During my next-to-lastone of my MFA residencies an Advisor commented, to me and another student, that he thought people who believed in the Bible were “stupid”. Though I am not a literal believer, I was both shocked and offended. “It is a beautiful and important book,” I think I said, though this was seventeen years ago, “it contains wisdom. Have you even read it?” Religions always reflect wisdom, definitions of right and wrong, warnings and promises. There is ample evidence that most people and in all times have believed in truths beyond themselves and personal experience. It is not the only reason most of the characters in my novel are clearly people of faith.

When I was a girl and at least into my teens the conventional wisdom and current science contended that only “man is the toolmaker” and this capacity distinguishes human being from the “lower animals.”

That definition changed. Wikipedia: “Nearly all chimpanzee populations have been recorded using tools, modifying sticks, rocks, grass and leaves and using them for hunting and acquiring honey, termites, ants, nuts and water.” Awareness of that toolmaking ability among chimpanzees was demonstrated in work of primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall, a fact Wikipedia notably fails to note. She corrected what we thought we knew about humanity.

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