight who had journeyed far in his own quest to slay the dragon, and he saw the whole thing. But, instead of doing a typical human thing – and taking the credit for himself – he brought the rabbit back to civilization to spread word of this great miracle.

And from that day to this, the followers of the Great Rabbit George have passed on sayings and teachings that it would have said, if it could have, except that as everybody knows…

Rabbits can’t talk.

“You’re such a liar.”

“What? No I’m not! What have I ever lied about?”

“You lied about leaving Meggie.”

“No I didn’t!”

“You said you’d stay and then you left her. That sounds like a lie to me. Now you’re telling this one you’ll stay forever, just like last time.”

“I didn’t *lie* to her… I was just wrong.”

“Liar.”

“You broke your word.” The shout was both thunderous and anguished.

“I saved your life,” Gretchen snapped, trying to keep her own temper.

“That doesn’t matter,” he said, his voice full of unshed tears. “You have proven yourself false, and now you must depart. You have no place at my table.”

Sorry about the “thubderous” shout – I fat-fingered and didn’t realize it til later. Thanks to Brian for pointing it out!