The young
mother had travelled miles from her home across the desert with her infant son.
She fled a murderous tyrant whose murderous regime had put the safety of all
young males in her homeland in jeopardy. She carried her young child in her
arms.
Her older
husband, José - who had agreed to marry her despite her state of pregnancy, contrary
to the dictates of the honor/shame tribal culture they shared - accompanied the
two of them. He was a humble, deeply spiritual man. He told anyone who would
listen that angels had come to him in his dreams and told him that he should
still marry this young, unwed mother he loved and adopt her child.
So he had. But when
the armed men came to their towns, killing young boys with abandon, driven by a
tyrant fearful for his own power and privilege, they both knew they had no
choice but to flee.
It had been a
long journey, engaged in the cover of darkness. They had come on foot across
wide stretches of desert. When they came to the border of the neighboring land,
they were met by other men of power. They told the men their story of terror in
their homeland, saying that they sought refuge, asylum in this new land. Most
of all they sought protection for their young child whom they believed had been
sent by G-d to save them all.
But the men of
power would not let them pass. They immediately separated the husband from the mother
and child. And eventually even the child would be taken away from his mother as
well. Upon her return to her homeland without him, Maria would tell all who
would listen that it was as if a sword had pierced her very heart.
The child was
now separated from both his parents in a strange land where even the
rudimentary language he possessed was not spoken there. The men of power, bearing
deadly weapons now, came and escorted the child to a hearing before a magistrate
of the tyrant king. The magistrate demanded that he justify his presence there.
He had no idea what they were talking about and no one was provided to help him
in that appearance.
Soon thereafter
they placed him in a cage not unlike that which was used to contain animals.
They would deny him regular bathing or brushing of his teeth. They would make
him sleep on the cold stone floor with but a blanket, one of many children sharing
that overcrowded, noisy cage.
The child who
had been sent from G-d to save them would soon disappear into a system of
prison camps and foster homes. He would face abuse from guards and the threat
of sexual abuse in the foster system. He would never know what happened to either
of his parents. And then, one day, the men of power would come and take him
back to the border to which he and his family had come for refuge, force him at
gunpoint back across the border and turn and walk away.
He would be alone then, left to survive on his own. His life thereafter would prove to be brief and anything but memorable. There would be no books to record his thought, words and deeds. And in the end, no one would remember his name.
He would be alone then, left to survive on his own. His life thereafter would prove to be brief and anything but memorable. There would be no books to record his thought, words and deeds. And in the end, no one would remember his name.
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Harry Scott Coverston
Orlando, Florida
frharry@cfl.rr.com
hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com
If the unexamined life is not worth
living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is
not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.
For what does G-d require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d?
(Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures)
Do not be daunted by the enormity
of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are
not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami
Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)
© Harry Coverston 2019
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