[Death Wish, 603 words, Genre: Experimental]

* Image courtesy of Dirk de Bruyn

He had gone about sabotaging his own life. Proclaiming that he was the degenerate scum, that he was filth. He took upon himself all the sins of mankind, all the full while knowing that he was innocent. Why would he do such things? For what purpose did it all serve?

It all served the greater purpose of playing in our culture. Giving individuals’ something to do. Somewhere to go. To bask in the colourful journey that was life. To live a tale, to live a life. To be part of something in which all others were absent.

Life is a journey. It is nothing more. Even though he, Edward, did go about life setting himself up as some human embodiment of the trickster. He was, all in all, just another poor sap who could proclaim no advanced degree of wisdom in any field. There is no winning in the greater schematics and repose for the subsequent deliveries of manifest destiny.

The story of the trickster is that he is accompanied on the path of his life by some fool. The fool accompanies the trickster throughout his life and seeks to outwit and outsmart him at every turn. It is not that the trickster is attempting to win. The trickster knows that he will lose. The fool seeks to outsmart him at every turn. At every precipice the fool thinks he is more clever than the trickster. But the fool knows not what the trickster is attempting to achieve. The trickster is simply playing the role of teacher to the poor fool. For he knows that the fool will one day have knowledge and once the fool overthrows the trickster, then he has more problems as a victor, than he ever did as a fool.

So why did Edward, who embodied the trickster god, go about sabotaging his life the way he did? Calling himself criminal, calling himself a deviant, calling himself all manner of unspeakable things. It was because he had a death wish. He knew his ultimate fate would one day be to be spurned and cast out. So why did he throw onto himself the chains and bondage of cruelty and oppression. Why did he proclaim himself a bastard if all he was was an innocent man.

The answer was thus, to act as evil he was to make heroes out of all his friends. And show that everything was not as it initially appeared.

Edward was not the man of evil intent that he often did proclaim him to be. He was a generous spirit, he was an embodiment of service… He was not actually a being of evil that he often profiled himself as. He was a kind hearted being that was simply attempting to do the best for all of the others.

An individual in any course of action must not make an assumption. For to show that a man is guilty, he must, of course, be proved guilty. A simple declaration that a man is guilty does not necessarily make him guilty. He may, of course, be lying.

The gods all go about teaching us lessons as they have for centuries previously and centuries to come. They are archetypes. They are our friends and compatriots.

They are the simple building blocks of the journey that we undertake. Identities and nothing more.

The trickster knows that he will lose and for this he does not play to win. He plays the game because of all the interesting things that happen along the way. If anything his ultimate goal is death and he achieves that, we all achieve that.