Vision and Conviction in San Lorenzo

"They don't know how this formed or how it got to where it is today. What we do know is that it's not going to last forever." Said Edward McCabe to his daughter who hadn't learned to talk but communicated with her father through her agreement or disagreement to eat the baby food he was feeding her. 

"Old common beliefs are resurfacing." He said. "And now they are tourist destinations."

At the town square, women with terriers in their pockets, men smelling of misogyny, camera phone zombies, people is suits and blacked-out sunglasses, and even you gather to see what a belief is. You eat your sandwich near one.  You smoosh your teeth into whole grains and ham and look at the people looking at the past as if it weighed almost twice as much now that it is gone.

"We must believe again." A man says.

"I never liked change." A woman says.

"Uh oh." Says a terrier. "Roof and bark."

Edward thinks that a belief is like a sun beam that you have to look at until you are blind, until it is all you know and that you have to trust it more than vision.

Once you trust it, you have to test the belief on your family on the holidays. It is as if you were wandering through your bedroom at night. Familiar step after familiar step until you stub your toe and fall into the hamper.  Then you recalculate and onward and onward and pass the gravy.

Do not bring your belief to market.  Don't push it on your neighbor, your neighbor's neighbor, the suits, or even the terriers because it turns out that all beliefs circle through society at a scorching pace of one million miles per second. Your convictions are only meant for you.

"Memories are stressful events." Said McCabe to his daughter.  "People will inevitably remember how their beliefs broke down once. This fear will lead them to not even try, damn it. Don't they know that they will accomplish nothing if they do not try."  Edward McCabe's daughter ate a big spoon full of creamed carrots in agreement.  

Edward said to his daughter, "Burning hot belief hasn't got much of a future unless it is made illegal, only then might the people understand its value. But by then it'll be too late."