Manus Dei

Manus Dei-Hand of God

During my MFA in Creative Writing, an instructor warned us to never use Deus ex Machina. Translated from Latin as "God from the machine," it was a plot device in ancient Greek theater where an actor pretending to be a deity was lowered onto the stage to solve a hopeless situation for the human characters. As a children’s author, this was especially forbidden. Neither adults, nor luck could solve the problems in our stories; the child protagonist, through his own wiles and wits must find the way out.

My first novel, Bringing the Boy Home, followed a boy who survived in a jungle by trusting his sixth sense. For years on school visits, I signed books with the phrase: "Always follow your gut." I wanted to encourage these young students to pay attention to that small, internal voice.

Today, I worry that intuition is going the way of the ice caps. We live in the age of Deus ex Instagrama, where digital influencers assure us they know exactly what we need. We no longer have to figure our own way out because the "deities" on digital pedestals have done it for us.

Enter Manus Dei (Hand of God), the quiet cousin of the machine. In this series, a single finger descends from above—not to solve the problem, but to offer a nudge, a whisper, a suggestion. This work explores what happens if this nudge from the Universe manifests in humans as a hunch or a "knowing." We have all felt these pulls: the urge to turn into a specific shop where you meet someone who might be your future spouse, or to take a seat on a train next to a potential business partner. By visualizing this physical steering, I want to encourage the viewer to turn off the rational voice and take a chance simply because they "have a feeling."

You might recognize the descending hand’s resemblance to Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam. I hope Manus Dei will make you start to wonder: What if there is a power bigger than myself encouraging me on a specific path? The next time you feel that pull, perhaps you won't disregard it so quickly. You might even follow it.