“We are not here for that. I wanted your company, I wanted the pleasure of washing your sweet body, but I need to enjoy this with purity, just to love the softness of you, the sweetness and beauty of a miracle made real.”
“You’ve come back weird!”
“Just you wait!”
1607
We started with giggles and teasing, but I soon was kneeling, soaping her little body with a feeling of awe and adoration. Her eyes became dark as she stared, absorbing my feelings.
1608
“Why do you feel like this about me?”
I countered, “Why do you feel like this about me?”
“That is different! You are everything to me. I cannot help it.”
“You think it should be different for me? You think my love comes from not knowing you as you really are?”
“Robert’ (my full name? She was feeling serious!) “I am not complete yet, too much of me is still an emptiness, there is not much there for you to love.”
“How about we fill that emptiness? Jade, you are a baby, a true baby. That means your mind still has to absorb and learn. I hope to see it grow and I will do all in my power to help it achieve it’s potential. I can tell you though, what there is of you, I love.”
“I feel it. You always make me feel so special!”
“Sometimes I am not as loving as I want to be. I have been spending too much time looking in the wrong places, but now I think you will start to find yourself within the core of my heart and mind. Maybe you will even like it?” I teased, but she only shook her head seriously, her little face earnest.
“This is the first time I see you at peace with yourself since…well, in a long time.”
“Alki, through good and bad times I have always been able to feel your love. It was like a warm blanket trying to keep the cold winds out of my heart. I have not been as good at letting you feel how important you are to me and how much I have grown to love you.”
That was all I had wanted to say and it was all I needed to - the rest of the evening we spent in a warm, happy and pleasant family get-together. We shared a bottle of wine at the neighbourhood taverna and we both spent a good deal of the time watching our family and letting the richness of their love and happiness soak into us. It was good to see his eyes become open windows, no longer trying to hide his concern and worry.
“You have all been walking on eggs while around me. I have made you slaves of my own fears and disturbed your hearts with sorrows and worries for no reason. You all sense a change in me, even I can feel that reckless happy go lucky energy has returned.
I have called you here to celebrate this the first day of freedom for all Cherinians. You are wondering what the hell I am talking about?
Let us start by being a little more general. I will begin by presuming that our unique situation has given you all cause to look at the world, watching for the changes that could affect us.
Let us start with words like ‘freedom’, ‘equality’, ‘human rights’. These are a few words that have grown to be very important. Within the last hundred years we have seen countries go to war, not because they were attacked, not even because an ally was attacked. They went to war because of those words. To help a people somewhere attain those same rights that so many of us take for granted. You may be cynical if you wish and tell yourself that those were not the real reasons the politicians took their countries to war and you may be right, but what does matter is that the public believed them and those were the reasons the men and women offered their lives.
Movies and novels have given us many stirring words, or just repeated words that touch the heart. We all know the saying that I may disagree with you, I may even hate what you are saying, but I will die in defence of your right to say it?
A large percent of us are too young to know what I speak of from experience, so just listen, keep your hearts open and use your minds.
Anybody looked around to see what is happening today?
I think it is a law of nature that even idealists, when they come into power look for ways to eat away at the rights of their citizens. I am not being cynical, nor am I saying politicians do it for sinister reasons. We make jokes about politicians, forgetting that many of them sincerely are devoted to their countries and wish to leave a mark in history they can be proud of.
1609
In most cases, when we are asked to vote for them, they speak about our rights as adults to choose. They speak about our responsibility as adults to vote. They claim we should see past all the flimflam and choose wisely. What is the first change in attitude once they are in power?
They feel we are not capable of thinking and choosing wisely (ironic isn’t it?), and that they need to pass laws to protect us from our own immaturity and foolishness.
Let me give you an example. You are not only advised of the reasons why it is advisable to wear a seatbelt when travelling in your car - you are compelled by law and punished if you do not. That was but one example, but it serves very well. If you do not wear a seatbelt are you placing others in danger? I have not seen any proof that you do. However, in some odd situations, the danger to your own life can be increased. Common sense says so, for example, if your car catches fire and in the panic you cannot release your seatbelt - sorry, it was not just a theoretical example, it has happened. Think of how many other things we do which increase the probability of your dying. Climbing cliffs; jumping out of aeroplanes; exploring caves, you name it - there are hundreds of dangerous sports. Should we ban everything that poses risk to life? How would you like it if the person next to you has sole right of decision, deciding for you what you are permitted to do and when and how you may risk your life? What if your child is in danger and the person next to you does not allow you to risk your life? Do you honestly believe the politicians and social workers are wiser, more like God, all-seeing and knowledgeable? Are they less selfish?
The laws, when they are to be passed are presented in such a way that the ordinary man says, 'it makes sense, they are only trying to protect those who are too stupid to protect themselves'. Very few stand up to call out that the government is taking away a basic human right - the right to decide for ourselves what levels of risk are acceptable to us. Since economics drive us, why didn’t they empower insurance companies to reduce the cover we pay for, if we claim for an accident when we did not use seatbelts, why make it a punishable offence? Even those who fought in wars to protect those rights, sit back complacently accepting the law as being good for us. Those who protest? They are given demeaning names, even the word protester has became tainted.
I am not against all laws, even some that may seem to erode our rights. If statistics prove that driving above certain speeds make me a danger to others, my rights cannot take precedence. Where laws are promulgated only for my own good, they are contrary to what I believe in, for it means that I am not being treated as an adult, equal in rights to the do-gooders who are making decisions on my behalf, without my permission.
