It just appears to me that we spend an inordinate amount of time looking for the boogie man around every corner. The boogie man changes with each generation, but we insist on having him there. We create the boogie man so we can cloister along tribal lines and feel united against something.
Sometimes we go so far as to give birth to uber-boogie-men and manifest this in monumental proportions. We aren't scared quite fucking shitless enough, so we nurture, empower, and gleefully hand over the reins to...the Pharoahs, Herods, Neros, Khans, Eric The Reds, Vlad The Impalers, Hitlers, Stalins, etc.
Subconsciously, we always seem to careen off the course and fertilize the ground for holocaust and jihad and bagged spinach. (Ok...the bagged spinach thing may not be applicable in this context, but is certainly timely.)
The western "civilized" world has manipulated the holy lands for centuries like some stupid 8 year old bully playing with matches. We can't continue to light the fires and then run home to mommy with an innocent look on our fat little red faces.
Call me simplistic. Call me pollyanic if you will. Call me idealistic. Call me Erma. Hell, I really don't care what you call me....but it just seems to me that if we...
A) Grew up and figured out an end to this tit-for-tat bullshit based on "faith", we'd be at least taking a step in the right direction.
B) Kept our poops to ourselves and our popes on a short rope, we wouldn't need to draw lines in the sand.
C) Try to hear beyond each other's language and peer into each other's hearts. I think we are longing for and asking for the same things deep inside.
This was a test, let's not screw it up...
Genesis 11:1-9
1. And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly.
4. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
5. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
6. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.
7. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
8. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
I can't sometimes help but think that God just has a warped sense of humor. I actually like that in God. He is the ultimate Playah.
Be safe out there,
T
...and No, we didn't eat any of them.
