There are books I buy to read, and there are books I buy that go into the closet shelf, never to see the light of day again. Eduardo Geleno’s book, Genesis: Memory of Fire Volume 1 is like a zombie in that regard in that I ended up reading some of it and after picking it back up, only to put it down again, not because it’s bad but because life’s complicated. Actuallly, I’m choosing to write about a paitcular folk tale in the book today pricely for how disturbingly good it was. It’s titled The Spider Web and I remember instantly thinking about that web being over all of us already, even now.
The whole thing is about a paragraph long, but really freaked me out in that it sounds more like a prophecy come true. It’s a priest named Waterdrinker and his dream about “outlandish creatures” making big webs around us all. Then he wakes up and tells everyone that they will “live in square grey houses, in a barren land, and beside those square gray houses you shall starve” (41-42) And that’s it! That’s all that happens. It freaked the hell out of me pretty fast, thinking about the general cubicle shape of American architecture. Then I looked at google maps and all the roads resolved into what looks like a big spider web covering up everything we spend the majority of our time living in.
It was weird and cool to read that; that’s the kinda writing that makes me believe in prophecy. Unless I’ve been hoodwinked and this folktale was made up in recent times. Man, that’d be a bummer.
I imagine, that is this story turned out to be a real record of the real Waterdrinker, that in his dreams he must have seen all our big construction equipment and Skid Row or something. Then he wakes up, only he doesn’t have the language to talk about our present day exactly because he’s never seen it in his life. But was he wrong? I don’t think so, especially if you don’t have the money to access the necessities of life. Then anywhere you go would be barren to you.
So I guess, how do we free ourselves? I’m not even kidding, I’ma see about joining my local parish community and see if I can find anyone cool to talk to about these kinds of freaky things.
There’s also, if you’ll notice on your google maps, sections of land that are not covered in spiderweb roads. Everyday I go to work, I drive over these really cool mountains and notice a little dilapidated tent on a boulder wedged in between some trees. I see a mocha pot, dented with rusty scratches in it’s creases, and I wonder if I’ll regret not pursuing the hippy life seriously.
I mean, it’s just such a big world full of so much possibility, in spite of all these books and internet telling me what to think of greater Gaia and what is and isn’t real. I guess I’d really like to confirm a few things before my heart is freed into the sky… into Sora.
I also just don’t think this is the life our ancestors gave up so much for us to live. I mean sure I think certain of our families have their values wrong, but I think our greater human family would be down for us to live dignified lives on a 20 hour work week schedule while we spend the rest of our time doing anything else.
But like anyway, this feels like enough free content for one night. I hope you’ll like and follow my socials so you can stay up to date on my journey out of the web and into a professional writing gig.
-Danny