Omphaloskeptical Odyssey

In the beginning, there was a mind
or perhaps it was a body
or perhaps a summation of the two intertwined.
The point is:
there was a body and it had a mind
or there was a mind and it had a body
And, oh gods, it was self-aware.
 
And awareness was a delicious smorgasbord of knowledge, intent and curiosity.
And the so the body gloried in dew-dripped fields,
and the mind reveled in new information yields.
Until, one day, out of nowhere, a mind/body died,
ceased to be,
gloried no more in fields of any sort.

And the body/mind's eyes bulged.
And the mind/body's breath quickened.
And it understood that it too would, one day,
Cease to be and know no more.

While the body/mind ticked quietly towards its doom,
the mind/body went quietly insane,
reluctant to reveal the depths of its pain.

"What a tragedy, this inevitable end of me!
I must exist, I want to BE."
And the mind/body despaired.

For the mind, while aware that it had not been aware,
before it was aware.
and aware that it was not aware for most of the night,
did not, in fact, want to be aware that the glorious confusion
and profusion of experience would not, in fact, go on forever.

Unless, maybe it could?

And so the mind gathered its body, and set off to cheat doom.

In the passing of time and space,
the mind body discovered other body/minds,
who were willing to sacrifice more of their kind,
because they believed that would stay their own end.

So they would draw on their charts
and cut out some hearts
and offer them up the sky.

Because someone once said
in this book they once read
that it is water, wind, fire and stone
that turns a body/mind into some bones.

"Maybe if you proffer
some gore in a coffer
the elements will leave you alone."

So hearts they uplifted
and entrails they gifted
but never their friends or their own.

But no matter the bodies offered in death
no other bodies were given more breath
and the mind/body cried
as innocents died.
So, cloaked in shame and darkness, the body/mind left.

And the mind/body wandered.

And soon enough it found
bodies prostrate on the ground
in front of statues of marble and clay.

"What you've stumbled upon
is our august pantheon!"
a believer sidled closer to say.

"We worship mind/bodies of terrible powers!
Certainly powers greater than ours
and, in return, they keep death at bay."

So the mind/body stayed
and every noontime it prayed
to the gods of hunting and sunshine and rain.

And it looked for signs
from the mighty god minds
and found them in the storms and the seasons
and the stars and the seas.

And sometimes the signs,
with respect to other minds,
said to enslave or to kill or repress other kinds.

And sometimes the signs said to dance in this way
and to sing in the spring
and to speak words aloud
in sync with a crowd.
But the bodies of believers continued to die.

And sometimes the signs said you have to believe
or go to war with all Steves.
but still bodies died and no boon as received.

And sometimes the signs said give gods your wines
and perhaps tasty food
and make more marble statues
of us in the nude.

But despite all the signs
and the gifts and the rest,
their bodies still ended in perpetual rest.

The statues would not speak
and the strong still killed the weak

So the mind packed up its body and moved on.

After a time, it met a new mind
different, but not, from the last.

"The problem," they said, "is all gods are false,
except for THIS one,
who is terrifying, all-powerful and kind.
and while we must still look for signs
we must be resigned
and submit to the one true god mind today."

"For if we repent of our past
and surrender at last,
the God mind above,
stuffed chock-full of love,
will give us the immortality we ask."

"And woe and beware
to any mind who would dare
to refuse such a generous gift.
For they will suffer and die
and eternally fry
in a burning subterranean rift."

This was confusing
this loving abusing
but the mind decided to try.

So the mind, for a while,
went along in this style
and practiced submission and faith.

But through all of the love and the guilt
and the churches they built
the bodies of minds continued to die.

And it wasn't enough
the believing and stuff
and an afterlife up in the sky.

The believers and such
were not happy that much.
And with no visible gain
from this strictness and pain
the mind's faith faltered,
and the body moved on.

A ways down the line
it met a new mind:
quiet, at peace and serene.

This mind wouldn't say much
about religion and such
except that it thought it was kind of a crutch.

"The trick," said this mind, "Is to try to accept
that at living forever, we're kind of inept."

It bad the mind's body to sit
and to draw some deep breaths
and to contemplate the concept of inevitable death.

So the mind's body sat
on a simple reed mat
and reluctantly admitted that the body would die.

Breathing through fear
it was eventually clear
that thought the body would die
it hadn't quite yet.

"Perhaps," thought the mind,
"It is the goal of our time
to be conscious and kind
and to give a leg up to those coming behind."

And while there was peace
in this conscious release
the bright world outside
would not be denied.

So, in time, the mind's body walked on.

The mind travels still
its body goes where it will
to explore with the time it has left.

And all that it knows
is the body will go
and the fate of the mind can't be guessed.

And while it hopes there is more
beyond that black door
it's okay not to know what, just yet.

All it can do
is to mind's self be true
and hope in the meantime,
before it meets death
that the body it loves
is not wasting its breath.