Blog entry # 6 Supernatural Aid

       After some time of considering when I might have experienced supernatural aid, I remembered a time when I was fifteen years old and came close to putting myself in the hospital. Years ago, a friend of mine, Scott, and I frequently spent summer weekends hitting trails in Johnstown and Marienville, PA on dirt bikes. Most often, however, we would simply enter the woods behind my house in Johnstown and do a “Top-of-the-World” ride. It took a few hours and brought us to a strip-mined perch near Seward that offered a hell of a view (hence “top of the world”). Since we knew the trails so well, it was all too easy to go faster than we probably should have. One day, I was leading the way on an earlier (and kinder) portion of a TOTW ride (a spot we usually raced but luckily not this time), and, rounding a gentle bend at 50-60mph, something told me to slow down so I laid off the gas. An instant later I saw that laying off the gas wasn’t going to do it since there was a fallen hemlock completely crossing the trail. With less than 30 yards between me and the tree, I locked up my back tire and started into a sideways slide toward the tree. Though I wasn’t able to completely stop, I did slow down enough that the impact only left me with scratches, a couple bruised ribs, and some anger at nature. I’m still not sure why I thought I should slow down at that spot on that day after so many rides through there. If something didn’t make me think to slow down I know that ride would’ve ended a lot worse.

       This makes me think about Fiver’s hunch of impending doom on the Threarah’s warren. Though he had no reason to firmly believe that his feeling of uneasiness regarding the warren’s future should be anything to act upon, he took action anyway. Sure enough, humans later killed off nearly every last rabbit that remained. He didn’t know why he wanted and needed to get out, but he left anyway and later found that his decision saved the lives of those who accompanied him.

       In The Odyssey there are constant references to supernatural aid. One such reference was when Odysseus sets sail from Calypso’s island, is caught in a great squall formed by Poseidon, then receives a charm (a veil in this case) against drowning from the goddess Leucothea after he falls in the drink.

 

       A cinematic representation of supernatural aid can be found in the movie Boondock Saints.During a great lightning storm the two brothers simultaneously experience the same dream about justice and the moral wrongdoing that takes place by watching crime take place and taking no action to stop it. This gives the brothers reason to believe that God was sending a message that they should take it upon themselves to begin ridding their city of mafia and mob trash who always manage to evade prosecution.

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