Today my thoughts are like water. They are deep, with no clear view of the bottom, and a churning undercurrent that I find I’m compelled to share with you.
Legends, lore and stories of the ancient worlds and magic have always pulled at me. As a child, I’d watch Marry Poppins, completely caught up in the possibility of being able to walk up smoke staircases, put toys away with the snap of a finger, laugh so hard you’d float to the ceiling, or find romance in a chalk drawing on a sidewalk. I also grew up listening to J.R. Tolken’s the Hobbit, on cassette tape and my imagination would soar with the possibility that there really were different realms with uniquely fascinating characters with different languages and unique beliefs. Things that I daydreamed about seemed to come alive with these stories and movies. When I was about 11 or 12, I remember my mama renting a movie from the library called Merlin. It was the amazing story of King Author and his amazing wizard, Merlin. The movie was more about the wizard’s life and the role he played in King Arthur’s life to ensure he became king of Camelot and was an honorable one at that. Needless to say it was rather adult for back then and for a young girl of my age, but I couldn’t get enough of it. I would rewind and re-rewind the movie over and over. I remember how it spoke to me. It effectively shattered my very naive and very innocent view of what was right and what was wrong. It taught me that nothing is ever as it seems, your sins will always find you out or it will eat at you until you confess that there is more than one way to sell your soul, and what may appear to be a wholesome sacrifice could be done with selfish intentions. I watched, enraptured as the deceit, manipulations, betrayal, passion, love, loyalty, despair, hate, revenge, pride and courage were all incredibly entwined to the point that there seemed there was no clear right or wrong. I learned that life is never as black or white as we wish. When looking at the situation from the outside, it seems very black and white, but that is only because our emotions aren’t involved. Its when we are in the midst that we find there is an overwhelming amount of grey that we must navigate and pray we did what we were taught is morally correct. And even then, what we find morally correct is different than the person next to us. It’s very easy to say that telling a lie and murder is wrong, and biblical it says not to do both, but what if the lie or that act of murder saved a life? Would it be okay to betray your wife or husband, if it meant keeping her from destroying someone else’s future? What about Suicide? There’s an old debate. Some say you will go to hell for it because it’s a sin. But what if doing it saved a life or a nation? What if that one act inspired a future generation for good?
Everyone has a purpose, a mission in life and a personal destiny on this earth. We each have our own agenda. Some have chosen a path for good, while others have chosen one for evil, and they are both driven to do what they feel they need to in order to accomplish their destiny; wither it’s to better our world or to create mayhem and despair. The grey matter of humanity appears when destinies collide, whether it be good against good, bad against bad or good against bad. Like a two children fighting over a block they both need to finish their building, we as adults fight against each other. We tell them to share, but what do we do? Children left alone to sort it out will scratch, wrestle and hit. What do us as adults do? We do the same. Unlike children with toys, we as adults cannot always compromise on some things. So who is right? Whose mission should be put first? Even a sacrifice of self has an element of selfishness in it. It just means we are willing to sacrifice something to see what we want done is done. Is that a bad thing to be selfish for what you think is a good cause?
Ive been watching the newest version of Arthur and Merlin’s story. It’s the BBC TV Series titled Merlin. The difference with this series is that they rearranged the story a little so that we can see Morgana, Arthur, Merlin and Gwenevire as young teenagers, so that we can see how they developed into the powerful people that the legends of old talk about by how they navigated some of life’s more challenging issues. To watch them learn about life and discover its grey matters as well as conquer the situations they’re put into, is amazing and thought provoking. Watching them, I honestly am not sure what I would’ve done in a couple of the situations. I found that this series forced me to look at myself and my values and beliefs. Most things in life are thought provoking if you really take the time to look and absorb it. But of course most won’t, because they find themselves terribly uncomfortable as they realize that not only do they not know their true self, but they don’t really know what it is that they stand for in life, let alone what their destiny is. You’ll find that with most people, those things change when their friends, life situation, or moods change. They always end up moving the line for what’s right and wrong. So we circle back… is right always right? Is wrong always wrong? Or are there exceptions? Who determines what’s right and wrong for our communities and allowed to take on the amendments for the various exceptions to situations?
If you have the answer, go ahead and email me.
Blessed Be
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