Pascal Böhme
Children in light-colored clothes passing in between the dark silhouettes of the nuns. Purity and youth being confined by guilt and harm. The boys are dressed in black. They, contrary to the logic of, and somehow simultaneously confirming the concept of original sin, apparently are not as innocent as girls. Or perhaps they have already been sufficiently catechized and have transitioned to the darkness of the supressing force of the nuns. This, on the other hand, would confirm the chronology of the fall of man, since the nuns are women. Eventually, nobody can free themself of guilt. The tale of the snake is a tale of mankind's lost innocence.
With innocence come dreams, be they naive or not. For this innocence to die means for the dreams to perish aswell. But they do not need to. Everyting that lives has an expiration date. People, animals and plants die, man made mediums rust or fall apart with time, but the intangiable entities, like dreams, can live on forever.
As they pass, all the children are looking into the camera in the hope of being immortalized, to not be forgotten. The dark flickering however seems to be overshadowing it, to not allow it. Decay is prohibiting the innocence, the dreams from persevering. One girl falls out of line. She turns her face back towards the camera and manages to be seen, she has overcome decay. Her vision is clear. Eve, the apple's taste on her lips.
The rest will be forgotten forever, merely existing as shadows. The nuns, even though their faces are partially visible, their likeness not as compromised by the dark flickering of decay, remain lifeless, nameless, soulless. They are mere statues at the entrance of a fortress of dogma, meant to awe visitors and intimidate intruders. To make them feel powerless and observed.
This process of evil overpowering innocence is the dynamic our world is based on. Regarding the story of Jesus of Nazareth, whose existence is widely acknowledged, no matter if he was the son of god or not, there is no exception to this rule. His teachings harmed nobody and spoke of universally accepted truths of humanity. He expressed a dream of a different world with new forms of social interaction. The powers that were - the Roman Empire - deemed these teachings to be unfavorable to their interests and crucified him. As the legend goes, he later was resurrected and ascended (or fled) to the heavens. If only some parts of this story are true, it is a brilliant account of the cruelty and ignorance of man. To betray, capture, taunt and crucify any opposition is our true nature. Even an entity that is attempting to better the world.
Humanity does not take constructive criticizm well, but prefers to destroy the source of it, to nip it in the bud. What we are left with now is a perverse variation of what once was meant to unify instead of divide, to arbitrate disputes rather than to provoke them. This dream, regardless of its origin, has turned into a nightmare.
Amen!
Dan Le Sac - Letter From God To Man
Hey There, how, how's it going?
Long time no see.
I know I haven't been around much lately
But,it didn't seem like you wanted me to be
The last time I sent down a message you nailed it to the cross
So I figured I'd just leave you to it, let you be your own boss
But I've been keeping an eye on you, I have,
and it's amazing how you've grown.
With your technological advances and the problems you've overthrown,
And all the beautiful art you've created with such grace and such finesse,
But I admit there are a few things I'm afraid have impressed me less.
So I'm writing to apologize for all the horrors committed in my name,
Although that was never what I intended,
I feel I should take my share of the blame.
All the good I tried to do was corrupted
when organised religion got into full swing,
What I thought were quite clear messages were taken to unusual extremes.
My teachings taken out of context to meet the agendas of others,
Interpretations taken to many different ways and hidden meanings discovered
Religion became a tool, for the weak to control the strong
With all these new morals and ethics, survival of the fittest was gone
No longer could the biggest man simply take whatever he needed
'cause damnation was the price if certain rules were not heeded
Some of the deeds committed in my name
just made me wonder were I went wrong.
Back at the start when I created this, the foundation seemed so strong.
See all the elements were already here, long before I began,
I just kind of put it all together
I didn't really think out a long-term plan.
I made the sun an appropriate distance and laid the stars across the sky
So you could navigate the globe or simply watch the sun rise
I covered the earth with plants and fruits,
Some for sustenance and some for beauty
I made the sun shine and the clouds rain
so their maintenance wasn't your duty
I tried to give each creature its own attributes
without making them enveloped
I gave you all you all your own space to
grow and in your own way space to develop
I didn't know such development would cause rifts and jealousy
Cause you to war against each other and leave marks on this planet indelibly
You see, I wasn't really the creater, I was just the curator of nature
I want to get something straight with homosexuals right now: I don't hate ya
I was a simple being that happened to be the first to wield such powers
I just laid the ground, it was You that built the towers
It was You that invented bombs, and the fear that comes with them
And it was You that invented money, and the corrupt economic systems
You invented terms like just-war and terms like friendly fire
And it was You that didn't know
when to stop digging deeper, when to stop building higher
It was You that exhausted the resources I carefully laid out on this earth,
And it was You that even saw these
problems coming but accredited them little worth
It was You that used my teachings for your own personal gain
And it was You that committed such tragedies,
even though they were in my name
So I apologize for any mistakes I made, and when my words misconstrued
But this apology's to mother nature, cause I created you