Dear Mun . . .

The idea of another speaking through a person is not actually as new as some people believe. Many forms of ancestor worship involve calling the spirits of the ancestors by their descendants to come and give advice and impart wisdom from beyond. Many cultures hold some form of belief that involves the divine speaking through a human 'conduit', as it were, from the Greeks and their Oracles to the Southern Baptists and speaking in tongues. Not to diminish the impact of the faith, but the game of 'playing pretend' is one of the earliest games we learn as children, even when not taught.

I met a man in the Yukon once who swore he could channel anyone who had ever lived and died before, and that he moved so far out into the wilderness to keep the voices of the dead from pestering him to get notes and letters to their loved ones. Of course, he also believed that the cold war between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was still alive and well and that the nuclear warheads would be flying at any moment and we all needed to be prepared, but the point remained that his belief was as strong as ever. It does make one wonder if belief in a thing can get strong enough to make it true.

This fuss over icons I confess to not understanding, however.