[... F]rom al the deceytes of the worlde, the fleshe, and the deuill: Good lorde deliuer us.

Translation: [... F]rom all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil, Good Lord, deliver us. (Book of Common Prayer)

I'm not sure exactly what this means yet, but it ties in with Place of Safety. It's almost like these are the headings for each section of the book...Section 1 -- The World (Derry, 1966-1972); Section 2 -- The Flesh (Houston, 1973-1981); Section 3 -- The Devil (Derry, April-May 1981).

The World is Brendan dealing with his life as society collapses around him and he begins to get a sense of what man is really like. He loves a girl who's Protestant and, even though he's had no real trouble from members of that religion before, learns how strong and powerful hate can be when mixed with fear.

The Flesh is Brendan in Houston, recovering from the horrors of Derry and slipping into a life of pure self-pleasure...that is also interrupted by animals who refuse to let others be who they want to be. More tragedy, heartbreak and betrayal...and then he's called back to Derry because his mother is dying.

The Devil is Brendan's return to find a city on its knees hoping for a miracle, but Thatcher is in office and she has outlawed them as Liberal nonsense. He sneaks in pretending to be someone else, but is soon found out and becomes the focus of both the Royal Ulster Constabulary and British Forces, due to his brother being part of PIRA.

I'm going to use index cards to start working out the details of each bit and how they interact, so I can easily shift them around and find the true rhythm of the story. And find ways to show how that tiny corner of the world presaged what is happening now, in the US.

The slaughter in Orlando at Pulse Bar is just a parallel to the slaughters in Northern Ireland over so many years. People are killed and everybody who's human says it's awful...and nothing gets changed. The right wing slime will keep their AR-15s, by god...because neither Washington nor the Supreme Court nor the police departments of America really give a good goddamn about the non-stop death flooding the country. If we won't institute serious gun control measures after 20 children and 6 teachers are murdered in Sandy Hook by a deranged guy with the same damn weapon, 50 gay men and women being murdered won't make one damn bit of difference.

There are already animals out there blaming the victims for their own deaths, just like some of them swear Sandy Hook never really happened and 9/11 was a government conspiracy and Obama's coming to take their guns any day now, with him having a whole 7 months left in his 2nd term in office. This is no longer just a faction of crazies in the US; this is a cancer killing the country. And no one will do anything serious to stop it or cut it away.

And we will wind up even worse off than NI did after decades of slaughter.