How to be cast into the Hellfire for all eternity.

As I was riding my bicycle this morning, I thought of the story of Lucifer, the angel who fell from Heaven and became synonymous with "evil". I don't know how correctly I have interpreted this fable, but from what I understand, he became dissatisfied with God and incited rebellion, thus leading to his eternal damnation. I say, I find this story rather intriguing, for I am left to wonder what sort of lessons its authors had intended to bestow upon their readers.

I came across this account of "The Fall of Lucifer". I don't know how true to the original tale it is, as stories change over time. Nonetheless, a few thoughts came to my mind as I was perusing it. From this account, it seems Lucifer was not happy having to obey the word of the son, Jesus Christ - in fact, he was envious of him - so he tried to rally the angels around him, accusing them of being "slaves". Ultimately, no one was having any of it, and God was quick to quash the rebellion and cast Lucifer into the eternal Hellfire.

But who created this tale? And what was its purpose? When I reiterated the story of Lucifer in my head this morning, I wondered if this was not a tale of obedience and blind devotion, that questioning your authority had dire consequences. Was Lucifer really the malcontent as limned in this fable? Or did this serve as a warning to would-be dissidents? Look at what we do in our time: when someone speaks out of turn, we do not hesitate to put the individual in her/his place, even if it means besmirching her/his good name. When dissident government officials cry foul at their bosses, they are quickly labeled as "disgruntled" or "upset" over something, thus eager to lash out at their superiors.

It's all a matter of perspective. Consider Ernesto "Che" Guevara: on one hand, he was a champion of the people, warrior of the working class, someone who refused to take crap from the authority of his time and stood up for what he felt was right; on the other, he is the Devil incarnate, a purveyor of the evil ideology that is Communism, a "terrorist". Could the same be said of Lucifer? Was he really, as they say, the evil that needed to be purged from Heaven, or punished for standing up for change?

Consider another example, that being Jesus Christ himself. If you have read both Old and New Testaments, you may appreciate Jesus Christ the revolutionary, as accounts of his life and times reveal him to contravene the so-called ironclad rules of the Old Testament of Moses, the first being his "turning-the-other-cheek" principle, rather than demanding "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". He also deemed circumcision unnecessary and healed the sick on the Sabbath, both big no-nos in the grand rulebook. Many ardent devotees believe the scriptures in the Old Testament foretold the coming of Jesus Christ, and I'm inclined to agree, though I ask why these prophets did so: perhaps, when the extant world order needs a shake-up, someone is bound to come along to do just that.

And what happened to our dear Jesus Christ?

Yeah.

So what is the moral of the story of Lucifer? I reckon it's that the victors write the history lessons that are passed down to us, and if you don't straighten up and fly right, you, too, will be written into eternal damnation.

The Journey

There is an interesting psychological phenomenon in which people can travel from point A to point B without being cognizant of a single detail from the trip between. It happened to me all the time while driving to and from work each day: sometimes, I would emerge from the car wondering how on Earth I arrived at this location, having not been aware I was driving. The commute became so routine, I could fixate my mind on this and that and somehow coast to my destination. The same can be said for how we live our lives: we pay so little attention to the journey, we have no idea what sort of lives we've been living.

Today, I commemorate twenty-nine full years of life on this planet in this form. Traditionally, this is a time of celebration, a time of reflection, but upon what do I reflect? On so many occasions do we hearken back to days gone by, to time when things were different, when we were different. I suppose it's a matter of what you choose as a frame of reference. I was told on this day in the Year of our Lord Nineteen Hundred Eighty occurred my exodus from the confines of Mother's womb. Much has crossed my sensory inputs since then, prompting all sorts of crazy activity at my synapses.

Geez, when I think on it, it still feels as if only yesterday, I was merrily playing in the schoolyard, lost in my world of make-believe. Funny I should mention that: I learned I don't have to be a child to conjure a fantasy world, though I suppose only the power and influence of an adult can bestow said fantasy on the masses. I remember the multitude of institutional lessons I received from my elders, including such gems as the virtues of behaving myself, doing as I was told and ascertaining favourable marks on my report card so that I may receive a diploma and well-paying job; such were the virtues extolled by my elders, virtues necessary for me to "be somebody".

I learned a few harsh lessons as well - for instance, growing up isn't much fun if you don't rank high on the social hierarchy, though in hindsight, perhaps I was better served not wasting so much energy aspiring to be "with it" - but in the midst of all that crap emerged glimmers of light. For instance, through much of my elementary schooling, my best friend was considered a "delinquent" by all - even my parents, despite knowing how few friends I had, didn't approve because he wasn't cut from the proper cloth. I suppose that's why we were such good friends: neither of us fit into anyone's preconceived notion of "proper". No one around us could understand what it meant to be us; perhaps that's why he's probably one of the best friends I've ever had. Last I heard, he was on his way to prison.

Looking back, I wonder how I could have possibly wasted so much of my life striving to be someone else, someone more "important", while cursing myself for failing to measure up. I figured I would have outgrown such a habit after high school, but alas, I found myself doing the very same in my adult years, only instead of hoping to wheedle popular kids into liking me and girls into dating me, I was cajoling older women and men into giving me a paying job. I felt as if being simultaneously clocked in the skull by two sledgehammers, one telling me to be myself, the other to be someone else.

