I Knew There Was A Story; Once

People Say That You Always Have To Tell The Truth. But They Do Not Mean This Because You Are Not Allowed To Tell Old People That They Are Old And You Are Not Allowed To Tell People If They Smell Funny Or If A Grown-up Has Made A Fart. And You Are Not Allowed To Say, 'i Don't Like You,' Unless That Person Has Been Horrible To You.

One Person Looks Around And Sees A Universe Created By A God Who Watches Over Its Long Unfurling, Marking The Fall Of Sparrows And Listening To The Prayers Of His Finest Creation. Another Person Believes That Life, In All Its Baroque Complexity, Is A Chemical Aberration That Will Briefly Decorate The Surface Of A Ball Of Rock Spinning Somewhere Among A Billion Galaxies. And The Two Of Them Could Talk For Hours And Find No Great Difference Between One Another, For Neither Set Of Beliefs Make Us Kinder Or Wiser.

I Think People Believe In Heaven Because They Don't Like The Idea Of Dying, Because They Want To Carry On Living And They Don't Like The Idea That Other People Will Move Into Their House And Put Their Things Into The Rubbish.

Family, That Slippery Word, A Star To Every Wandering Bark, And Everyone Sailing Under A Different Sky.

And This Shows That People Want To Be Stupid And They Do Not Want To Know The Truth. And It Shows That Something Called Occam's Razor Is True. And Occam's Razor Is Not A Razor That Men Shave With But A Law, And It Says: Entia Non Sunt Multiplicanda Praeter Necessitatem. Which Is Latin And It Means: No More Things Should Be Presumed To Exist Than Are Absolutely Necessary. Which Means That A Murder Victim Is Usually Killed By Someone Known To Them And Fairies Are Made Out Of Paper And You Can't Talk To Someone Who Is Dead.