They call themselves the un/Devoted, and their name—with it’s silent hiccup of non-pronunciation between its first and second syllable—strikes atavistic fears into the souls of more traditional believers. Few outside of un/Devoted ranks claim any understanding of the heretic, atheistic un/Faith, though many—outside of un/Devoted ranks—make use of un/Faithful services. Their places of worship (their temples/churches/sacred houses) are called Seculars. There are two machines in each Secular. They are complex devices of unusual pedigree: the progeny of strange science. The machines are called leeches. They remove contaminants from the human body. They filter such contaminants from the blood. Such contaminants, among the un/Devoted, are called Faith, though no un/Devoted will ever utter that word in a disparaging manner. Faith, to the un/Devoted is simply an accumulation: food for the machines. The machines exist because of the need to consume Faith. Faith exists in order to feed the machines. Reality, to the un/Devoted, exists within the boundaries of that circle. There are no clergy among the un/Devoted: no nuns, no monks—cardinals, bishops or popes. No hierophants. No heretics. Faith, to the un/Devoted, is a matter of strange chemistry. The first of the two machines in each un/Faithful secular is called: the serpent, and the religious hyperbole embedded in this bit of un/Religious nomenclature serves as the basis for quite a number of un/Faithful jokes. The Serpent is a complex device: the strange offspring of the stomach pump and something else. It is so named, for its esophageal probe/suction device. This flexible, serpentine tube is used to remove ingested poisons from the stomach. Such poisons, according to un/Devoted un/belief, exist on “the organic plane” and often impregnate the common foods we eat. The Serpent removes these impurities—one molecule at a time—from anything contained in the stomach. These molecular impurities are called Faith. The second of the two machines is, quite simply a blood transfusion/filtration device. Faith, when ingested, enters the bloodstream with food-nutrients, and must be removed as assiduously as undigested Faith is removed from the stomach. Once Faith is removed, samples of it are stored beneath each secular. un/Devoted attendants categorize each impurity by molecular shape. Impurities of a particular sort are kept in storage. Only the un/Devoted are privy to why such molecules are saved, but contemporary theories (conspiracy- and otherwise) maintain that Faith is the substance from which the un/Faithful create their un/God: a quasi-biological being whose sole purpose is to receive worship for 3 days before it is ritualistically murdered. This does support the primary component of un/Belief: gods are useless if they live. They become both a crutch and a source of crippleness. And so, to this end, un/Gods are born and slaughtered. No one has yet confirmed (or denied) that the un/Gods are derived from faith filtered out of human digestive and circulatory systems, and the un/Devoted are--understandably--silent on the matter. * Okay, I have no idea where that just came from, but there you have it. I’d taken this photo a while ago: nearly two years ago if memory serves. Memory doesn’t always serve. At any rate, this is an older picture, taken on the night of Chicago’s first snowfall (2?) years ago. In terms of the little bit about the un/Devoted…well…maybe I should cut back on the store-bought cheesecake after 9 p.m.. I should warn you, however, there may be more to this. As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great week.