I shook my head slightly.

      "That's why I had asked you to play Sylvia's role," Ushi added moments later. "You agreed that you would play this role, but you didn't say a word until now. This means that you are either stupid, which I can't believe, or there exists no valid argument that a rational person could bring up against the truth that I have presented. I also would like to suggest that if you had realized all of that while you were in Key West with Heather, you would have made the appropriate arrangements right there and then, with both Heather and Sylvia. I bet it would have worked out great."

      "So, the blame lies with me," I admitted.

      "No, Pete, the blame lies with us all. The blame lies with humanity. It was our history and our insanity that created the conditions for such cruelty to be imposed upon ourselves; the kind that you and Heather have experienced; the kind that Sylvia might experience unless she is able to step out of this box with your help, which I expect will happen. It was the world's stupidity that put us into the rut where all our impasses were created. It put us all into that box in which no one can move unless specifically authorized to do so by the imperial 'largess.' Remember the case of Christ Jesus defending the adulterous woman. It was a case of unauthorized sex; but unauthorized by whom? Was it unauthorized by God or the imperial rulers? Christ Jesus lifted the woman out of that box. In fact, the dissolved the box. He invalidated the imperial law. You and Heather both tried to get out of the box, but you weren't quite able. You weren't quite ready to break the mythology of unauthorized sex, because you didn't understand the nature of the box. You still don't believe that this can actually be done, do you, that this box can be dissolved and the mythology be invalidated? But I have news for you, Peter. You had the courage to test the waters. I believe you would have been successful all the way through had Heather not opted out on her own. You were both thinking in big terms, not small-minded as the rest of the world thinks. You merely stumbled on the last step.

      "I can imagine that Sylvia is probably a lot like you and Heather," Ushi continued. "Do you really believe that you would have asked Heather to step out of your car a block from your house? Do you think that Sylvia would have felt good about it if you had, if she knew? It wouldn't have happened, Peter. It wouldn't have happened in a million years. You aren't that small and that cheap, and that pitiful, Peter. And do you really believe that Sylvia would have closed the door on you and Heather? That would never have happened either. She would have offered Heather a place in your home for as long as she needed it. Whatever problems this might have created, and there might have been challenging problems to deal with, you would have both worked them out. I also think that the three of you would have done this in such a way that Sylvia too, would feel good about it. That's what I believe. That's what I know! I also believe that Heather might have faintly realized that you would have attempted that. She may have had doubts about Sylvia's reaction. That is why I think Heather said, no, no, no way! She was afraid, Peter, of the unknown."

      Ushi laughed again. "Suppose, Heather had been Sylvia's friend, not yours, then Sylvia would have had no reservation with inviting her. But why should it be any different the other way around? Suppose Heather was her sister, which in the truer sense she is. Would she send her away? The very moment that you ask those kinds of questions, the answer stares you in the face and the problem is resolved. That really happens, Peter, in real life. Try it!"

      "The difference lies in what is politically correct according to the prevailing doctrine," I agreed.

       "Prevailing doctrines, yes Peter, that's what people have reacted to for thousands of years," Ushi affirmed. "People weren't allowed to see beyond the tip of their nose under the shroud of doctrines. The greatest atrocities were committed under the shroud of doctrines, and still are. I have been told that 200 million women and girls have been murdered that way over a span of thousands of years in early India, because it had been defined in the Vedas to be politically correct to do that. The same insanity continues to happen under the shroud of the doctrine of political correctness."

Next Page

|| - page index - || - chapter index - || - Exit - ||

Stories about War from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche