Sorry, Little Hawk! Cross-posted again - the Yes was to Guest-meself, who'd been making some great points all along.

My shrink once told me that while I didn't believe in god, I apparently did believe in the devil! I tell my kids that the embodiments of the powers I find in human life are Mother Nature, Lady Luck - and Coyote. He's the Trickster from Navajo mythology, Finagle's Law (the perversity of the universe tends to a maximum) - the way the gremlins hide your car keys just when you need them most, etc. All of these powers are deaf to human voices (you can't entreat them - well, you can entreat, but you can't expect it to listen).
Wonder with whom *this* post will cross?