Going the long way to how this jazz riff comes to be ... There are two things that are lovely things to do with me, but for the person doing them, they always backfire:
Tell me what I can't do, but you're not God, and so you said it, but don't have the power to enforce it
Tell me that who I am is too much or this or that ... but you're not God, and so didn't make me or measure me
Both No. 1 and No. 2 relate to people meeting us and taking a position that they are better than us and they can access things we are not allowed to have ... whatever the "moon" is, they don't think we should reach it ... but it was the devil who first tried to usurp God's place over all creation, so, when people come at us like this, guess who they are REALLY representing in trying to usurp all that authority?
(Now you know where all this jealous energy in the world is coming from, and why people can get ALL OUT OF POCKET trying to pull other people down)
I make it my business to stand my ground and do and be what it is God has given me to do and be, and generally, the folks in the devil's spot get shown up as I end up right where I am supposed to be!
Oftentimes when I am creating, my mind goes over into all three areas of art I work in ... music composition and writing are strongly linked. So, when our friends in the Ink Well community put out a spooky full moon prompt, and with Halloween coming up, I thought of the so-called devil moon, an interesting phenomenon in which, during a lunar eclipse, everything is hidden but the very edges of the moon .. if it is the bottom edge, the resulting visual resembles glowing upturned horns ... thus, the "devil moon."
Which of course raised this question for me: "Whose big idea was it to even think of letting the devil have the moon?"
I have not done enough research to have an answer from tradition, but it's a NO for me, which gives you the orientation of the story I wrote right there.
Why a jazz tune? In the Ink Well Community I am doing a series of tales about a family from Black French Louisiana -- the Dubois family, part of the Lofton County Universe that stretches from here on Hive to Amazon.
Of course, if you know your jazz history, you already know Louisiana is the birthplace of jazz, specifically Dixieland jazz ... think Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, the famous New Orleans second line ... some of the world's greatest music!
So, as I was conceiving this story idea, the jazz riff came to me as well ... something Louis Armstrong would sing, and then scat, and then get on the trumpet with ... not a lot of words, but not always necessary ... this was not a whole song, but a mood to go with a story of an humble young man in old Louisiana who is not supposed to be able to have the girl of his dreams because the son of a feared family skilled in ancient, powerful practices common to Louisiana is also intent upon having her, and is willing to use all his powers to get his way ... but, see No. 1 and No. 2 above, and my explanation to understand how that contest is going to come out ... or, feel free to enjoy the longer story this riff goes with!
@deeanndmathews/the-ink-well-prompt-35-why-should-the-devil-have-the-moon