The writing prompt was – waiting. This took a little bit of research
Don’t Blame It On the Gods
What happened to all of the Gods of myth and lore? Did they just die off, from lack of belief and interest, or did they just choose not to be part of our world of conflict, bigotry, and lack of care for the world we live in? If they have disappeared, did they leave any of their offspring to take their places?
Based on my own experience, I believe at least one set of offspring still exists. These twins of the Gods have crossed the realms of time and space, and though not very powerful, still can create havoc in the everyday life we lead. The God’s name is Prosm?n?-Mor?ri (Greek and Latin meaning to continue waiting, to delay); the Goddess’s name is Bíða (Old Norse for to wait, endure). They are the offspring of the Roman God Janus, the Greek God Hermes, and the Norse Goddess Freya. They are the deities of Waiting.
And they are certainly part of our world as we know it.
Think of Hermes, the messenger of the Greek Gods (Mercury of the Romans). God of trade, border crossings, and trickery, known for his speed and ability to travel through the realms of the gods, living and dead. Who, you would think, had an impact on trade tariffs and Southern border crossings?
Janus, the Roman God of beginnings and ends, doorways, gates, time, and change. Two-faced, looking to the past and the future at the same time. Have you ever been on a long line that moves extremely slowly? Perhaps at a supermarket, a DMV line, or trying to get past the TSA checkpoint to make a connection. How about waiting on a phone call for a real person to pick up rather than listening to elevator music with periodic interruptions of please wait, all our operators are presently working with other people, we will answer when the next one becomes available.
Freya, Goddess whose traits include war, death, passion, and independence. Though wisdom is one of her strengths, how would she compete with the likes of Janus and Hermes? I guess war fits in with the other two.
Of course, none of those gods are actually doing anything at all. They have all departed. However, the mixture of their traits now belongs to their twin offspring.
I have no physical proof of their existence, but it all makes sense to me.
When you drive on a road, here on Long Island, you can see those who ignore the rules of the road. The speeders, their souped-up vehicles, their lack of acceptance of red lights, cars disobeying the speed limit, and not giving pedestrians the right of way, attempting to ram their vehicle into the trunk of your vehicle because they don’t care about the lives of others. The sign says Yield, not Merge! Clearly, there is a god or goddess of trickery and magic that has controlled their actions. A sane human being would not do such things.
And, what about waiting in line, like at a food or clothing store? Can’t you just wait patiently? Can’t the store manager see that there’s a long line waiting to pay for merchandise and open up more than one or two registers? Express lanes stating “less than 15 items only” doesn’t mean you can bring your month’s worth of food items in your cart to that lane. Sounds like a god of trickery. They know what the future and past bring to your line, yet they fail to share that with you.
And I’m sure both those deities know exactly what they are doing. They are just having fun, which youngsters (I’m guessing that in God’s age, that’s what they are) tend to do. They’ve even got AI trying to taunt you, with their “Your call is important to us.” or “Please listen carefully, for our options have changed.” A… NO!
What we need is for the traits of wisdom, passion, courage, and independence, inherited from Freya, to become more dominant. Either that, or we need to stop praying to the Gods for help and start taking the initiative to foster change. We need to stop waiting for the change to happen, but take charge of the change itself. Especially, when it comes to this politically divided country and world.
There is a better way if we choose to take it. Let the gods play their own games with each other. We don’t need them. We here on Earth should control our own destiny. As I’ve said before in numerous writings, we need thoughtfulness, compassion, empathy, respect, and love for those around us, including all living things, and the Earth we live on, which we rely on for our existence.
In that respect, may it be so. Amen!
