tarot
The other night the spirit moved me to google the word “tarot”, click the first link in the results list, and have my cards read. The cybernetic fortune teller, prior to laying out the cards, requested that I enter a few words regarding the nature of the question for which I was seeking cosmic guidance. Thinking that such a request was pretty cheesy, practically cheating (in this context?! I know, I know… work with me here), I entered only the word “GUESS” (as in, if you’re so freakin’ psychic, GUESS what my question is). I then got a free Celtic Cross reading, but only of the first three cards. The cards selected seemed eerily appropriate, as they so often do when pursuing this sort of thing. I could get the rest of my reading for the cosmically low price of $6.95. Frak if I wasn’t tempted to pay it. When you think about it, it’s an incredible bargain for gaining psychic knowledge and guidance about your future.
Why do we, the human race, so often feel compelled to look to someone or something else, something bigger and wiser and more powerful than ourselves, to answer life’s big questions for us, or guide us in times of trouble, instead of accepting personal responsibility and doing it ourselves? This path is not only a cop-out, it’s fraught with peril, because if you choose the *wrong* someone or something to guide you, all sorts of nasty things could happen. If you choose the psychic phenomenon behind Door #1, but Door #3 was actually the One, True Psychic Phenomenon (henceforth referred to as OTPP), your immortal soul could burn in hell for all eternity. Or a number of people you’ve never even met could do their best to kill you for your non-belief. Or a different number of people you’ve never even met could try to save you from your naivete, in the name of “spreading democracy”, but will probably bungle it up and kill you, your mother and your dog in the attempt. Or you could die because you refused to take the medicine or surgical procedure that more than likely could have saved you, because your OTPP of choice frowns on that sort of thing. If you’re lucky, you’ll just wind up like Tom Cruise and John Travolta and give large quantities of money to your OTPP while your friends laugh at you behind your back.
As Jules, the philosophical hitman in “Pulp Fiction”, was fond of saying: The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides. He was quoting from the holy book of a particular OTPP when he said that. Then again, he killed people for a living.
Think I will just stumble my heathen way along the path on my own, living and letting live, and leave the plethora of OTPPs and their followers to duke it out amongst themselves. And please, stop me before I tarot again.
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