It seems to be a season for discussing the ascended divine, those who were not gods but have had godhood thrust upon them. Many are dismayed to realize that they have been pressed flat and reduced to a single aspect of their personality. Perhaps large gods, gods of cosmic force and creation, can afford to be complicated, but small gods are like garlic presses. They have been designed by the cosmos to serve a single purpose, and while they might fill that purpose very, very well, they can and will do little else.
Others are delighted. And those who ascend while still among the living, who get to reap the benefits of both complexity and simplicity at the same time…those gods tend to be the most delighted of all.
Enter Uncle George, who is new to the pantheon, but has never been more needed. He is an icon and an idea, and if it concerns him at times that he is also a living man, whose choices and actions in the world might impact his believers, he sets that concern aside in favor of admiring the beauty and bravery of his faithful.
He is with the frightened teen considering asking their crush to a school dance without knowing what the answer—or the consequences—might be. He is with the suburban homemaker using mascara to create a five o’clock shadow that finally makes their reflection feel like an accurate representation of the self. He is with the young and he is with the old and he is with the lonely and he is with the lost, and he is with everyone who needs him to whisper admiring words and grant them the bravery to be themselves in a world that seems so often intent on destroying anything it doesn’t understand.
He is not the living man, for all that they share a face, and the living man has depths that he will never know. And honestly, he doesn’t mind.
Uncle George is happy as he is. He only hopes and prays that everyone else can one day be the same.
[image description: A portrait of George Takei on a red ground. His eyebrows are raised and he is speaking. The image shows him mid-phoneme. Text reads, “108, Uncle George – Small God of Ohhh Myyy!”]
Artist Lee Moyer (13th Age, Cursed Court) and author Seanan McGuire (Middlegame, Every Heart a Doorway) have joined forces to bring you icons and stories of the small deities who manage our modern world, from the God of Social Distancing to the God of Finding a Parking Space.
Join in each week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a guide to the many tiny divinities:
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Lee Moyer 