Giant Angels

On Friday I had a meeting with a sales rep. Regular guy. Middle-aged, balding, carrying a briefcase, trying to sell me advertising. We had a nice meeting and some pleasant chit chat and I told him a little about the new Paleozoic gallery opening up.

Then he said that he recently picked up a book of Bible stories and there was one he had forgotten about a race of giants created when human women "mated" with angels. And he asked me "Now wouldn't it be amazing to find something like that?"

I just looked at him for a second. Here I'd been having this conversation with this guy, believing he was sane and normal. Now this. A race of giant angels. I said "That would be quite a scientific discovery."

Generally, in my line of work, you learn to be diplomatic about these things. Especially when someone mentions the bible. When you work in a natural history museum, the minute someone brings up the bible you know they are about to say something outrageous: ask you if the dinosaurs were killed in the flood, or if you've found any dinosaurs with human skeletons inside them, or ask you to defend evolution, the basis of all biological study. So as soon as the guy said "Bible stories" I knew it was coming. But the race of giant angels was a new one.

I'm amazed at what people will believe, on absolutely no authority other than the church. I don't get it. I don't know why religious faith and the real world have to be so separated.

Well, I won't get off on that subject. But it was an interesting experience.

Yesterday we had lunch with Gray's mom, who was in town for the wedding of the daughter of one of her friends. We hadn't seen her in over a year. Not since the big fight last Christmas. I hadn't spoken to her in all that time until about a month ago when she apologized to me over the phone. Two words: "I'm sorry." that's really all it took. I had to wait a year for it.

The night before she did so, I had had a dream in which she died without us ever making up. It was a very sad dream because she had died without seeing Grayson again, and without him ever again having seen her. After the dream, I knew it was time for us to make up. And the next day she called and said she was sorry.

The lunch went fine. We spent about three hours together and then came home. I was worn out from being nice, but it went well. I feel like I have to be so careful in what I say. I must speak literally and cautiously, not make any jokes that could be misconstrued. Always be positive and complimentary about everyone. Makes me realize how much I rely on sarcastic humor to keep up my end of the conversation. Though really I think most of my jibes are at myself.

Anyway, it was good to get that first meeting over with. Things will never be as easy as they once were, I think. At least not for me. But at least we are speaking.