longer.blue

~ Angels and devils Deceiving naivety "I was told by god" ~ There is a quotation mark in this haiku, and that is where everything happens. The poem builds quietly through its first two lines and then delivers its final line in inverted commas — and that typographical choice is not decoration. It is an indictment. The first line, 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘴, opens in the oldest theatre known to human imagination. These are the original cast of the spiritual drama, the forces of light and darkness that every major tradition has placed at the edges of human experience. But the haiku does not position them as opposites. It places them together, side by side, as if they belong in the same breath — and perhaps that is the point. The line suggests that the distance between an angel and a devil may be smaller than we have been led to believe, that both can wear the same face when it serves them. The second line, 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘢𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘵𝘺, is where the poem finds its compassion and its edge simultaneously. Naivety is not stupidity. It is openness — the genuine, trusting willingness to believe that the world and the people in it mean well. It is the quality that makes children beloved and makes congregations vulnerable. To deceive naivety is not a neutral act. It is a particular kind of violation, one that targets the best of human nature and turns it into a door. The third line, "𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘥", arrives like a hand on the shoulder in a dark room. It is the sentence that has started wars, justified abuse, silenced women, displaced peoples, and closed every argument before it could begin. The quotation marks do not mock faith. They interrogate the human habit of borrowing the loudest possible authority to end conversation, avoid accountability, and dress personal desire in the language of the divine. God, it turns out, has always been remarkably convenient. ~ Highlight and Paste ~ This observation was made with the assistance of claude.ai. ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To support me, visit: https://tinyurl.com/andy-rukes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~