A dream came to me early this morning of magicians and spirits, undoubtedly spurred by my watching of the Amazon series, “Britannia,” about the Roman invasion of Celtic Britain in the 1st century, but it was not of Druids alone. Rather, I was drawn to another cinematic event, a movie called “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” in which King Arthur must cross a tenuous rope bridge hung over a vast gorge separating life from death. There he is confronted by a ghoulish sentry/wizard who asks him a question that he must answer correctly or be thrown into the emptiness for all eternity. In this movie, the question is silly: “What is the velocity of a flying sparrow?” To which King Arthur answers, “The English sparrow or the North African sparrow?” The ghoul hesitates, stumped, and is then himself thrown into the bottomless pit, which King Arthur then crosses with ease.
Good humor, but the Monty Python crew must have been aware that a challenge after death is believed by people in many countries and tribes throughout the world. For Christians, one is judged by Christ at the end of times; for Catholic Christians, one is judged upon death and then sent to his just reward until the Last Judgment, which might be redundant. In any case, it is made clear by all such beliefs that one cannot come into the presence of the Holy without either proof of a good and/or heroic life on earth, or without some sort of purgation that makes one worthy. What is also made clear is that this holiness is not an easy thing to come by. Most cannot pass the test. The great blessing for Catholics is that most will be given mercy and sent into Purgatory, and THEN delivered into the presence of the Holy, for without the mercy of God none of us of purely humans – none –are worthy. What this means is that it is almost universally understood that most of us harbor deep imperfections in our character, so much so that no Christian would ever admit to being without moral flaw.
Such I was reminded not only by King Arthur, but also by another series we are watching about Jeffrey Epstein, which I believe is also on Amazon. In this, we are brought into the truly evil machinations of Epstein, who made his fortune running a Ponzi scheme on Wall Street - primarily, it seems, so that he might pursue his sexual obsession with underage girls. Not one, mind you, but hundreds and hundreds, most brought into his orbit by other girls who had been lured to him by others. We find, in fact, that Epstein had created a Ponzi scheme for young flesh by paying each girl who came to him $200.00 to bring in their girlfriends, who, after sex, were also paid $200.00 for each girl, and so on and on. Clever and cold and evil.
We also find that others, such as fellow crooks in Wall Street, certain sexually fortified politicians, and kinky billionaires, were brought under degrees of control by him. Says a Wall Street partner in crime with near reverence (paraphrase), ‘He had a gift. He could bring you under his spell with remarkable ease.’
The series makes you aware of this spell, but of something else as well: that there was a certain degree of complicity with almost all of them. That might be unfair, and certainly not in the legal code, concerning underage girls, but consider this: the girls were lured in to give a “rich old man” a massage, for which they would be given $200.00 dollars. Even at age fifteen, most girls understand that something like this is courting extreme weirdness if not danger. And then afterward, most went back after being molested to bring their friends in for another $200.00 a head. Certainly they weren’t adult, but most could not have been unaware of the wrongness of their actions.
And so it continued. The Wall Street partner was a crook himself, a regretful manager at Bear Sterns kept Epstein on after caught in lying because he made money for them, a billionaire let himself be robbed of 40 plus million because, as some say, he was ‘in love’ with him, and so on. With few exceptions, there was something in most of the victims that allowed them to become victims, and like Satan, Epstein was able to see that weakness and exploit it. Clearly, few of the victims themselves would have been able to cross the bridge into holiness. Their flaws were found and used with remarkably accurate and evil skill.
As the world has long known, so it is with all of us. We all have fatal flaws, and it is in the hero’s mold to overcome them, often after first succumbing to them. We have St Peter as the greatest example, as he denied Christ three times, only later to die for him on the cross himself, but the list of such heroes is endless. It is likely that each of us comes across his (her) weaknesses some time in life, and then tries at some point to atone for them. It is not always easy, though, to make up for a murder or some rotten deed from long ago, and so it is that Catholics have the sacrament of confession. Here it is believed that their sorrow at their misdeeds is heard by Christ, who then, by virtue of his sacrifice, can forgive them and let them cross into heaven. So it is that they still have to meet the ghoul or Holy Spirit on the bridge, but are given a pass, albeit usually only after further purgation.
