FURTHERMORE
By Gerry Moran
Was there ever a time, I wonder, when there was peace on this planet of ours? I think not and the bickering, the squabbling, the fighting, in my humble opinion, started in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Here’s how it might have kicked off. Eve: “And what do you call that piece of frizzled, frazzled foliage parked between your thighs?” Adam: “It’s a fig leaf, dear, and it’s covering my jewels.”Eve: “Your JEWELS! Huh. I can think of other names for them but I’m too polite to utter them and besides, You-Know-Who is always listening, always watching.”
Adam: “Who? Big Brother? And are you calling God a peeping Tom?”
Eve: “Funny. Always the smart answer, Mister Man.”
Adam: “And what do you call that piece of crinkled foliage poised precariously between your thighs? Because whatever it’s meant to be doing it’s obvious you haven’t waxed in weeks.”
That was the start of it. And then there was the episode with the apple which they were forbidden to eat but Eve nevertheless proffered it to Adam who, gobdaw that he was, took a bite. And we know the rest. But apart from Adam taking a bite out of the forbidden fruit (which led to further bickering) God, I reckon, was sick to death of their squabbling and turfed them out of the Garden on their ears, and dishevelled fig-leaves. “Out, out, out” I can hear him roaring. And here we all are today toiling and moiling in this valley of tears. And I personally think it wasn‘t so much the bite out of the apple as the non-stop bickering that God found intolerable.
And the bickering, the squabbling, the conflict go on to this day – it’s called war. And getting back to the Bible, we have Cain murdering his brother Abel in a jealous rage, Abraham ready to sacrifice, KILL, his own son Isaac, Samson slaying a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. Some jawbone! Some ass!
And we read about wee David taking down the Philistine giant Goliath with a shot from his sling. There’s no shortage of violence in the Bible, the word of God! Is it any wonder we’re a violent species.
On a very much more serious note, I get upset seeing what’s going on in Gaza. Day after day men, women and children are murdered; day after day, words of outrage and condemnation from world leaders, not least from our own Tánaiste. Words, words, words but no action and the killing goes on. And on and on. And the mighty US (and America, I believe, will never be great again no matter who’s at the helm) looks on and on, and keeps fuelling the flames of war.
What a pathetic species we are. And seemingly powerless to prevent the constant atrocities. A while back this newspaper ran an article called, Why have aliens not visited earth? There are several theories: firstly, there are no aliens out there, we, homo sapiens (really?) are alone in the Universe. The best creation has to offer? Scary. Secondly the aliens may have been far more advanced than us and abused their technology (just as we could – think nuclear weapons) and annihilated themselves.
Thirdly, they may still be in the Dark Ages and working on the wheel. My own theory, however, is that they came, they saw – the violence, the carnage, man ‘s godawful inhumanity to man and said: “Let’s get the hell out of here.” And who could blame them?
I’ll finish my rant with a quote by the American historian Paul W Schroeder (1927-2020) that resonates powerfully with me in these murderous, and barbaric, times in which we live: “Trying to eliminate all the possible nests and sources of terrorism through military action is like trying to kill fleas with a hammer; it does more damage to oneself and the environment than to the fleas.”
I’ll leave the last word to the great American composer Leonard Bernstein (who composed the wonderful music to West Side Story, a tragic love story based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet about violence between two rival gangs. Ring a bell?): “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”
I wish, Leonard, I wish…
