I don’t believe in any gods, but I do believe that the earth is a living thing. If there is judgment to be rendered, it will come in the form of our extinction for all the destruction we’ve wrought upon the land and all the harm we’ve done to all the living things upon it.
The creatures of air, land, and sea do not need us and will not miss us.
Once in a while I’ll turn to a writing prompt to give me a nudge when I’m blocked, and today I went to writing.com. The prompt that came up was “Write about the number 3.”
For Christians, 3 is a holy number, one that represents the trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit/Ghost.
For writers, public speakers, comedians, and psychologists, there is a Rule of Three: Humans recognize patterns and the smallest pattern they recognize is a pattern of three, so giving them ideas in threes is interesting to them and easy for them to remember.
Johnny Depp’s lucky number is 3, and he has it tattooed on his hand. I read somewhere that it represents how a man and a woman make a child so that there are three, and that he believes three is a magical number, though I don’t know how true any of that is.
Years ago, Peter Criss wore a 3 on the back of his KISS outfit to signify that he was the third member of the band. As he was the third member to join, that makes sense, but again, I don’t know how true that is.
Then there’s the ol’ ménage à trois, the sexual threesome, which may or may not be followed by a love triangle.
Three is special for me for another reason. It’s the number of fangs I have. In addition to the usual two big canines, I have one that descends from the roof of my mouth just behind my two front teeth, right before I’m about to feed. It’s annoying at times, but it does help me drain my vessels faster than others of my kind—something that comes in handy when you’re at risk of being seen. Perhaps it’s evolution.
I’ve been playing HayDay since 2017. It’s a farming game: You can grow crops, make food items, take care of farm animals, manage stables, go fishing, serve customers in your town, take care of pets, or head into the valley to deliver goods. You can also play for prizes in derbies, but I don’t play that part of the game because I get too competitive with it and the next thing you know I’ve dumped $100 into the game to get diamonds to speed up my production.
Oops.
The thing I love most about this particular farm game is that you don’t sacrifice the animals when you get goods from them. For example, when you need bacon from your pigs, they put on shower caps and go into little individual saunas, then they slide out the bottom all skinny and you get the bacon. You feed them, and a few hours later they get fat again, so you put them back into their saunas.
The developers are Finnish, so of course there are saunas. And a fellow named Tom. If you know, you know. (But if you don’t know, whatever you do, do not Google “Tom of Finland” while you’re at work, please.)
HayDay has seasonal events, and of course Halloween is my favorite. Even if I haven’t played in months, I’ll come back for Halloween. The farm animals wear costumes, and the chickens’ pumpkin sweaters are the cutest thing ever.
You can also decorate your town and farm for the season. Here’s my sorry excuse for a cemetery in my town. It’s next to my gift shop, just in case you forgot to bring flowers for your loved ones and chickens who have shed their mortal coil. It’s also next to my beach café, but we won’t get into that.
I put up a pumpkin scarecrow at the farm, but you can see how effective it is. It’s a pretty good bet that jack-o’-lantern is a bit fermented, judging by the expression on that one Crow’s face and how unfazed he is about the ghost coming up the stairs behind him.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some eggs to gather.
zenzalei 