Query 29, Seeking an Ember Among the Ashes

[Daveparts]

Query 29, Seeking an Ember Among the Ashes
By David Glenn Cox


So there the wise apes stood, cornered by their own wisdom seeking to avoid their own demise armed with only the power of speech.

In the courts of the corporate kings the rambling and mutterings of those outside the palace walls offer solace and salvation but like the sins of Montag it is wrong to hear such heresies. As the leaders confer with those in line and agree that to lead we must follow and to follow is to lead.

Stories of true life fantasy, of wizards and gnomes and frozen far away places of mechanical men and shiny cars! Dream not of real life warlords, Dream not of real life. Live in an imaginary sandbox of child’s play. Ignore the desperation of those living around you and cover your eyes with Technicolor play pretties.

Gutenburg is replaced by Marvel and Hollywood by Chucky Cheese. The stories of evil must be imaginary evil; imaginary cruelties of cruelties unimagined by evil unacknowledged, evil ignored evil placated by merely looking the other way. The industry of enlightenment seeking their own navel putrefied inside their own bowels losing themselves on their path in their search for nothing.

No place at the table, no need to look further, like waiting for gold to mine you. Media megaliths with the capacity to portray worlds being destroyed without the courage to face even one real tear. Living in the gray shadows of their black and white predecessors who once thrived on the blood of humanity who sought fire without codechrome.

You have drawn yourself into Escher’s prints, from making make believe to becoming make believe. From having imagination to imagining that you have imagination inside a tightly scripted formula. Maybe there is one? A chosen one, living outside the fear of perdition. One that sees reality as more than singing and dancing and wars as more than futuristic star fighters and smoke bombs. Willing to drag the ugly portrait from the attic, with the courage to stare directly into it. To understand the nobility of those who struggle in life. Their courage to stare down their would be oppressors. Their courage and godliness to never consider any other course.

That struggle, nobility, love and purpose in the cause of righteousness is more story than all the wizards, toy cars, mechanical men and star fighters combined. That the message, I am a righteous man is of a higher calling than wishing we were some where else playing as children far far away.

The Servants of Pilate (word count 175769)