Beautiful Penance [CrWr]

As the years pass by... and peace triumphantly lives on... sometimes the satanic instinct arises, and engulfs all that’s good...
Such is my story...

Once upon a time, billions and billions of years ago, I was but a young kid, just about a couple of million years ago. My cousins and I were always at play! I was young, bold and restless—a winner by blood, a winner who knew not defeat...

That fateful day we were playing yet another game; I knew I’d win, I always did, but no, not this time. One of my little cousins, the youngest, the tiniest one, defeated me! I couldn’t believe it! I, the mighty Earth, defeated? No way! I always had to win, no matter what.

My obsession with winning had nurtured a devil within me that I never knew of, till I saw the ugly face of defeat. And now, when I saw it, I let the devil rule. He talked, I listened, he commanded, I followed, and I ate up my cousin. My little cousin! I ate him up! As the others watched in horror and disbelief, I ate up my cousin! He instantly melted into me, making me feel like he was never meant to have an independent existence. I felt so great, so powerful. I had become bigger, stronger, mightier. I loved the new me!

Years passed by--millions of years that is. My bent of mind shifted from shock to pride to loneliness to grief... My passion to win gave way to my yearning to play again, to lose again—hoping that would rid me of the albatross around my neck. But I myself had severed the delicate ties of relationship so cruelly! Who would play with me now?! I shivered with the cold—within. Not knowing what to do, I continued to be the cold, lifeless planet I had become.

And one day... I suddenly felt an excruciating pain. My penance? I hoped. A meteor, a distant relative, had struck me. Dust flew off in all directions spectacularly. I was still, shocked, and in great pain. But by and by, with each passing day, my pain became more bearable, and the dust collected, into a solid mass, about a quarter of my size!

You all know this mass, he is my little kid. He’s is the eternal symbol of love, beauty and charm. . . popularly known as THE MOON.




(6 March 2007)