This past week I have had a difficult time trying to write anything in part because sometimes it is difficult to make the time and in part because I have hit a bit of a dry patch. Mostly, however, the reason I have had difficulty is because I heard some news this week that stopped me in my tracks.
What I cannot understand these days is our resistance to talk about the Devil. Perhaps it is because we do not think the devil is real or perhaps we do not think there is a personified red horned creature roaming the earth.
Lets get beyond that. There is no red horned creature walking the earth. But do not be fooled, the Devil is real.
Just like Lady Justice is real.
Just like Father Time is real.
Just like Mother Earth is real.
These are all personifications of a reality that is beyond our ability to fully comprehend. Thus we tell stories of these "characters". We tell our family that "Father Time catches up with you" or "you cannot escape Lady Justice" or "care for Mother Earth." And no one raises a stink that there is no such thing as Lady Justice or Mother Earth. No one says these characters are lies or figments of our collective imagination.
Because we all know that justice, time and the earth are real. The best ways we have to talk about them are in the characters.
And yet, when we talk about evil (which I think most agree is real in this world) we shy away from personifying it.
Perhaps personifying evil is not something we want to do? When we personify something then it hits closer to home. It becomes more real, more personal, more intimate. We respect/fear Justice, Time and the Earth. But we keep our distance to Evil.
The more we distance our selves from it the more mysterious it is. Evil cannot and should not have that sort of mystery or power over us. And yet, it does.
I will not hesitate to talk about the Devil or Satan because I have, and I bet you have too, seen evil in this world and in our lives. We have seen evil that has gone unnoticed, unrealized, and kept in the shadows only to continue to raise all sorts of hell in this world.
The devil is not "real" but I have no better way to talk about Evil, which makes the devil worth embracing.