Some people believe the world is held together by a Divine Plan, drawn up in pre-history by a Divine Planner.

Who could that be? Let’s look at the candidates.

The Jews are still waiting for Yahweh to deliver the Messiah, having already waited four millennia, and been kicked from pillar to post for their trouble.

The Christians had their Messiah almost immediately (a Jew no less). But so far, so what? (Peace? Love thy Neighbour? Do unto others…?)

As for Allah, I simply point to today’s Syria or Iraq and ask: would you take a plan from whoever did this?

It’s not hard to conclude that the main candidates for the job of Divine Architect have not been doing their jobs.

Maybe there is no Plan. Maybe there’s just…mortar.

Mortar, the paste made of sand, water and cement binds stones, bricks, and concrete masonry together.

It’s mortar that holds up schools, churches, the Empire State Building the Capital, the Brooklyn Bridge and your home.

In other words, it’s mortar that holds the world together.

So maybe it’s to the Great God Mortar we should bow.

What if there is no Plan, just mortar.

Now imagine there’s a virus that dissolves mortar, and it comes on like a bad flu.

In seven days pretty much the world as we know it is flat on its back.

The Empire State Building has a cardiac infarction and collapses with an enormous puff on 34th street. Buckingham Palace disappears without fanfare.

The Eiffel Tower collapses in a Gallic heap.

The pyramid of Ghiza is no more.

1166 Grand Concourse, gone.

Goodbye, Moscow, hello Sodom and Gomorrah.  Paris? A fond memory. Chicago? Dust on the shores of Lake Michigan.

No bombs, no explosions, just scenes of urban destruction out of Berlin or Aleppo Dresden. But multiplied.

Mortar doesn’t just hold up buildings, but civilizations.

Without it buildings, cities, civilizations: all fall down.

Maybe that’s the plan.