Lucky Dip Number 20
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The Sentinel
A sentinel came from Eden to the world of women and men and brief must be his visit before he stood guard again. He came to fulfil a commission to find what humans had made of the knowledge of good and evil and the singular price they had paid. But this was never the Eden our forefathers said was once known, but one where self-consciousness entered and a place where divergence had grown until life, in this Eden of instincts, became barred to the nature of men, but a river flowed out of the garden by whose banks they need always remain. The Eden the sentinel came from knew little of evil or good for the strong there preyed on the weak - though as seldom for other than food most often the strife of its creatures in nature a balance maintained - and the sentry was sent out to ponder what if mankind had remained? He asked of the world he came to where war had been raised to an art if the Tree of Life in the garden might then have been torn apart? He asked if tribal divisions meant reason had been overthrown for follies and hatreds were witnessed such as Eden had never known. And greed was extolled as a virtue while pollution pressed hard in its train - if this was the pattern in Eden could mankind be allowed to remain? And what of the life of the spirit define this however you will for so many remained on its surface nor knew what it meant to be still. In his short stay he failed to encounter the myriads of women and men who have eaten the fruit of goodness and the fruits of evil disdain; nor learned he of human genius in science and music and art nor the glory that once had been Greece, that might someway have softened his heart. So the sentry returned to Eden a guard who never would yield, for scenes from the world he had witnessed were emblazoned on sword and on shield. |