I do not only get upset that those in authority try to pass such laws but, even more, I do when I see the people meekly accepting such laws - always because it protects some other idiot, not themselves - after all, they are clever enough to see the need for seatbelts. If statistics were taken, I would not be surprised to find that those caught and punished for not wearing seatbelts are mostly the very same people who believed they were the smart ones.
There are hundreds of laws being passed or in existence that are justified as being there to protect us. All of them erode our basic human rights. Finally they will one day have passed so many of these laws and we will be so accustomed to it that we truly will have less rights than most adults give their own children.
Aren't we repeatedly warned that we must let our teenage children make their own mistakes, that over-protecting them will stop them from becoming emotionally independent entities, preventing them from maturing and becoming responsible adults? Perhaps they should advise us the opposite now, so that they will not chafe under the restrictions and laws that turn them back into children?
Man has an inborn strong need for freedom, to have the right to decide what he does with his life, his money and his family. Within reason it would have been healthier for society if that was respected, for otherwise we only go in circles. Things will reach a point where either people will rebel, sicken or become the immature adults the governments are trying to turn them into. With new technology the governments are finding it easier to control the lives of their citizens and this makes them complacent, thinking nobody will be able to rebel. Why do people put up with it? Too often, logic is the curse that fights our instincts - to our detriment. Logical reasons are given and because people want to feel safe and protected and want to believe in their country, they allow their rights, piece by piece to be eroded.
If I may, I would like to read aloud something I read,” I held up the book with it’s lurid cover, “The Delta” by Colin Wilson. “It is a science fiction story, but this is the paragraph that I liked: It was then, as they entered the slave quarter, that he suddenly knew the answer to the question that had troubled him so much. That was why men craved freedom more than security and comfort: because freedom meant a certain richness of experience, and experiences in turn meant discovery of their own possibilities. Without richness of experience, there could be no discovery of their inner powers. That was why men hated slavery; because it meant inner stagnation…
1610
What has this to do with Cherinians, why did I call you here to celebrate the start of the freedom movement amongst us?
I have felt your love and worry during my recent problems. None of us, myself included could understand why I was behaving the way I was. The reason was very simple; I was at war with myself. I am at heart an anarchist. I resent any encroachment on my rights, where such rights harm no other person. Luckily the very words we often use betray the way we think and in this particular case opened my eyes to what was going wrong.
Would you all look at my wives please? What do you see, a bunch of kids mostly?
The truth is I know that even if they still need the experience of having lived day by day through a number of years to reach true maturity, they are in many ways even more mature than I am. If they choose to age their appearance, they are seen by the world as mature women, not as silly immature women. That would imply that their appearance affects the way we presently see them.
Jo, yesterday you called them my wives, not my girls. That has happened many times, but when an adult calls them my wives I am pleased, see it as a compliment to my girls. However, you are not a normal adult,” (everybody laughed) “you have devoted your lives to children. If you, being who you are, could see them as my wives and not as my girls it had to mean something.”
I paused, taking my time. I wanted them to think about it for a moment, try to guess in which direction I was taking this. I saw Solomon and Ordinx whispering to each other and Jo, who could hear them, looked startled and looked me in the eyes. I only smiled at her and looked away.
“Nine times out of ten I call them my girls. I will continue to do so no doubt - unless they rebel after tonight. I am a very lucky man to have them as my wives, but I love thinking of them as my girls. Even poor Dominique. This will be discussed between us when we are alone.
The realisation of what I was doing, the implications of my attitude, I teased and nagged at it until I was able to see where it led. I love all of you, thank goodness I do not have to prove it as you can all feel it. Being who I am, I also feel the need to protect all those whom I love.
Ahh, I see a few of you have woken to where this is leading. Let me first say this - you all know how hard I fought all of you. I did not want to be your leader. If I had to be your leader, I did not want you to venerate me, think of me as infallible. It scared the hell out of me.
Think of this. Most of you think of me as a leader of the number of people sitting here. Vaguely you know I am also accepted as a leader by other races but, what the heck, they live in the void!
Look at it another way. If I have the numbers correct, I am accepted as leader by billions or trillions of people!”
That shocked the hell out of them. There was a murmur of astonishment and as I waited a whispering grew amongst them. Finally it died away as they came to understand.
“For anyone to be ‘accepted’ as a leader it would be thought that person sought to be a leader. You all know I did not. It has been thrust upon me from all directions - what was I supposed to do?
I will tell you what I did try to do. I tried to lead as little as possible. I wanted to let each of you make your own mistakes, learn and grow. I even took it to extremes, causing you all hardships during the last two conflicts. I could have, from the void, have nullified them, ended the conflicts early on. In my judgement both I and you needed the conflict so as to mature and learn about ourselves. To my mind it was worth the risks I took. When it also became a way for our friends to help and show themselves to be our allies, it was too good an opportunity for bringing us closer. I have been judged, as you know, as being responsible for placing you all in danger, as being responsible for the bomb blast that hurt my little girls. I will wait for his return and accept such responsibility, but I confess that I will have to admit that if I could return and change what happened, I probably would not - even if I still have nightmares from seeing my loved ones hurt.
I hope you enjoy reading this story of fantasy, adventure and love - and should some of it be true for our reality, I hope you will love our Cherine.
Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)25th September, 2019
- posted on PALNet - Steemit - WEKU - CreativeCoin: 25th September, 2019
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