My Dream is an Allegory

We went to Chesapeake Bay. It looked a lot like Monterey Bay, but grayer. It was the Navy base there, right on the water. It was like a Navy recreation area. On the left side were kayaks, and then paddle boats, and then the swimming area, where we were, roped off for safety.

We swam out into the deep water because it was. Because it was warm. Because the sun was shining. Because fish. Because we could. But then, the sky darkened, and all the people went away, and the swells grew. Beautiful swells, like chutes and ladders, like water slides, like rolling hills you take at a dead run because you have legs. We were way past the ropes.

"What about rip tides?!" He shouted at me. "WHAT?" I yelled, looking over my shoulder as I swam. I checked on my daughter, and my son, and looked back to the front. There it was, nestled between swells, like a snake, silvery and smooth. "RIP TIDE!!!" We were being swept out to the sea, but we knew what to do. "We have to swim ACROSS it!" I yelled back to my daughter, my son, my husband. "WHAT?" "Swim - ACROSS - it!!!"

So we swam and swam. The water was cooling down, churning, graying, and we were getting tired. I looked back, over my shoulder, checked on my daughter, my son, my husband. My son was flagging. So tired. I could feel the adrenaline starting to fight through the cold water and exhaustion. And then I saw his head. It popped out of the water, laughing and winking, and dove beneath the surface. He swam fast, like a dolphin, and caught up. So tired. We kept swimming.

We finally got to the floating dock where the water was all plants at the bottom and the kayaks were tied up, by the shore where it was calm, and the sand was topped with some cement embankment under the water. To stop erosion? Maybe.

Two cars were parked there. Sedans. They were visiting sailors on the base and  didn't realize about the tide, that it goes out, and comes back in. In one of the cars, a couple had fallen asleep after making out. They had jumped out of the car when the cold water on their legs woke them up. The cars were ruined. Insurance wouldn't cover that.

Here we were on the dock, floating, with its little floating empty office. How to get to our car? It was so far away, and we were so tired. We could walk, but we couldn't get there from here, and it was so far. We could swim, but my arms were like jelly. My whole body rebelled at the thought of more swimming.

Of Demons and Pigs

This Sunday's Gospel reading was Luke, chapter 8, verses 26-39. As a refresher, this is the one where Jesus  meets the man who is possessed by demons, who beg Jesus for mercy (not to torment them; to not send them into the abyss). Jesus agrees to let the demons go into a herd of pigs, and when they do, the pigs all run off a steep hill into the lake and drown. The townspeople get freaked out and ask Jesus to leave.

The priest's sermon on this talked about the different kinds of demons, and how we all have them; internal and external demons. As he talked about the internal demons, how they can cause you to speak with a voice that is not your own (as they did in the reading, answering Jesus's questions), I couldn't help but remember The Bloggess's admonition: depression lies (probably at least in part because whenever I think of depression, I think of her wonderful mantra). I had never thought of the lies being in the form of things you say that aren't you - that the lies depression tells aren't  just  "you're not good enough" or whatever version of that you hear, but that it steals your own voice to tell others lies, too.

I love it that this particular priest quotes long-dead saints. Today he quoted (among another) Athanasius as saying (I paraphrase) that demons have no power, even over swine. That goes very well with the Islamic image of the devil as the Whisperer, unable to enact real evil, but who plants evil thoughts in our heads. The Islamic concept of the devil is one I really appreciate. It's much more relatable than the large, evil beast of Hell: We all hear evil whispers now and again.

And that goes right into the next point that this priest made that I loved: That Evil has no real home in God's universe. The demon(s) begged Jesus not be to sent back to the abyss, the void. Any home Evil finds is only a false home - one from which it can be expelled.

So, I have more weapons to add to my arsenal.
Depression lies.
Demons don't belong here.
Demons have no power here (so long as I remember not to give them any).