We are Haunted by Ghosts of the Past
The Book of Eve: Battle of Jericho
Do ancient stories have any bearing on modern issues?
I worked for years with a Jew for Jesus and a group of Lubavitchers who insisted that "God Gave Us The Land" .
I joked with themthat Baal gave the Canaanites "The Land". Their answer: "He's a false god. Our god is TRUE, so it's ours". Their claim, and Bibi Netanyahu’s, is based on ased on the Book of Joshua, in which the Israelites at God's command, invade the land of the Canaanites and kill everyone in Jericho.
FAKE NEWS is not a modern invention. The book of Joshua was, "nationalist propaganda of much later kings of Judah and their claims to the territory of the Kingdom of Israel". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jericho. So no invasion, no genocide. DNA analysis says that today's Jews and Arabs have something like 50% Canaanite DNA. So, likely they are roughly speaking, the same group. (The origins and intermingling of peoples in the Middle East is, let's say, complicated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Palestinians )
Bottom line for this story is t It's a several thousand year old family feud. I spent years as a family therapist. Family feuds are the worst. Who's right and who's wrong is often the way you punctuate an ongoing cycle. Family therapists try to “reframe” the stuck stories of the various members into something that gives them respect and agency.
Not easy with whole cultures. But maybe we can change the stories:
My take on the Jericho story has Eve challenging God for misleading her into murder.
God: "it’s just a movie”. Send it back to rewrite?
Well, God isn’t going to change the story. It’s up to us to move forward.
Howard, in his works, explores how monuments that propel the past into the present, enable the ghosts of the past to haunt the present.
Mary, in her works, explores the iconic appearances of additions to the streetscape of fire plugs, ship tie offs and other geometric shapes. These forms spouting from facades, roofs and beneath the street often suggesting unseen portions extending far beyond what is visible. She encounters them in the present, often in a state of profound decay and neglect until called upon to perform their ultimate purpose.
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