Today, when I left work, it was raining. Big, fat drops. It wasn’t supposed to do that.

When I got home, it was not raining here. So apparently we hit the lottery back at the school (rain is much needed up here). The skies are cloudy; we could still get some. But since the rain at work was undocumented rain, rain not authorized by the weather forecasters, I think it will probably remain in the shadows.

Where rain generally falls, come to think of it.

Today I shall rail against a great evil in our society. Oddly enough, a quick web search seems to indicate that nobody has written about it before. Since such a thing is unthinkable, I can only blame a world-wide conspiracy, orchestrated, perhaps, by the Bilderbergers or the Tri-Lateral Commission. If this post mysteriously disappears and you never hear from me again, you’ll know why.

I want to talk about the difference between “intervene” and “intercede.”

The error usually involves someone using “intercede” when he wants to say “intervene.”

I shall explain.

“Intervene” means to come between. The UN intervenes, for instance, in civil wars in the Third World (those little girls aren’t going to prostitute themselves, after all). Federal officials intervene in labor disputes. Bad weather intervenes to stop a ball game.

One form of intervention is called “intercession.”

(This is the problem, you see. All intercessions are interventions, but not all interventions are intercessions.)

To “intercede” is to plead with someone on someone else’s behalf. If someone is suing you, and you hire a lawyer to make them an offer to settle out of court, the lawyer is interceding. In the Christian faith, we intercede for others when we pray for their needs, and we ask others to intercede for us. Christ intercedes for us with the Father.

“Intercession” means pleading someone’s case. Asking for a break for them. Nature never intercedes. Fate never intercedes. Armies never intercede, since they use force, not negotiation or pleading.

There’s someone at the door. I’ll just answer it, and then I’ll be—