There's a snake waiting to swallow us up: a conversation that could be true...

     You thought this might be about reptiles, didn't you? Maybe it is, but not directly. Let's proceed. Then, dear reader, you can decide for yourself if the subject of this piece is snakes...or something closer to a species called homo sapiens.

     The fellow was clean-shaven, dressed to the hilt, and there was a look about him that seemed to say: "here I am." He was seated at the only table facing the window, in the quite posh bar around the corner from a statue of a starkly naked woman, probably carved by some world re-known artist. Who knows? So many things are reproduced these days...you never know. Anyway, our character is wearing a serious face today in anticipation of an important encounter.

    "Are you George?" The question brought the clean-shaven fellow back to the real world.

   "Anthony? You're a bit late."

   "I'm sorry. Let's get started. So you think the war against Iraq is a good thing?"

   "I wouldn't say good, but necessary. We must fight against terrorism so democracy and liberty can triumph."

   "Hmm. Even after 4,000 U.S. soldiers have died and hundred of thousands of civilians..."

   "It's the price we have to pay."

   "What if we don't want to pay it?"

   "What are you suggesting?"

   "What if the people of the United States were to say no: no more tax money to support a war we didn't ask for."

   "We didn't ask to have those terrorists kill thousands in the attack against the twin towers..."

    "So you think that one evil act can be rectified by another more devastating act?"

    "I didn't say that."

    "No, but it is implied by what you just said."

    "Who are you to determine the implacations of what I say? Only God knows the truth."

   "I have never seen God, so how do I know he exists?"

   "It's a question of faith."

   "I'm sorry. I operate on the basis of what I see, hear, feel or taste, condimented with a generous dosis of reason."

   "You don't believe in God?"

    "Should I?"

    "Of course."

    "Listen. I am a free thinker. I don't belong to any religion, club or political party, I try to see things from different perspectives and then come to a conclusion."

     "A free thinker? Ha! Ha! Like those communists used to say, those that advocate free love..."

    "That's not a bad idea. The problem is the adjective. Why do we have to say that love is free or not free?"

    "Oh come on! You know what I mean. Having sex just for sex and not for love."

    "What's wrong with that? Love is much more profound than making love."

    "It's against God's will to have sex with someone you don't love."

    "What is God's will?"

    "That men and women marry, have children, be faithful to each other, love and cherish each other until the end of their days."

    "What if that love disappears?"

    "It's a duty to love and be faithful to your wife."

    "I don't have a wife."

    "Maybe you should. Maybe if you had a wife you would understand what I'm talking about."

    "I've been in love several times and it was great. But it didn't last forever. She went her way and I went mine. She is a wonderful person and I love her. She certainly loves me too. But we were only able to share a certain time together, not all our lives."

    "My friend, you need help. Let's pray together. God has mercy on sinners who confess their sins."

    "Wasn't the invasion of Iraq a sin? First that talk about so-called weapons of mass destruction, then the supposed threat of an arrogant dictator to blow up the civilized world, then the sermon of bringing democracy after bombing the country...aren't those sins? Doesn't the Bible say you are not supposed to kill? That's what I don't understand about people like you. You say killing is wrong but go to war as if it were to save mankind."

     "Killing is wrong but wars are often necessary."

     "Oh. So there are exceptions to the rules, to the commandments..."

     "I didn't say that."

     "That was implied in what you said..."

     "Look, this is getting nowhere. Waiter! The bill please."

     "I'll pay... You haven't answered me."

     "I smell a snake. It makes no sense to answer snakes. They understand nothing."

     At that moment the waiter appeared. He was wearing a multi-coloured vest with tiny flashing images of a snake with its mouth open, ready to strike. It was only a flashing image. But might we not suppose that there is a viper in human beings? Strange, though. Snakes and other animals attack only when they need food or when they feel threatened. No animals go to war. That's the stuff homo sapiens are made of and aren't homo sapiens supposed to be the highest form of life?