Parable of the Talents

'We don't believe the way your parents did, perhaps, but we do believe.'

'That God is Change?'

'Yes.'

'I don't even know what that means.'

'It means that Change is the one unavoidable, irresistible, ongoing reality of the universe. To us, that makes it the most powerful reality, and just another word for God.'

'But... what can you do with a God like that? I mean ... it isn't even a person. It doesn't love you or protect you. It doesn't know anything. What's the point?'

'The point is. it's the truth,' I said. 'It's a hard truth. Too hard for some people to take, but that doesn't make it any less true.' I put my food down, got up, and went to one of our bookcases. There, I took down one of our several copies of Earthseed: The First Book of the Living. I self-published this first volume two years ago. Bankole had looked over my text when it was finished, and said I should copyright and publish for my own protection. At the time, that seemed unnecessary—a ridiculous thing to do in a world gone mad. Later, I came to believe he was right—for the future and for a reason in the present that Bankole had not mentioned.

“Things will get back to normal someday,' he had said to me. 'You should do this in the same way that we go on pay­ing their taxes.'

Things won't get back to what he calls normal. We'll set­tle into some new norm someday—for a while. Whether that new norm will recognize our tax paying or my copyright, I don't know. But there's a more immediate advantage to be had here.

People are still impressed, even intimidated, by bound, official-looking books. Verses, handwritten or printed out on sheets of paper just don't grab them the way a book does. Even people who can't read are impressed by books. The idea seems to be, “If it's in a book, maybe it's true,' or even, “If it's in a book, it must be true.'

I went back to Dan, opened the book, and read to him, '

Do not worship God

Inexorable God

Neither needs nor wants

Your worship.

Instead,

Acknowledge and attend God,

Learn from God,

With forethought and intelligence,

Imagination and industry,

Shape God

When you must,

Yield to