Some refuse to carry guilt. Some, like Epstein, have no regret and so earn the label “evil.” Most, however, are not evil, even after they do evil things. In the making of the documentary, many of the girls confessed to intense guilt for bringing their friends in. The financier in the Ponzi scheme also confessed his feelings of guilt, and for all of them, going public was their form of redemption. We should admit that we are no better. We can be and have been lured into wrongful behavior not only because the one who lured us was so persuasive, but because something in ourselves wanted us to do it. In my own case, I can recall doing stupid, even some bad things in my teen years, not for the things themselves but for the social status they might bring me. I was complicit in wanting to be admired and so fell into the trap. The seed for doing wrong is there for just about everyone.
This has relevance. While I might read this a year from now with an attitude of “so what?,” right now we are suffering through the riots following the murder-by-cop of George Floyd and it seems like a big deal – just as it seemed during the riots after the Rodney King trial, and the Ferguson riots after the death of another black man who was not quite as innocent as Floyd. We have all seen the video. We all agree that what the cop did was wrong. All the police involved are being prosecuted. So why the marches? Why the smashing and looting? What overall good is coming from it all? What overall good came from the former riots?
In retrospect, we might want to stop judging this event one way or the other to see clearly why what is happening is happening. Is this phenomena, we should ask, ultimately the work of angels, or the work of demons taking advantage of our own weaknesses, including a lust for revenge and ego inflation? If the latter, how can we expect a good outcome? And if the latter, how can we come to terms with ourselves after this is all over and things are only worse? History tells me that we can do so only by clearing our souls, if only for a moment, of the debris of our own insecurities and selfish desires. Only then, it seems to me, can we cross the bridge separating us from self-delusion and truth. In the end, this is the journey of the hero that all but the most evil are compelled to take.
A dream came to me early this morning of magicians and spirits, undoubtedly spurred by my watching of the Amazon series, “Britannia,” about the Roman invasion of Celtic Britain in the 1st century, but it was not of Druids alone. Rather, I was drawn to another cinematic event, a movie called “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” in which King Arthur must cross a tenuous rope bridge hung over a vast gorge separating life from death. There he is confronted by a ghoulish sentry/wizard who asks him a question that he must answer correctly or be thrown into the emptiness for all eternity. In this movie, the question is silly: “What is the velocity of a flying sparrow?” To which King Arthur answers, “The English sparrow or the North African sparrow?” The ghoul hesitates, stumped, and is then himself thrown into the bottomless pit, which King Arthur then crosses with ease.
Good humor, but the Monty Python crew must have been aware that a challenge after death is believed by people in many countries and tribes throughout the world. For Christians, one is judged by Christ at the end of times; for Catholic Christians, one is judged upon death and then sent to his just reward until the Last Judgment, which might be redundant. In any case, it is made clear by all such beliefs that one cannot come into the presence of the Holy without either proof of a good and/or heroic life on earth, or without some sort of purgation that makes one worthy. What is also made clear is that this holiness is not an easy thing to come by. Most cannot pass the test. The great blessing for Catholics is that most will be given mercy and sent into Purgatory, and THEN delivered into the presence of the Holy, for without the mercy of God none of us of purely humans – none –are worthy. What this means is that it is almost universally understood that most of us harbor deep imperfections in our character, so much so that no Christian would ever admit to being without moral flaw.
Such I was reminded not only by King Arthur, but also by another series we are watching about Jeffrey Epstein, which I believe is also on Amazon. In this, we are brought into the truly evil machinations of Epstein, who made his fortune running a Ponzi scheme on Wall Street - primarily, it seems, so that he might pursue his sexual obsession with underage girls. Not one, mind you, but hundreds and hundreds, most brought into his orbit by other girls who had been lured to him by others. We find, in fact, that Epstein had created a Ponzi scheme for young flesh by paying each girl who came to him $200.00 to bring in their girlfriends, who, after sex, were also paid $200.00 for each girl, and so on and on. Clever and cold and evil.
