‘Good Omens’ should be read by everyone who thinks they know the Universe has a plan set in stone for them. I thought so too, until I finished the novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
Perspective is something all of us have, but its something few of us would consider changing. Now you’re recounting all the times you’ve changed your own point of view in exchange for peace, rest from a raging debate, to prove your team’s point, to support your elders, to support your spouse, to gain a friend. The list is quite long and my perspective, that most people change their sense of the world around them to either please others or protect their true interests, still stands.
I repeat: MOST people, not ALL people.
Those of us who’ve read the novel would remember that even the “Voice of God” had a script it had to follow, because it knew nothing different to what it had been told. However, the angels of Hell and Heaven together with Adam Young (the 11-year-old-bringer-of-the-Apocalypse) realized that everything may have been written and delivered to us, and to those in Heaven and Hell, but it did not mean it was set in stone.
For example, it says in the book:
‘Its is not given to us to understand the ineffable Plan,’ said the Metatron, ‘but of course the Great Plan – '
‘But the Great Plan can only be a tiny part of the overall ineffability,’ said Crowley. ‘You can’t be certain that what’s happening right now isn’t exactly right, from an ineffable point of view.’
‘It izz written!’ bellowed Beelzebub.
‘But it might be written differently somewhere else,’ said Crowley. ‘Where you can’t read it.’
‘In big letters,’ said Aziraphale
‘Underlined,’ Crowley added.
‘Twice,’ suggested Aziraphale.
‘Perhaps this isn’t just a test of the world,’ said Crowley. ‘It might be a test of you people, too. Hmm?’
‘God does not play games with his loyal servants,’ said the Metatron, but in a slightly worried tone of voice.
‘Whooo-eee,’ said Crowley. ‘Where have you been?’
___________x__________________
The Great Plan, The Divine Plan, The Gods’ Plan. All of these are common to all major religions. Come to think of it, so is free will. The will to choose differently because times, circumstances, experiences, and Heaven forbid! people’s minds have changed. As great as it is for those who want to believe in it, could be more rightly renamed The Ineffable Plan. A Plan that is so vast and profoundly simple that describing it in one way would certainly mean there are other possibilities, where we could potentially be doing something better (or worse) in the exact same situation.
So the next time you, my precious reader, think about how you must follow a plan, or have to follow someone else’s plan, remember the ineffability of it all.
Remember Inception, that movie where dreams transformed into a seriously cool but sinister playground for the rich businessmen and the sleep enthusiasts?
Yeah.
There are levels of the Bigger Picture we can’t understand or reach yet because we still have further to go. Something more to complete and learn before accessing the next level. Even the most well constructed plans can fail because one person didn’t want it to happen. They chose for it not to.
The next time you choose to do something, you could just be the latest butterfly of the Chaos Theory unfurling your wings of free will.
The Plan will never be the same again. The future has changed.
Image by J.L Westover, available at: http://www.mrlovenstein.com/images/comics/50_no_mere_coincidence.png