"Next"
I found Him in the shining of the stars,
I mark'd Him in the flowering of his Fields.
But in His ways with men I find Him not....
Why is all around us here
As if some lesser god had made the world
but had not force to shape it as he would...
- Alfred Lord Tennyson
We can banish as many gods as we might like, yet if the aggrieved annals of mortal emptiness teach us anything, it is that, surely, there will be more Gods Almighty to come, once the force is no longer with us.
Offering a cursory performance review, I'd say that the God of Abraham and Paul and Mohammed and Joseph Smith Jr. has rather a lot to answer for, and should perhaps consider stepping down when His term expires. You'll find the "Next?" suggestion box over there.
Or, maybe. Maybe it is simply time for the real puppet-master of this baffling existence to step out from behind its innumerable god-masks and introduce its ineffable, incomprehensibly expansive, and utterly unreliable Self to us.
Maybe the Upanishads got it right, eons ago: tag, you're It; indeed, we're all It, which is to say, altogether we make up the mind of God in His universe, and We're playing a game of hide-and-seek with Ourself, divinity in human drag. But to what end? Purportedly We know that too, in our hearts, but just won't say. When I consider this possibility, it seems like the urgent cry of a terribly bored Godhead in need of either psychotherapy or a few playmates. Even so, this prospect leaves me with the trace of a suppressed smile.
TITLE - "Next"
WHERE - Bhaktapur religious compound, Nepal (2019)