We also find that others, such as fellow crooks in Wall Street, certain sexually fortified politicians, and kinky billionaires, were brought under degrees of control by him. Says a Wall Street partner in crime with near reverence (paraphrase), ‘He had a gift. He could bring you under his spell with remarkable ease.’
The series makes you aware of this spell, but of something else as well: that there was a certain degree of complicity with almost all of them. That might be unfair, and certainly not in the legal code, concerning underage girls, but consider this: the girls were lured in to give a “rich old man” a massage, for which they would be given $200.00 dollars. Even at age fifteen, most girls understand that something like this is courting extreme weirdness if not danger. And then afterward, most went back after being molested to bring their friends in for another $200.00 a head. Certainly they weren’t adult, but most could not have been unaware of the wrongness of their actions.
And so it continued. The Wall Street partner was a crook himself, a regretful manager at Bear Sterns kept Epstein on after caught in lying because he made money for them, a billionaire let himself be robbed of 40 plus million because, as some say, he was ‘in love’ with him, and so on. With few exceptions, there was something in most of the victims that allowed them to become victims, and like Satan, Epstein was able to see that weakness and exploit it. Clearly, few of the victims themselves would have been able to cross the bridge into holiness. Their flaws were found and used with remarkably accurate and evil skill.
As the world has long known, so it is with all of us. We all have fatal flaws, and it is in the hero’s mold to overcome them, often after first succumbing to them. We have St Peter as the greatest example, as he denied Christ three times, only later to die for him on the cross himself, but the list of such heroes is endless. It is likely that each of us comes across his (her) weaknesses some time in life, and then tries at some point to atone for them. It is not always easy, though, to make up for a murder or some rotten deed from long ago, and so it is that Catholics have the sacrament of confession. Here it is believed that their sorrow at their misdeeds is heard by Christ, who then, by virtue of his sacrifice, can forgive them and let them cross into heaven. So it is that they still have to meet the ghoul or Holy Spirit on the bridge, but are given a pass, albeit usually only after further purgation.
Some refuse to carry guilt. Some, like Epstein, have no regret and so earn the label “evil.” Most, however, are not evil, even after they do evil things. In the making of the documentary, many of the girls confessed to intense guilt for bringing their friends in. The financier in the Ponzi scheme also confessed his feelings of guilt, and for all of them, going public was their form of redemption. We should admit that we are no better. We can be and have been lured into wrongful behavior not only because the one who lured us was so persuasive, but because something in ourselves wanted us to do it. In my own case, I can recall doing stupid, even some bad things in my teen years, not for the things themselves but for the social status they might bring me. I was complicit in wanting to be admired and so fell into the trap. The seed for doing wrong is there for just about everyone.
This has relevance. While I might read this a year from now with an attitude of “so what?,” right now we are suffering through the riots following the murder-by-cop of George Floyd and it seems like a big deal – just as it seemed during the riots after the Rodney King trial, and the Ferguson riots after the death of another black man who was not quite as innocent as Floyd. We have all seen the video. We all agree that what the cop did was wrong. All the police involved are being prosecuted. So why the marches? Why the smashing and looting? What overall good is coming from it all? What overall good came from the former riots?
In retrospect, we might want to stop judging this event one way or the other to see clearly why what is happening is happening. Is this phenomena, we should ask, ultimately the work of angels, or the work of demons taking advantage of our own weaknesses, including a lust for revenge and ego inflation? If the latter, how can we expect a good outcome? And if the latter, how can we come to terms with ourselves after this is all over and things are only worse? History tells me that we can do so only by clearing our souls, if only for a moment, of the debris of our own insecurities and selfish desires. Only then, it seems to me, can we cross the bridge separating us from self-delusion and truth. In the end, this is the journey of the hero that all but the most evil are compelled to take.
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