Sometimes kids’ questions bring out the Roald Dahl or the Doctor Seuss in me, and sometimes they bring out the philosopher in me.
This question did the latter.
Also I’ve just been rereading American Gods so that might be a factor.
As soon as we were able to imagine
Enough to tell stories, as well as hunt and gather,
We started making gods.
We said they were like animals, like fire
Like storms, like water.
Gods were, to,us, the things we knew
As powerful.
We said they brought us into the world
The way our mothers did.
So we called them Mother
We said they started us with love and joy
The way our fathers did
So we called them Father.
We thought of what would make a person powerful:
Wisdom.
The ability to fly.
The power to judge and punish.
And then we gave these powers to our gods
As tribute.
But to make us,
Gods, who after all can live outside of time,
First had to be made by us.
But in the imagining,
Maybe we were also guessing
And maybe, sometimes, we were right.
And maybe not.
Tom Juniper Poetry 