Don Gray
Art Essays, Art Criticism & Poems
Advisory from God...A Poem"I have spoken to you many times, in many ways, during your time on earth. Sometimes you heard me, or acted as if you did. But, mainly, you paid no attention, ignored what I had to say. Throughout your history, you have behaved as if I did not exist; or worse, as if you did not care. "Are you able to hear what you daily think and say? Can you conceive of what you do, consider the consequences of your misdirected actions? You are my creation. I did not intend you to be this way...too often trivial, barbaric. Not all things in life must be serious, profound, perhaps. But, I will not countenance evil. "And, understand...I was thoroughly serious when I created beauty in the universe. I was serious when I created immensity. I was serious when I created the stars, planets, systems. I was serious when I created fearsome light and darkness. I was serious when I created earth. And, my children, I was serious when I created you. "And since I was serious, I expect you to be serious...honorable, ethical, clean. I do not expect you to be childish, greedy, murderous, corrupt. I do not expect you to destroy your fellow man, use the myriad complications of a ruthless, willful brain to work your vile, ingenious ways on planet earth. "I do expect decency and honesty. But, since you are, and have been, neither decent nor honest, I must decide how I will deal with you. As your creator, all options are open to me. I can do whatever I will, from yet another unheeded warning, to the utter destruction of the human race. I can do this. I can do anything; whatever I wish, believe is just and due, if I so decide. "I should tell you...I am not like you. You think I am, but I'm not. I am not a creature of untamed passion, ill-timed thought. I do not become angry when I look upon the evil that you do. I am not sad when the death I bring comes to visit you. I am not happy when I see my creation doing well. I just am. And, as I am, I wish my world to function with integrity, simply as a matter of course, because I intended it to be that way from the beginning. "Nothing else is acceptable to me. Not angry, not happy, not sad. I want my world, and you its people, to function properly on the basis of ethics and ideals that are the substance of my being. However trying conditions are that I have established for your lives, you will not weaken my intrinsic, universal ethic out of concern for exigencies and expediencies of living. Life, death, poverty, disease...you will not abandon the right that is the basis of my creation. This not negotiable. "This is my world. I allow you to reside here. I made it the way I wanted to make it, as I saw fit to make it. I made it the only way it could be made. You will abide by the principles upon which I brought the world and your lives into being. You will be honest. You will be honorable. You will be reasonable. You will be decent to those with whom you come in contact (or never know exist), in your family, on the streets, in the stores, in your businesses, fields, factories, schools, governments. "You will do no harm to your fellow man. You will not be petty or think petty thoughts. You will not be pleased by misfortunes of others. You will not perpetrate crimes, scenarios destructive to health, happiness, freedom or finances. You will do no evil. You will live an honorable life, aspiring to ever greater truth and goodness. Until the end of your days, awareness of what life is, what you are and what I am will increase. Immaturity and ignorance will decrease; understanding of the meaning, purpose and poetry of life grow. "I may not be angry, happy or sad. I do not hate or love. But, I am not neutral. I do not accept your failures of development. Your performance, for far too long, has been quite unsatisfactory. The extent and voracity of your limitations and trespasses completely contradict my purpose in your creation and that of the world. You are not what I intended. You are a blight upon the earth, a pestilence in the cosmos. Do you really believe I created you that you might become a pestilence? "I have allowed ample time and opportunity for you to grow in awareness, realization of your place on the planet, your destiny among the stars; that you might change your ways, evolve in thought and act, poetry and perception. But, no. Since you first appeared on earth, generations without number have issued forth from me with infinite capacity for good, only to become mindless replicas from a sad and savage mold, selfish, stupid, cruel. "You think, if there is thought at all -- mindlessly believe -- I created the world just for you, your profit, pleasure and misdeeds alone. You actually believe, or act as if you do, that you are going to live forever, free to plunder as you wish, for as long as you wish, murdering and enslaving, over millennia, uncountable other human beings I also created, placed on earth the same way I granted you a life-time to walk upon this singular sphere. "You cannot do this. You cannot think this. You cannot act this way. You are not my vision of the human race, not my intention, my expectation. You are brash, noisy, empty, crude; pride yourselves on shallow cleverness. I will not allow it. Therefore, here is what I am going to do. This is my judgment for being barbaric, heartless, loathsome, cruel. Here is your punishment, most well deserved..." Copyright by Don Gray
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