Or what day, for that matter? I find I have trouble remembering. I know that Monday I had a long driving day (for me). I traveled 250 miles from Oakley, KS to Chappell, NE. I was expecting just 170. That's because I'd used a direct line distance calculator and not one that figured roads into the equation. But it was okay. I also crossed from Central Time to Mountain Time, so I gained an hour.
But there is really nothing while I'm traveling that distinguishes one day from another. I'm either driving to a new campsite or I'm sitting in a campsite reading and writing. A lot of reading lately, so that means I often think it is actually whatever day I'm reading about.
But today is Wednesday. Here. Your mileage may vary. That means that City Limits Chapter 3: Bearing False Witness will post somewhere around 8:30 Eastern Time this evening.
I got an interesting comment after chapter two posted last week suggesting that I'd lost a reader because he didn't like things that were anti-religious or mind control. I can appreciate that and firmly believe and encourage readers to read what pleases them and not to look at a new story as a chore or an obligation. I recently stopped reading a fairly long story that's been posting for some weeks, even though it was well-written and by one of my favorite authors. The subject matter just didn't float my boat.
On the other hand, I don't want people to think that I'm anti-religious. I'm NON-religious, I admit. To me, a church or religion is subject to the same temptations and foibles as any other business, social club, or gang. I'll treat a church, minister, congregant, or official the same way that I would treat a political party, corporation, or mob. Not saying they are evil, but they can be and I'm not going to avoid them because others think they are holy or infallible.
It's interesting to me that in the first draft of City Limits, the villain was the mob and a few Italian bosses. One of my editors commented that she really didn't ever need to read fiction about the mob or child sex trafficking again in her life. But the real problem was that I didn't know anything about the mob. (Nor do I think most authors who write about it.) So it felt like it was all made up. And it was. I do, however, know about churches-from the inside and the outside. I was once one of them. It became much more believable when I rewrote A church and A minister as villains (not all churches or religions).
I just finished re-reading Living Next Door to Heaven and Model Student. (Funny how anything aroslav reads, I read.) Anyway, both Brian and Tony are non-religious. Tony declares, "I'm an atheist, thank God!" Brian says, "To be an atheist, you have to care. I don't." But both have strong interactions with churches and people of faith. Tony has a close relationship to the one-time Lutheran minister in his hometown. He develops a collaborative working relationship with the priest, Father Andrew, while at the same time having a near war with the Archbishop. Brian discovers he has no interest in religion, but when John's faith is shaken to the core, it is Brian who encourages him not to give up his faith because another has betrayed him.
Mind control? I suppose so. The hypnotic effect of the drug Lustre allows the preacher to control his congregation and to deprogram youth and children. I guess that I can find no other reason that sane people would believe and adhere to what he preaches. Like so many right-wing "believers" today.
Please refrain from trying to convince me your religious views are correct and I am mistaken in calling churches a social club or business. They are institutions of faith. Everyone from college professors to preachers to my former father-in-law have tried to prove to me that God exists, the Bible is true, and that there is a heaven and hell. I know that is all very comforting to some of you.
I pose to you the fact that if you can prove the existence of God, then you have taken faith out of the question. That makes your religion a science, not a faith.
Or, as the famous atheist revolutionary Thomas Paine once wrote: "If I do not believe as you believe, it proves that you do not believe as I believe, and that is all that it proves."
I'll close with another Thomas Paine quote that I try to adhere to. "My country is the world, and my religion is to do good."