stupid cultural assumptions, #436
Jan. 29th, 2004 10:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingI decided, in my infinite wisdom and power, to write more about Ekanu since I'd actually gotten something decent a few days back. So I took it from the beginning, when she leaves home.
And of course, neglecting everything I know about her culture, I wrote in a 1990s middle-class American parent-to-teenager argument.
*slaps self upside the head*
I think I'm projecting myself too much.
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I am so glad I don't have classes today. The wind is horrendous, and it's blowing snowdrifts all over the place at vicious speed. These are the times that make me wonder why in god's name I wanted to come to western New York.
Then I remember the rest of the year, and the waterfalls, and I am renewed in my faith. Or something like that.
Non sequitur: I always thought it was peculiar that I knew more Christian arcana and Biblical stories than the actual Christians and Jews in my high school classes. And it sneaks into my writing, too. Big on the (self) sacrifice, the sin and guilt complex, and the polarized view of the universe. Of course, I tend to write about people working against that, and I deliberately create other traditions, but it always boils down to morality in the end.
It's funny. I'm more scared of there not being an ultimate evil than of an ultimate evil existing. Because ultimates imply a purpose and a framework. Then again, a purpose and a framework can become strangling prisons. But the idea that horrible things happen for no reason other than chance or desire, and that we have no justification for pointing at anything and saying, authoritatively, "This is wrong," is scary as hell.
And I have no idea where that little discourse came from, so I'm shutting up now.
And of course, neglecting everything I know about her culture, I wrote in a 1990s middle-class American parent-to-teenager argument.
*slaps self upside the head*
I think I'm projecting myself too much.
------------------------
I am so glad I don't have classes today. The wind is horrendous, and it's blowing snowdrifts all over the place at vicious speed. These are the times that make me wonder why in god's name I wanted to come to western New York.
Then I remember the rest of the year, and the waterfalls, and I am renewed in my faith. Or something like that.
Non sequitur: I always thought it was peculiar that I knew more Christian arcana and Biblical stories than the actual Christians and Jews in my high school classes. And it sneaks into my writing, too. Big on the (self) sacrifice, the sin and guilt complex, and the polarized view of the universe. Of course, I tend to write about people working against that, and I deliberately create other traditions, but it always boils down to morality in the end.
It's funny. I'm more scared of there not being an ultimate evil than of an ultimate evil existing. Because ultimates imply a purpose and a framework. Then again, a purpose and a framework can become strangling prisons. But the idea that horrible things happen for no reason other than chance or desire, and that we have no justification for pointing at anything and saying, authoritatively, "This is wrong," is scary as hell.
And I have no idea where that little discourse came from, so I'm shutting up now.
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Date: 2004-01-29 04:48 pm (UTC)This is where Buddhism (IMO) has a useful framework. I admit to having only a marginal knowledge of Buddhist principles, but I do recall that the Buddha supposedly said "All life is suffering." So if you think in those terms, then it's normal for bad things to happen. That doesn't mean that it's not wrong for people to go out and do horrible things; the Golden Rule is a very simple and (IMO) easy to understand moral and ethical code that people ought to be able to follow regardless of any "commandments". But we can't control how other people choose to behave, which means evil will always be with us. But that doesn't mean we have to accept it either. We can choose to fight it. [/homily]