The Next Testament

Empires rise and shine.  Sooner or later they run out of fuel, and shrink.  Maybe it’s firewood—they burn it all.  Maybe it’s wheat fields, succumbing to drought.  Maybe it’s the loss of common sense, collapsing in the darkness of closed minds.  Whatever it is, each empire falters, bleeds out.  Each fire finally dims as another blazes.  These transitions register suddenly, while the critical gravities gather slowly and silently.

The rise and fall of empires are reflected as fractal patterns in see-saw cultural shifts, such as the recent collapse of Harvey Weinstein:  “instantly” women are empowered to speak out against sexual abuse and manipulation.

Well, first of all:  YaaaaY!!!

But let’s look beyond the moment, and ask what has been going on here . . .

Why are so many cultures around the world mean to women?  Really, really mean.  And humiliating.

Who thought this was a good idea?

Apparently, men.

Men have been bullying and silencing and abusing women in a lot of ways in a lot of places for a lot of centuries.

Have you ever visited a society where women beat up men and rape them and pay them less?  And then kill them?  Um, no.

Misogyny is so pervasive.  Whether overt or covert, it’s pretty much a world-wide, full time/space continuum.

Why?

Wouldn’t everyone—without being instructed—revere women, at the extreme fundamental minimum, for giving birth?  Or are some guys somehow upset by such a miracle?  Is it jealousy, guys, because no man could ever achieve anything equaling birth?  Or are you, the hirsute mastodon-slaying monster, secretly afraid of women?

Let’s look at what the French call la difference.

Masculine energy.  Feminine energy.  Two different trajectories, two distinct interfaces with life.

If you’ll indulge in the gloss of over-simplification based on our hereditary roles:  Men kill.  Women nurture.

Not that all killing is pure evil.  Not at all.  To be sure, murder is often pure evil.  Yet killing is also life feasting on life.  In the natural world, killing is a vital part of the process.  And in the human realm, we have to kill to survive, either plants or animals, your choice, but no matter how you cut it, you have to kill to live.  It’s part of your job here, to keep the goods in motion.  Biological energy doesn’t want to stand still.

And men are good at killing. God bless ‘em.  Whether it’s wheat or whales or cotton or mutton or mussels, men will bring home the bacon.  It’s good, honest work, this kind of killing, and it’s pretty simple.  You either bring home the bacon, or you become brunch.

While men kill, women nurture.  Turns out the nurturing thing can be a lot more complicated than the killing thing.  Nurturing weaves fluid combinations of observation, adaptability, subtlety, and quiet assertion.  This skill set, in toto, emanates from a subtly complex interface with life–a degree of complexity beyond the direct, blunt, forceful elements of execution.

It’s not that simple, of course.  The yin/yang/ masculine/feminine/ yoni/lingam tide ebbs and flows in each of us.  Which brings us, obviously, to the Ten Commandments . . .

Let’s just say maybe the societal benefits conferred by these Commandments could have been more felicitous.

Maybe we should consider these ten the Men Ten Commandments.  Which is to say, they seem quite Dad-ish, as opposed to Mom-ish. Mostly they are either  [1.]  I’m The Boss, or  [2.]  What Not To Do Commandments:

*     The first four commandments are basically God staking out his total domination.  I mean, that’s OK, he’s God, he can go on about Himself if that’s what He wants.  But does His Lordship really have to spend forty per cent of the Commandments expressing His power?  (Sounds like a guy with some insecurity issues, aye?)

*     That leaves only six Commandments regarding stuff to do or not do.

*     Four of the six are stuff not to do, which people do anyway:  lie, kill, covet, cheat, and steal—and, by the way, the killing seems especially popular with governments and religions.

*     So only two Commandments are stuff To Do: honor mom and dad, and keep the Sabbath.

It’s not that the Men Ten are bad.

However, The Men Commandments have been around since Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the tablets. (Or was it lozenges?)

And we like the Old Testament.

We like the New Testament.

A lot of us think those Testaments are pretty great.

At the same time, a lot of us hunger for the Next Testament.

So—let’s consider that a critical part of the Next Testament would be the Next Ten Commandments.  And for a fresh start and a fresh interface with life, they should be the Women Ten Commandments . . . what might they be?

Well, here goes:  Maybe The Next Ten Commandments:

1. Lighten up.
2. Help someone.
3. Change your mind.
4. A thought is a thought only the first time you think it.
5. Don’t let thy brain become thy spleen.
6. If you want to know where you are, look at your feet.  Twice.
7. It’s not about you.
8. It’s more fun to give than to receive, and receiving is really fun.
9. Freedom and responsibility form a dynamic continuum.
10. Ten commandments are not enough.
11. Acquire new tastes.
12. Keep learning.
13. Women:  write new commandments.
14. Men:  pay new attention.

The predominance of male energy served our species well enough during its kill-or-be-killed phase.  We are in a different phase now.  We’re dialing in a different quality of energy.