Excerpt
…citizens as their wish and the iron fist of the church who keep the
minds and emotions of people under their control,” he said looking
deep in Magda’s eyes who showed her understanding as she nodded
her head and smiled at his comments.
“The one you’d have a hard time even talking about is the
power of the church over the lives of the people because it has been
so much entrenched in their essence as something they have received
from their ancestors and as such, they would never think of leaving
behind, let alone changing dramatically,” she underlined to Hermes.
“Yes, I agree; but what we inherited shouldn’t always be
accepted as a given and never evaluated, viewed by today’s standards
and beliefs and then accept it or reject it for something better. Think
of it, in today’s world, where you can communicate with anyone and
in such a short time, when you travel from one end of the Earth to the
other within a day, we still believe in such stupid ideas, and anachronistic
thoughts.”
“True, indeed, Hermes, but…” she added
“There shouldn’t be a but, Magda, look, in the old days, during
the seventh century BC, the Spartans had a law that forced mothers
to go and throw down the Kaiadas all their incomplete children, the
malformed, the kids with Down’s syndrome, etc. That was part of
our tradition too; however, we today don’t kill the malformed kids
or the ones with Down’s syndrome because we must understand that
human life is as valuable and indispensable, regardless of what form
it might have. Yet, we can’t get rid of the Christian tradition no matter
what. Tell me why it is so?”
Magda stared into his eyes and noticed the burning fire, which
could become a conflagration, a fire she loved to see; a fire she’d
agreed with, however, she chose her words very carefully.
“I believe what you said, but I also know how deeply entrenched
the whole idea of the church and how impossible it would be to effect
any change at this time of the nation’s history, especially under the
iron fist of the dictators…on the other hand, nothing is impossible
when one wants to fight for what one believes in.”
Manolis Aligizakis 