Tonight you find me sitting in the darkness of the bedroom, emptying my head into the keyboard on my lap while my other half watches “Van der Valk” in the lounge. I vaguely remember “Van der Valk” the first time around - a dutch detective show from the early 1980s - the theme music became famous for a time - called “Eye Level”.
I hardly watch any television any more. I’m not sure why. Occasionally a show will capture my imagination and I’ll binge watch it, but more often than not when friends ask if I’ve seen this, or that, I find myself shrugging and shaking my head.
When I was young I would lie about having read books or watched movies - and then have to play along as memorable scenes were recounted. I guess one of the most valuable things I’ve learned as I’ve grown older is to admit when I don’t know, or haven’t seen something.
While on the subject of admitting things, I saw an interesting interview with Ricky Gervais earlier. He was being questioned by a theist about his lack of faith - which came across as no more than an attempt to find an argument that could be re-framed to make him look foolish. They didn’t succeed.
While answering - in a very careful, considered way - he didn’t so much re-frame their position, as draw the curtain back - describing something I have noticed repeatedly over the years - that those who claim to “believe” tend to filter and cherry pick that which they believe or promote.
It made me wonder about the mental gymnastics some people go through to convince themselves of the veracity of their views.
Why does everything have to have an answer, or reason? Why does there have to be a plan? Why should everything we strive for or earn be credited to something or somebody else? Surely if everything is predetermined - created - designed - then there is no reason to ever work for anything - because the world is no more than a machine - unfurling fate as it moves forwards.
It would be interesting to find out how the first deities came about - how they were invented, who invented them, and what their original purpose was. I wouldn’t be surprised if the answers to such questions have been lost in time - or if known were buried a very long time ago.