01/02/2010: "Mailer Daemon"

Yesterday I went walking in the woods with a friend, scrambling up and down the escarpment and strolling along the valley floor. The conversation began with the weather, moved on to New Year's Resolutions, then past regrets, and ended with a discussion of archetypes, deities and astrological influences that might be applied to bring meaning through metaphor to the places we each find ourselves.

"Which of the Greek or Roman gods do you most identify with?" I asked.

"I've always seen myself as a messenger," he said. "So Hermes comes to mind."

"The God of liars," I said out loud. And wished I could have bitten my tongue. Because he is an honest and honorable man. And I hadn't been thinking of him when I said it.

The conversation came to mind this morning when I opened my email to find that my Mailer Daemon had intercepted and returned a message I sent last night. You know the kind, that you send when you are upset and can't contain it, when you find your fingers flying across the keyboard to hit send without the sober second thought that is the mark of spiritual enlightenment.

It made me wonder if perhaps the Mailer Daemon is my guardian angel. Long may he protect me from self inflicted harm. And return back to me the words that I release in hurt or anger, so that I can reconsider them when I am calm.

Three morals in this story:

1. The Mailer Daemon is our guardian angel.
2. He is the anti-messenger god when making contact is the worst thing we could do.
3. The internet is conspiring to shower me with blessings, or at least to protect me from myself.

Yours with creativity and imagination,
Darlene

p.s. Hermes is the great Messenger of the gods as well as a guide to the Underworld. An Olympian god, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travelers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures, of invention, of general commerce, and of the cunning of thieves and liars...He protects and takes care of all the travelers, miscreants, harlots, old crones and thieves that pray to him or cross his path. (Wikipedia)