This story was written in philosophic response to a brilliantly conceived story titled, "The Resume," by my friend and fellow poet, Patrick Phillips. He does not know I posted this, so I am not at liberty to share the body of the work that inspired this response. The opening paragraph is a brief synopsis of "The Resume", followed by my "Reflections on the Resume." This piece is also a naturally ocurring serial to my "Tale of How Conscious Mind Began," also on this site.
"The Resume" opens in a small downtown cafe, crowded with weary refugees from dismal winter weather. The voice and perspective of the story is that of young man who offers to share his table, and the last seat in the house, with a mysterious stranger who strikes the young man with ominous silent mystery. Overtaken by intrigue, the young man's probing expunges from the mysterious stranger his historical resume of deeds characteristic of Humanity's shadow. The last lines read:
"I am the ultimate wolf in sheep's clothing. . ., friend to the usurper and master of the oppressed --
I am Religion."
REFLECTIONS ON THE RESUME
by Vicky Jeter
(Religion continues speaking) I had just finished properly introducing myself to a young man in the cafe who had extended to me the uncommon decency of sharing his table. Although he was decidedly non-plused by my extensive, if not exactly "impressive" resume, he departed my company with notable haste before I finished my coffee. I chuckled under my breath as I watched him cross the street bracing himself against the increasingly diplorable weather. Happens to the best of 'em every time. I've yet to encounter the soul who will engage the gaze of accountability beyond the time of day.
It was then that I detected the unmistakable resonance of His gaze penetrating my back. I turned around to meet the only eyes capable of expressions hollower than my own. There stood my benefactor, Spirit, a.k.a. God. Donned in His old khaki overcoat and practically rotting tennisshoes, He personified the essence of Detective Columbo on a really bad day--all the evidence of the crime in a birdseye-view, yet at a total loss for the means to bring the culprit to fess up. I offered my hand in a motion that he might take the young man's seat.
"Ah, thank you, thank you." he said, pulling up the chair. The waitress,
sensing it to her advantage, attended to Spirt's order promptly.
"You take your coffee with cream, sugar or black--sir?"
"Bring me a double Blue Max and a box of cubed sugar, please."
Maintaining her advantage wisely, the waitress stifled a huff of indignation betrayed only by the enhanced swaying of her hips as she walked away.
"Blue Max?" I ventured with mild fascination. "That seems rather an exotic drink for such a neutral fellow as yourself."
"Humanity's interminably mindless re-actions to my Presence are beginning to rub off on you, Religion--all too quickly surprised and still quicker to assume.", he said shaking his head, eyes lowered. Each person has the creative capability to take mindful action within universal law and experience Life as yet beyond the bounds of defined imagination, yet they insist on behaving like puppets! I'll tell you, Religion, it is a concept practically beyond conception."
I had never seen him is such a sardonic state.
"I beg your pardon.", I replied, feeling not the slightest bit appologetic. "I only meant that. . ."
"I know what you meant. My point is that the only reason my order surprised you is because you assumed I was going to DRINK it; I am not going to drink the damned things--at least not the first one, anyway."
Making a meantal note to tread lightly, should I ever again suffer the misfortune of catching Him in such a difficult mood, I asked Him the obvious.
"I'm going to light the cubes;", he said with a crooked little grin, "it is beautiful when the sugar burns. Man comes by his paradoxes naturally, you see." He lit the first cube atop the goblet of shimmering blue liquid and smiled as a child who has just discovered matches. "I was eavesdropping on your conversation with that young man," He bagan again, "and I must say, at first it escaped me what had possessed you to belabor the details of your resume with such a sensitive and perceptive individual; he knew you from the moment you set foot in the door. And then I realized that it was not for him to hear--but for me. The principles behind the creative process of Life resulting in that positively foul history to which you must, necessarily, lay claim are so simple they are too easily forgotten in the human mind. Here, Now, I offer you consolation:
Religion, so long have you delivered the universal laws of Being and the creative power of conviction to the doorstep of blatant ignor-ance that you are bound up, twisted and distorted into the utmost despicable and wicked potential within my infinite rhelm of possibilities yet to be manifest in form!"
"And knowing that it can't get any worse--this is supposed to console me?", I laughed.
