plural

There is a lovely story in Sanskrit

about a frog that is born in a well and stays in the well
and lives it entire life in the well

it has a world view that consists of that well

if you ask the frog
it is content, happy even

but what happens when you expand that world view however slightly?
once the frog is aware that more exists beyond the well
it is no longer content to stay within the well

the well once sufficient, once everything to that frog
is made insufficient by knowledge alone

the character of the well has not changed
it provides no less sustenance
it provides no less security
it provides no less pleasure
than it did previously
yet the well is less
through no fault of its own
but still
it remains less

think of the pet lizard
held in a glass aquarium
it has everything it needs
food, water, warmth
but still
it will risk literally life and limb
to explore beyond the glass walls
of the aquarium

why is this?

Why would the lizard, the frog so instinctively, so brashly rail against all biological constructs
to risk life and limb to escape the lush garden provided to it?

the answer is simple
however lush, however sufficient
the aquarium is a cage, a prison
and even the lowly lizard will instinctively seek freedom
and that is merely the response of a non-thinking creature

how much more so with one of us

a human

The Garden of Eden was not the Paradise
it was a prison with lush walls

No matter how lush the prison
no matter how perfect the construct
a human cannot remain in such a place
because while there is no suffering
there is no risk in such a place
there is also no hope

and to me
and to me

What fresh hell is this?

What was the Serpent's crime?

That devil's trick

One bite from the fruit of the tree of knowledge

POOF

and like that, it is gone

and even God with all his power
could not keep Eden in all its glory
from being reduced to a prison

but as Eden was a prison after consuming knowledge
and as like the well the essential character was unchanged

Then we can only know Eden was always a prison
and God sought to keep us there
in the dark, in the bliss that is ignorance

What better definition of oppression is there?

Than to keep someone imprisoned, and ignorant
That they will never realize the truth of their condition?

Before Eden there was only one sin

Knowledge

God is the plantation owner
who fears his slaves learning to read

God is the great white oppressor
limiting your mind to control your spirit

God is the petulant child
flushing his unruly pets down the drain
to live secret furtive lives in the sewer

So what then is the Serpent?

Corrupter? Betrayer? Liberator?

Sympathetic ear?

Remember well
that it was God who cast us out of Eden
yet we curse the Serpent for our exile

It was God who imprisoned us
yet we curse the Serpent for betraying us

and like our holy father before us
we act with petulance
irrationally seeking to go back to that safe place
we had before

to close our minds off
to refuse new knowledge
to retain our ignorance

and each of us
seeking to recreate god in our own image
seeking to recreate ourselves in gods image
repeat this process

We carve out little edens, prisons of contentment
four lush walls carved from the finest planks of denial

We stick our heads in the sand
Seeking to hold on to that bliss

God on one side telling you to accept, telling you to be content
The Serpent on the other, urging you seek, to strive, to find and not to yield

God says risk nothing, accept little and be glad for it
The Serpent shouts to risk everything, find passion and be challenged

The Serpent is the poem, a dream made flesh

All the potential of the world

Take away the names
what do we have?

Someone who wants to hold you back
Someone who wants to see you reach for your dreams

The first offers unreasonable caution, risk nothing to lose nothing
The latter offer unreasonable risk, risk everything to gain everything

The question becomes

Is it better to not try and not fail
or
to try and surely fail

I have tried
I have failed

I have been to Babylon
have tasted the waters of defeat

I have been to Eden
have tasted the fruit
of her tree of knowledge

not the apple full of seed
but the peach nestled
between those succulent thighs

at the core of knowledge
the pit of the peach if you will, is truth
and like the peach pit, truth is poisonous

It is better to try and fail
and from that to know pain
that it may define the joy
and deliver meaning

than to try nothing
and succeed at nothing
thereby accomplishing nothing
and be ignorant of your own misery.

it is this poison God fears
this light of truth
because the unspoken truth
is that his ever gilded lie
is rendered false by simple entropy

the only constant is that nothing remains constant
everything changes
everything grows or everything dies

The Serpent is honest but frightening
You have nothing, you can only seek something
you can never possess it, not entirely
but maybe
just maybe the pursuit is the joy of it
the wild ride
the passionate kiss
the embattled embrace of a long nights lovemaking

these are things that cannot be owned
can not be stored safe and secure
nay, each and every day
you must go out and obtain them fresh
for they cannot survive the second dawn

look at yourself
you know what you want
you know what you desire
but still you are afraid
still you shackle yourself to security

but love is in the leaping
I think you should jump

You can't have them both
He can't be both
and neither can I
neither will I.

Beauty, Passion, Lust,
Inspiration, Knowledge, Freedom

are not things to be possessed
to be locked in a box safely

no
they are raging torrents
waves to be ridden
your fingers begging for purchase
never quite able to hold on

That is your choice

The devil who loves you
and
The god who neglects you

but go ahead, be content
be secure
be safe

accumulate tokens and possessions
symbols of the happiness you once aspired to
convince yourself that if only god neglected you
a little bit less
it would be enough

lie to yourself
betray yourself
tell yourself
you don't want the raging torrent
you don't need the turbulent passion

go

read your dreams on those pages
to be lived out by hands other than yours
to be loved by hearts other than yours

the choice is yours
all I can do is love you regardless
and weep for what you could have been

Having experienced the rush of love unbridled
of passion unrelentingly breaching my soul
I cannot accept ordinary,
I cannot accept flaccid life
I cannot accept flaccid love
so I choose the Serpent

My soul cannot regain it innocence, its ignorance
I have seen too many high peaks to be contented with the plateau
seen too many dark chasms to be afraid of the valleys
so I choose the Serpent

Life is my addiction
Never will I stop seeking the next fix
and my children will be like gods
raised without the poison of God's fear
to be contemptuous of contentment

God soothes the soul
provides the peace
hush little child don't say a word
papa's going to buy you a mocking bird

God promises
stability without value
Love without passion
The safety of a gilded cage
from which you may sing

and sing well precious birdie
perhaps then you won't notice
that your heart is already broken

you fear your heart breaking
you are in denial

your heart is already broken
you just refuse to see it

but when the wind blows
the cradle will rock
and when the bough breaks
the cradle will fall
and down with come baby, cradle and all

The bible thumpers have it all wrong

It is the Serpent who is the purist.

God is the consumerist whore.

These are not the times of the Devil
Nay not at all, God wins this fight
and we are all lessened by it

Stories of sin? Lists of commandments?
Falsehood and misdirection
The only true sin remains the same

Knowledge

The same as it ever was
The same as it ever was

Look around us, the enlightenment is over
Peace, Tranquility, Security, Tyranny rule the day

God has won this round

Selling false security of material joys and limited dreams

You don't sell you soul for that IKEA sofa with the broad print stripes
no
you sell your soul for the dream of it.
trading all that you possess
for the security of a dream that can be easily met.

That is the path of God

Oppression, stagnation, contentment

Ignorance, surrender, hopelessness

If all that is true

What defense does the Serpent require?

Save perhaps to say

I am not God.