Manila
Gods – once revered and died for, now dead and forgotten. Every culture thinks they are right and their gods are forever. Every culture dies away and leaves their gods as oddities in museums.
Religion is power. Spirituality is sharing.
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It was extremely impressive to see the remains of this incredible temple. It is salutary to see how mighty empires and religions fall. Our empire, culture and religions will one day be nothing more than a historical relic. All our lives and beliefs no more than traces.
Fascinating to wander through the Manilla museum. One gets a glimpse into the past – the art, the gods, weapons and instruments of a life that no longer exists. But it can fuel the imagination.
We travelled around the city in a cycalo with me taking snaps of anything that caught my eye.
This was a major trading place. It was constructed to be impressive. The caravans would come in with their spices and produce. They were meant to be intimidated.
It is amazing.
A fascinating place with a dangerous clash of cultures, religious fervours and extremism. History meets the future!!
Down The Ages
Down the ages,
A battle for power,
Church and state.
Threats,
Promises
And propaganda.
Caught in the middle,
Manipulated,
Controlled,
Exploited –
US.
Opher 23.1.2021
Just imagine if a fraction of all the wealth appropriated by the state and religion was divvied out to the people?
Everyone could live a life of quality.
Throughout the ages the greedy, power-mad elite in church and state, in a lust for even more, have robbed the poor and created war after war.
These people were supposed to have our interests at the centre of everything they did.
Their selfishness and greed shines through history leaving misery and destruction in their wake.
Same today – nothing changes.
Gods – once revered and died for, now dead and forgotten. Every culture thinks they are right and their gods are forever. Every culture dies away and leaves their gods as oddities in museums.
Religion is power. Spirituality is sharing.
History
Blood, pain and games
Down the desert wastes of history;
A struggle
For wealth and power
Where the winners
Write the wrongs
And most
Just disappear.
History:
To slay, torture and desire,
With impunity,
In a game
That has no rules;
Where compassion
Is a stranger.
Opher – 19.12.2019
History is no more than a record of the wealthy and powerful in their ridiculous games; tales of intrigue and cruelty, greed, passion and fury in which ordinary lives are of no consequence.
It is peppered with violence and ruled by the worst of human nature.
History is a record of our failure.
Looking Back
Perhaps in decades to come
You might come across an image of a man
Looking back at you from a familiar place.
You might notice his stance,
His dress and demeanour,
And ponder at the focus of his gaze.
You might wonder what he is looking at, seeing and thinking,
And wonder about his life and intent.
When you look at that frozen moment,
Forever captured in that instant,
It might stimulate your curiosity.
What was the story of that moment?
What was going through that mind?
Where was he going?
What life had he led?
What world had he moved in?
What was this moment all about?
Now when you return to that familiar place
There is an empty space where that man had once been.
Now there is a story
That will never be told.
Opher – 4.5.2019
I wrote this in response to a photograph of a canal. It was a photo taken a hundred years ago. A man was walking along the tow-path, is dark suit with a cap – only a hundred years ago, but a million miles of change. The world he lived in was an alien planet.
He was looking at the camera. His eyes were thoughtful. It made me wonder.
I am familiar with that stretch of canal. It hasn’t changed much. But the world has changed around it.
I look at the place and can picture that man. It makes me wonder what world he inhabited, his thoughts, dreams and wishes, and how his life panned out. What was in his head when he looked up that day?
Will someone look back at an image of us in a hundred years’ time and wonder?