"Oh! It can get worse. And by the very same process, by the very same laws the experience of living can be transformed into magnificence. The conception of new possibilities within Being is a continuous process. Of course, it can get worse. I just thought it was about time you had an explaination."
"Charming." I granted him my sincere curiosity with just a singe of sarcasm."
"It is inherently impossible to imagine what it is like to be Me entirely, I know, but try. Imagine what it would be like to be ALL that there is. Anything and everything that IS anywhere is a form of my Being. I have no boundaries, no limits, no definition of any kind. I am all possibility, all law and all emotive sensation. I AM First Cause of any thing that is. And. . . , well, before Time began--that is before I particularized the first possibility as an idea separate from possibility as a whole, I wasn't exactly Bored but. . .I REALLY wanted to what I look like. It was driving me nuts. I had the potential for sight, but there was nothing to see. I had no way to reflect on, or experience any. . .
"Wait a minute!", This visual was cracking me up. "This whole outrageous paradox started over your uncontollable longing for a mirror???"
"Yes. I guess you could say that. Anyway, working with this process of specific ideas taking form is splendid! And the thing that is the most marvelous about the whold process of creation is that each new form comes into being with a unique quality of law inherent within its existence. For example, the instant the planetary bodies take form, law sets them in motion in relation to the bodies around them in perfect balance and harmony. I was amazed at this in First Experience. Then Life started popping up everywhere, and I was beside myself with Joy. In plants I am so sensitive to every vibration around me. And in animals I can see and hear--even sing! I'll tell you, I was positively beside myself with awe when I first discovered my Self a living, feeling creature yet inside my own mother."
"If you were so happy with yourself, how in the hell did you manage to screw it up?"
"In the first place, Religion, it isn't screwed up. All causes and effects are subject to the same immutable laws. For example, the principle behind the use of electricity is the same regardless of whether it lights and warms a home, or burns it down. It is the understanding and use of the principle governing an experience that determines the quality of the outcome. Secondly, I still couldn't see myself. Within everything I had become up to that point I could experience and perceive life in a myriad of variable forms, but only according to the inherent nature of each individual form. For example, a bee finds value in the flowers for the nectar they produce--gathering nectar is a deliciously satisfying experience of life, by the way. A number of other creatures value the flowers for the vegitation they provide, but understand nothing, particularly, about the nectar. I knew it was somehow possible within Me to appreciate the flowers and all of Being as a whole, and not just in specified parts.
"Don't tell me--and you wanted it ALL; you couldn't just leave well enough alone, could you?"
If it consoles you not to hear it from the Top, it consoles Me to tell it." His palm came down over the goblet in a caress that drown the brilliant flame in the fluid that gave it life. I opted to refrain from further intuitive comment. He continued: "So, I decided to act directly on the urge to see myself rather than the idea of getting outside myself, and do you know what manifest in that choice, Religion?--Ego! Understand, Ego itself is not at all a bad thing. Ego is merely the power of preference--that quality which has enabled me to objectively distinguish one thing from another. Individual experiences are created as the individual believes and as they choose, and to the extent that they are aware of choices. Ego makes that possible. Indeed, I do see all of life as though I am separte from myself in Human beings; how they have twisted into an experience as though they are entities separate from Me, I am still waiting to discover. You know, of all the basics of principle I have set forth through you, Religion, this one twisted into such an absurdity that even I might have considered it impossible. . . had it not actually happened--because my potential to see and experience the etireity of myself as reflected in them, they are possessed by the delusion that they are what I look like, and not a part of what I AM!"
Presently, a state of distraction emanated into our surroundings, and He began drinking the second of His fanciful firelighters at a nauseating rate.
A measureless silence passed. Then, without even so much as another glance into my eyes, He finished. "With direct communication failing within alarming numbers of individuals, I hired you." Pulling from His pocket the original add I had so unwittingly responded to those thousands of years ago, He read:
" 'WANTED: Go-between mediary to bridge communication gap between the Creator and the Co-creator's of this Universe. Must be flexible, speak all possible languages, and be ready for anything.' I promise you, Religion, if I had considered that what I might be saying was what has become of you, I would have at least given you fair warning. I simply have not lit upon the possibility within Me that will not be twisted by Egotism. I do most sincerely appologize, my friend." We cried, then reached out to each other, and just as I touched Him, He vanished.
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