“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Arthur C. Clarke
Permeating human culture and religious belief is the idea that the written word has a supernatural power. To understand this one must look at writing through the eyes of the first humans to see it.
Imagine seeing someone look at strange indecipherable symbols on a rock, a wall, a tablet, or a scroll, and that person could while doing that, read the thoughts of someone they had never met, or tell others how to build a temple, or tell stories from the distant past.
It’s difficult for humans in the 21st century to understand that there was a time when writing was an earth shattering new technology, that gave those who understood it the ability to perform what surely must have looked like miracles.
Author: Llewen
This Much and More
There’s a place in the woods by a path on a hill
By a house that has no floor.
With the roof caved in, broken glass on the sill
And a yawning empty door.
Ghosts pass by when the wind blows cold
Say a name but you can’t be sure.
Can never catch what they say or mean
Or who they’re calling for.
We lay down in the leaves in a hollow place
Shaken to the core,
Touched our lips, spoke our vows in that haunted space
Like so many lovers before.
I’d die for you, I’m sure she said
Above my heart’s blood rant and roar.
Held her arms spread out as wide as she could
“I love you this much, and more.”
So many years have come and gone since then
Now I’m old and poor,
But there’s still a place where I’m young and rich
With the ghosts at that empty door.