Good and Evil (in a Tent)
I was sitting in a tet. Actually, I wasn't sitting in a tet, I was sitting in a tent. I noticed two insects climbing up the tent wall, both of them within my arm's reach. The first was a delicate-looking baby dragonfly. The second was a wasp.
I decided to pretend that the Tent I was in was actually a human soul. The baby dragonfly represented all the good aspects of the human soul. The wasp represented all the evil aspects of the human soul.
I thought it might be interesting to have a philosophical conversation with the essences of Good and Evil, so I said to the two insects, "Which of you is stronger? Which of you will outlast the other?" Neither of them said anything back though. I was disappointed. Perhaps the essences of Good and Evil grow tired of eternally debating with each other. I decided on a completely different topic that might provoke discussion: "If all the religions in the world fused in to one, what kind of robe would the Priests wear?" Still no answer.
Then I decided to single handedly remove evil from this human soul.
"I'm gonna KILL you!" I said gleefully to the evil wasp, which was unresponsive.
Then I paused. Did I really want Good, the innocent dragonfly, to witness my brutal murder of Evil? Even if I was murdering the essence of evil, it was still murder, wasn't it? It could still corrupt Good, couldn't it?
So I unzipped the tent and gave Good a gentle nudge. "Go on!" I said, poking the dragonfly a second time, and it flew out the unzipped tent door. "Don't go too far though!" I called after it, "I'm gonna want you back when I'm done!"
I grabbed a newspaper. I decided the cartoons page would be an appropriate murder weapon to use against Evil. I rolled up the comics and gave Evil a violent smack, expecting to see Evil squashed on Charlie Brown's t-shirt. But alas, when I pulled away the newspaper, Evil was not dead. The little wasp was merely wounded, and was now pathetically stuck to the side of the tent, his body broken, his wings flailing in a tormented sort of way. He was clearly in agony. "Stop that!" I said, "STOP! You're supposed to be EVIL! You're not supposed to conjure up sympathy! You're ruining the metaphor! You should have died instantly, like the villains do in the movies!" The insect continued to miserably twitch and suffer. Sincerely hoping that Good wasn't watching, I lifted the comics page again, and gave the wasp another smack. This time the tiny creature plummeted off the tent wall. I looked for him on the ground but I didn't see him anywhere. I assumed I had killed him. Good, unfortunately, was nowhere to be seen, but at least the soul was rid of evil.
I listened to my Ipod for a while.
Then, I saw something moving. To my shock, there was the wasp crawling up the side of the tent, completely unharmed. I remembered reading somewhere that wasps have very resilient bodies. Rather than see another pathetic display of pain, I simply unzipped the tent and let Evil go free, to join Good in the forest around the tent.
"Bye!" I said as the tiny Evil wasp zoomed away, where it presumably started stinging toddlers for fun. At least Good was out there too.
I sat back down. "The tent's empty," I said, "What is a soul without Good and Evil?" But perhaps the more important question is, "Does good or evil exist in the soul in the first place?" Can the human soul really be divided in to two rigid categories, one of which gently treats other souls with love, and the other of which enjoys recreational murder and rape? Or is the human soul more complex than that, something that at one moment can discuss philosophy and gently escort insects out open doors, then the next minute crush other living things with comic strips?
I looked up at the ceiling and saw dozens of other insects, all of them completely beyond my reach.