Sometimes I worry about me.
The picture is of a ceiling, not a cat, but I thought it looked sort of alley-ish.
I’m not Pharaoh, but if I was, I would rip this—this Moses’s—head off his shoulders and feed it to the alley cat that waits in the street. If they were really hungry enough to eat such a monster.
I’m not Pharaoh, but if I was, I would challenge this murderous God. The God that punishes us all for Pharaoh’s sin. The God that curses us for not worshipping him even though he never told us of his presence. The God that takes it out on innocents.
I’m not Pharaoh, but if I was, I would take the children of the Hebrews and stab them all. Let the babies go cold in their parents’ arms so they will never again laugh at the cat outside, never yawn as they wake up in the morning. Never grow up, have children, families. Hebrew babies, dead because of their leader, like the Egyptian children are dead because of ours.
I’m not Pharaoh, but if I was, they would all burn in hell. I would no longer care if their God took revenge because what more do we have to lose? Our livestock, our crops, our children. Leaving me with a daughter with no brother and a husband with no son.
I’m not Pharaoh, but if I was, I would make them pay, make them suffer. Call in the powers of our gods, Egyptian gods, and torment them until the end of time.
I’m not Pharaoh, but if I was, I would have acted in the interests of my peopleand not let their God bend my mind.
I’m not Pharaoh, but if I was, I would offend our own gods by killing the cats, drowning them in the Nile, because they sit outside looking in as they did before, back when my son might spare a little food—just yesterday, but so long ago—and they have no right to be here when he has been taken from us. Since I picked him up just in time to feel him disappear, go slack, head tilting to one side, never finishing his breath, never finishing his sentence.
I’m not Pharaoh, but if I was, I would have my revenge.
If I was Pharaoh, perhaps I would have earned this punishment. But I did not, no more than the calf lying dead out behind our hours or the sobbing woman in the street or the baby birds littering the yard.
But I’m not Pharaoh.
And I’m not God.
And I can’t do anything but hate.
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ReplyDelete(Reposted because I wanted to change a grammatical error. Oopsie.)
ReplyDeleteThis seriously made me think and wonder...about a lot of things.
I usually try my best not to lose faith in my God and religion and if I start wondering about things that might make me lose faith, I stop thinking about it entirely. Because I still want to believe.
But this...I can't say I opened my mind entirely to your opinion on what happened with Moses(still trying hard to keep my faith) but I did open it up enough. You made me realise a lot of things. And question some things too.
The thing about writing is...it not only allows you to express your own feelings but my parents pointed out to me how it makes a difference to society too. It opens others up to your views and some times it can change things. Big things.
As much as I'm currently feeling slightly bad about questioning my religion, I'm glad you wrote this. Thank you, really, for opening my mind to things I never thought of (or maybe were afraid to think of) before.
This was, as always, very well written. I could feel every ounce of hatred you felt while writing it. It has opened my eyes and I now see things from a completely different perspective.
ReplyDeleteSome sentences here sent shivers down my spine. The... intensity of the whole thing is just... wow.
I can honestly say that you're the only author that actually /gets/ to me. The way you write, your idea, your style, everything. You should really consider becoming a professional.
'Till next post.
Ooh, hate! I love this blog, it has a great theme with the ishes. I'm Manga, FIY.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting perspective approaching this biblical story, taking the role of an unnamed Egyptian subject to the plagues, and the anger and hatred could clearly be felt just by reading this. It’s good.
ReplyDeleteAbout the aspect of religion, well, I was never really into religion of any kind. You can blame a certain government for that, but anyway, I think the anger in this story directed at God is valid and reasonable. Wasn’t killing every firstborn child in Egypt a little overkill? After all, it was only the Pharaoh who was refusing to let the Israelites go? (Correct me here if I’m wrong, because I haven’t done religious studies for two years and my knowledge is rather patchy.) I’m sure a Christian could give me a decent answer to why this was so, but I’m not quite sure if I’ll be convinced (this is only my personal opinion so any Christians reading this, feel free to challenge this.)
But yeah, I think it was a tad unfair, perhaps, for God to punish the other Egyptians. I also think there are plenty of modern life parallels to this. E.g. in places like war stricken zones, where often only the ‘enemy’ (subject to interpretation) and the ‘good guys’ (also subject to interpretation) matter, and people who are caught in the crossfire (sometimes literally) don’t have a choice but pay penance for mistakes that were not theirs to begin with.
A little thing…my personal opinion (and I’m probably being hypocritical), but sometimes the repetition of some of the phrases (“The God…” “The God…” repetition especially) was a bit too much. I know that repetition gives emphasis to the phrase, but I think “too much of anything can make you sick”, applies here a little (Oh dear, I just quoted Cheryl Cole. I don’t think I’m feeling very well today.) - by repeating too much, you’re actually taking some of the power and emphasis behind the original idea.
Woah. I just wrote a whole lot. Sorry about that.
Anyways, so yeah, carry on writing.
This made me think deep, real deep. That whole idea of revenge is so old yet still so very - human.
ReplyDeleteAs always, well written.