I've had to put up with my fair share of crap over the years, but through the crap I was able to see the beauty. I see the cracks in the veneer, in what we think "is", and gaze into what is. Sometimes, I still ask myself how things might be if I was "normal", if I looked at a can of cola or drank a beer without thinking how it made its way to my hands or the consequences of consuming. I wonder how things might be if I could remain blind to everything, to embrace the glossy veneer of existence. In essence, I wonder if I should have ingested the blue pill.

Would I be who I am today? Would I have had the experiences I've had, seen the places I've seen, met the people I've met? By remaining blind to what is, would I have cheated myself out of all the beauty that exists in the world? Would I have been love for those around me? Would I be writing this today?

Then again, why ask "what if"? As much as I fantasize about the person I wanted to be in years past, I cannot change what has happened; I can only look forward. Today marks the end of twenty-nine years, but also the beginning of several more, how many I cannot say: perhaps several, perhaps hardly any. It may be important to understand the sins of the past so as not to repeat them, and it may be fun to take a stroll down memory lane now and then, but while hung up on the past, life marches on. I figure the same can be said for our overall rotten state of affairs: try as we might, we cannot undo the harm we have wrought upon each other, nor can we expect to fix the problem by blaming and punishing certain elements of society; we can only drop all the bullshit and begin the healing together, for, regardless of who might be pulling the trigger or giving the order, we are all of us victims.

I thought I had a coda for my latest entry, but alas, I cannot access it, so this will have to suffice for now. Where I will go during the coming days, weeks, months, years, I really don't know. All I can do is just be, and enjoy the ride.

Mahalo.

One Solution

Answers. Everyone seems to have them, including me. It seems fitting that I have the answers; after all, I am the centre of my existence. Relative to my perspective, everything revolves around me. Such is the case with you and everyone else, hence the vast sea of answers in which we find ourselves afloat. Which one is the solution, I wonder? Is there even such a thing?

Let us travel back in time - wwwwwaaaaaaaaayyyyyy back - to the dawn of, well, us. Here we are, meandering about in this strange place with all sorts of strange things happening. How do we make sense of it all? What is causing the air to feel cold/warm against my skin? What unseen force is responsible for these plants I am eating? Why does water periodically fall from the sky? Why do I feel cheerful one day and horribly depressed the next? Why is my neighbour cross with me? Why am I even here? What am I supposed to be doing? So much information whizzing past us so quickly... how can I possibly comprehend?

Over the years, decades, centuries, millennia, we sought answers to these and other questions. Luckily, some of us seemed to figure everything out, much to our delight (and relief). To this day, people approach us, claiming to hold the key to unlock all the mysteries that leave us obfuscated, frightened and alone. For me, it was a story of a man who dwells in the heavens, who created us in His own image, who sacrificed His only begotten Son because He loved us so much, who unleased hellfire and brimstone on those who did not believe. For me, the only way to salvation was to follow the Son and no one else... but wait, I'm standing in the centre of a crowd of "believers" of several schools of thought. Are they all wrong, save for the one whose solution I was taught as a boy? Wait, is my solution wrong? Have I been misled? Have I been wrong all along? Why do certain people believe in more than one mythical being? Why so much variance in the names and practices?

Let us return to our being drop-kicked into this wonderful, magical world so full of activity. Seeing as how, at the individual level, we perceive ourselves as the centre of existence, surely, we will each interpret what happens by our own respective means; that is to say, we will be exposed to our own respective streams of information that we will process accordingly and seek to share our conclusions with those around us. The result was a divergence in beliefs: some of us had different interpretations than others and bestowed our knowledge upon our respective tribes, who then passed said knowledge down through the generations. Over time, of course, new interpretations manifested among the masses, and the process was repeated.

But what is happening now? So many of us who interpret the world in a given manner are now exchanging knowledge with one another, and what are we discovering? Our "unique" perspectives aren't so unique after all! Convergence! We are discovering that we live under the same set of circumstances, that we are governed by the same set of laws, that there is something beyond us that words can't quite explain, yet we've made painstaking attempts to explain it while gainsaying the attempts of those we feel contradict our respective interpretations. Yes, friends, we have found the solution! After all these millennia of convincing ourselves we have the solution, we finally found it in each other, through our myriad interpretations of the same reality!

Think of a common problem in your daily life: how does it go about being solved? You begin by gathering whatever information is available to you and drawing a preliminary conclusion, but you're still not satisfied, so you consult others whose opinions you feel may be of value, opinions that likely differ from yours. Now, you and your confidants pool your resources, and your opinions on the matter converge to formulate a reasonable approach to solving the problem!

Funny enough, during my studies of plate tectonics, I was told that, about 150 million years from now, Earth's continents will once again become one. Imagine that: we began as one continent, drifted apart in fragments, and will once again converge into a single continent.

So I suppose there is indeed one solution, though who are any of us to say we, and only we, have found it? Despite the semantics, it seems we have all found it together.

Or have we?

Mahalo.