The life of Christ, and all in it from birth to death/tomb/resurrection and everything in-between, is a pinnacle event with its prevalent impact in our human history, whether you are Christian or other religion or spirituality, or not religious at all, and hey even atheists have a spiritual component to their beliefs. But it is not the end-all of human history. There were important times before.
I don’t want to rain on your parade just after Easter if you’re a Christian, like me, but most of you in essence take into belief that all of history started only about 2,000 years ago. Again, so much before then.
– Have a bar? Need a table on which to dance? Not centuries old, but classic. A question involving a bar table, mid-range in price that was for sale, not like a curb-couch — but I did see a green one, just the other day — is in the Where Did You See It department. –
This was blasted home in my mind by a piece of what most would consider junk mail. Taking me back to 3,000 years before the time of Christ. Across the continents to China, specified as being before communism. Their bastardization of it.
The group of artists across mixed disciplines and heavy on flowery classical dancing, Shen Yun, is not allowed to perform in their native China — from which they escaped oppression, as the communist party there banned such performance of rich culture and heritage and history, and an even overused word in spirituality, from its thousands of years of existance — a prohibition now many decades old. But the Chinese totalitarian regime has still tried to eradicate, frequently, the theater company by threatening and intimidating theaters, pressuring local governments and spreading massive misinformation in traditional media and online.
Some things never change, especially for spiritual warriors, even those who do it peacefully. And why would we be afraid of that? Ever heard of the marketplace of ideas …
– As even as far as Islam, its greatest prophet had one of his most enlightening experiences in where … Jerusalem. So we basically all have heard the call and the yearning for expressing such spiritualness. But only some are allowed to make the pilgrimage. –
But Shen Yun and what they represent are said to be supurb. Makes fights talked about in overseas flights over TicTok seem less vital. Even Michael Jackson could be held in awe of that one dancer featured in the flyer, flowing along with feathers and flared cloth and at times, at the same time, having her knee stretched upward so it is alongside her ear. Even needs to make war, by generals, not often prized in art, are described via the piece as featuring “explosive athleticism.”
There have also been Babylon and many other ancient cities, even in the Americas, to appreciate. Egyptian pyramids rank up with Mayans.
I will soon digress to a couple of conversations with an atheist friend, starting a couple of months ago, between Christmas and Easter.
My own spirituality is a mixed bag, with virtually every philosophy I have encountered being incorporated into what I call my mongrel theology, that starts with Christ.
Even The Beatles of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, famous for their study with foreign gurus, have invoked Christian stances in some ways. Its Instant Karma. The Beatles still bear with them a great bearing on modern thought.
Lennon, not Lenin, was astute enough to realize, and lament, the situation where they’d become more popular than Christ. And McCarthy helped come up with a song about his mother: Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be. Anyone who can be said to say that, when spending time at the foot of her son’s cross, makes me listen.
The atheist man, with our joint love of quality karaoke, heard me sing something I’ve referenced many times, the tune Two Minutes to Midnight, about the still very real possibility of nuclear war and its effects on children as being the worst, citing comparisons made way back in the Bible. Is that about the Passover, he asked immediately, the original one?
Not bad religious knowledge for an atheist. Even after dozens of times hearing the song, I had not fully made that connection. So I thought I’d run this past him, as far as his take on the meaning, Twist Of Cain. As in Abel’s Biblical brother, and an alleged break in the succession line and the unavailability of any men to sustain it. So guess who stepped in, it is argued, to save the day?
The other night I got a chance to ask him about this song, after forging through it. He said that, in the midst of his game of pool, he’d try to give as much of a listen as possible to the lyrics. Shortly after that, he went on to plan his shots carefully and nearly run the table. Afterward I quizzed him …
He’d heard much, but not all. So I gave a synopsis. Then he reminded me, “you know I’m an atheist.” I replied that this background is why I, again, approached him, for a comment.
It then came, and for me lived up to the billing: “The Bible is an interesting piece of history.”
It was time to sink that 8 ball. I didn’t get to ask him what relevence he thought this had to the nature of humans, as a former Black Sabbath frontman sang, evil or divine. Or both.
Something that frames much of this are the music reactions to Sympathy For The Devil by The Rolling Stones, and its cover versions by many artists, which delves into Satan’s hanging-around role in literally earthshaking historical events. I recently stumbled onto several interesting interpretations. A concensus is that people are typically to blame, so don’t use the devil as a scacegoat. The chief among these would have to be this set of lines, “I was around when Jesus Christ had his moment of doubt and pain. Made damn sure that Pilate washed his hands and sealed his fate.” After all, if Christ had survived the cross and had, hypothetically, furthered his mission and become a political king and taken down the Roman Empire, the world would have been torn apart as by maybe no other historical event. The varied even if only slightly vocal stylings given to this all-important passage, as compared the others in the song, would seem to speak volumes about its perceived weightiness. Much more on that in another post. But Mick Jagger can be seen in a prominent video getting on his hands and knees to strip off in a sultry way his shirt to show, what seems to be a tattoo of, of all people, Christ. And not the stereotypical cross you always see, but his head adorned with a crown of thorns … of the type Pilate placed on him.
How is today’s warlike oppression different? Modern technology has given dictators so much more where-with-all to conduct their “conflicts.”
And even in Islam, Mohammad came well before Christ, so listen up, when thinking about the war between Israel and Hamas. If its who got there first …
We, or at least the vast majority of us, are all-in after the same thing.
There is more to the ongoing wars as far as religion features, felt jointly. Concerning Islam, its greatest prophet had one of his most enlightening experiences in where … Jerusalem. So we basically all have heard the call. But only some are allowed to make the pilgrimage.
What if we/they, as the whole world is intertwining these days, did this, at least metamorphically: Build a wall — yes a wall but read below — at that beloved and fought over mosque/temple in Jerusalem, so you can each have your own worship style and experience, and specifics and requirements. But also build a door that can be opened, by all, for further enlightenment and understanding, and make the door a big one, and the wall by comparison rather small. Can you all see through this hopefully wide door, you’all?