Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Rage (violent, uncontrolled hatred and anger) (02/05/15)
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TITLE: Walls | Previous Challenge Entry
By Weeping Skye
02/08/15 -
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“Yes.”
“What was that building?” “Dad said something bad happened there.”
“Hmm...really, what did your Dad tell you?”
“He said when you were little, some people beat up some Indians there.”
Laughing. “No son something happened here long before my time. Sit here and I will tell you a story.”
“Long ago, before my Fathers’ time, before my Grandfathers’ time, it was foretold, that a light skinned people would come here. It was no surprise when white settlers started exploring our hunting grounds. We made contact and welcomed them, as our forefathers had said. One day men in robes came to our village and talked of their God. He sounded like our god. He brought the seasons, the rains, the harvests. They gave thanks to their God, we did the same with ours.They wanted us to follow their God.”
“Chief Paw Paw, did we follow their God?”
“Well...the men in robes were called priests. They asked if they could build a building for their God. Our elders gathered and saw no harm in this, so they let them build. They built what is called a mission. But that’s when things changed. They started forcing us to worship their God. They forced our children to work in their mission. When we did not work, they whipped us. The whippings became beatings. Some of our people ran away. Some converted. Some converted to avoid the beatings.”
“What happened then, what happened to the mission?”
“One day, a priest caught one of the converts worshiping our old god. He became angry. He drug the man back to the mission and started beating him. He told him to repent, but he would not. The priest became enraged, and beat him, and beat him. He beat the man to death. The elders gathered, and were very angry. All the people were angry. They decided they could not have this kind of god in our village. They chased all the priests into the mission, and killed them, then they burned down the mission. What you see standing, is the old chimney. It has been the only sign of Christianity in this village for over 200 years.”
“But Paw Paw, you’re a Christian, aren’t you? And Daddy?”
“Yes...yes we are, but I had to leave to find Messiah. Anger, hate and bitterness burned inside like a hot iron. Look at the scars on my hands. I’ve beat my fist against the walls, and punched through windows. I was an angry young man with nothing to lose.”
“What happened Paw Paw?”
“I don’t exactly remember. I was working on my old car and it just wasn’t going well. I slammed my fist through the window and cut my arm real bad. I was losing blood, but real men don’t go to the hospital. I passed out on the floor. I guess I was dreaming or something. I could see that man being beat. They were beating him, and beating him. I was mad. I had never been that mad before. I yell at them to stop! Then the man being beat looked at me, but it wasn’t the Indian man. Then I looked at the man doing the beating, it wasn’t the priest. It was me! That was the first time in my life I remember crying. Then the man pulled me to himself, and showed me his hands, and his scars. He said his scars weren’t from anger, but from love. I almost died that day. I woke up in the hospital.”
“And that’s when you became a Christian? Why did you come back here?”
“Well son, after many years of anger, walls of building were tore down. Walls of bitterness were put in their place. Walls of a building are easily rebuilt, walls of bitterness are hard to break down. Time is short, our people few, workers even less. I have come here to try to overcome centuries of anger, with love. It will be hard work, but it must be done.”
“Chief Paw Paw.”
“Yes.”
“Can I help you?”
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