Angels

The popular representation of angels, with those genetically-engineered giant white features bunched in monstrous pigeonwings at their backs, is quite at odds with what we know of flying mammals (wings sheathed in leather; fingers grown long as umbrella spines; heads furred with velvet). Our imagination recoils, and we are compelled to conclude that angels are nonmammalian. Ruled by a god who is not even of the same species! How strange the universe is! How stranger the capacity of human affections to transfer away from their own DNA.