---
layout: post
title: tempted by lesser gods
author: Steven
date: 2003-12-24 08:22:00
categories:
- Musings
tags:
- musings
featured_image: https://www.stevenjaycohen.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/wsi-imageoptim-mac-keyboard.jpg
---

       This was my most recent post to a list called MysteryTribe:



       For why is all around us here

       As if some lesser god had made the world,

       But had not force to shape it as he would?



       -Idylls of the King: The Passing of Arthur. Line 13



       Around us, in this world, are shapes clammouring to be lesser gods.

       Around us, are those, filled with fear, who choose to try and hide that fear

       by accumulating power.



       Fear breeds them.

       And, through spreading that fear, they seek to hide themselves.

       For, if we worry about "keeping up with the Joneses" and why our ovens

       aren't lemony fresh, we don't have the time to question them.



       This is classic avoidance.

       Example:

       Instead of telling someone how I really feel about them, maybe I focus on

       minutae that would work itself out anyway, because small solvable problems

       are easier to handle than questions of love, honor, and fate.



       But, now, I am being tempted by lesser gods away from my purpose here...



       There is one truth, and for those who see the world in dualities, it shows

       itself with shades of 2 faces. We know those faces as Fear and Love.



       If I spend a few hours freewriting (the act of placing a pen on paper and

       letting all the "brown water"-words spill out so I can find the good stuff),

       then I move passed the small mundanity. That is when the petty faces of Fear

       give way to a deeper one-- one that has meaning.



       Yes, the current politics hurt me too. But, instead of spreading the

       problem, and making more of you tune out, I'd like to share something with

       you.



       I wish that after the shock of the towers and the pentagon and the people in

       all of those planes crashing to the ground had subsided, that we could have

       all come together to mourn them. And, in that mourning, aid could have been

       sent to affected peoples from the homelands of all who died (yes ALL of

       those who died). And that the US would have appealed to the UN for help in

       openning a dialogue. And that dialogue would have been held in the open on

       the floor of the General Assembly. And now, instead of more death, our

       airwaves would be filled with real meaning. As we would finally hear about

       Fears in every living language of the world. And maybe, just maybe, through

       that kind of a dialogue, we would see that there are no differences. For if

       all myths are the same myths, then all Fears (and Loves) are truly

       universal.



       There is nothing simple about turning the other cheek.



       It means meeting Fear with Love. And, there is nothing more difficult in

       this life.