I often wonder about the grand mythic strokes being written across America these last few years. They are big. They are bold. They are terrible. And maybe they can be wonderful? In time?

I see demi-gods, amassing power, and seemingly without consequence or reckoning. They act like no fight is too small not to pummel their opponent, no interaction not worth winning. No mercy, no apology, no grace.

winning??

I see masses of humans, fragile, pushing some of these characters up, pushing still more “others” out. I witness fear and fright.

I see theologians, mathematicians, evolutionaries shaking their heads. A reign has come to and end. Warlords have overcome. Can’t believe it. Snoozing. This must be a dream. When will we wake up?

No one can be so cruel.

Maybe none of this matters?

I see superheroes attacked by men, because the men were told the superheroes were weak, pointless. And wrong. And they were told they could win. That they had the power.

If an animal fears for its life, what it is capable of doing to its home? If I fear for my life, for the lives of my children and children’s children, what principles would I discard? What principles would remain?

Are we one tribe, or many? Are we one being? Alone, perishing, surviving?

If a superhero and demigod met for a dual, who wins? Would the story resolve… would it feel like a “proper” ending?

Would they both laugh that we expected a resolution? “Those damn evolutionaries, those bleeding hearts,” they may groan. “There is no end, don’t you get it?” they may shout.

How dare we ask the greater ones to resolve things for us….

Are there greater ones?

Survival is of the fittest. Is it?

Survival is for the animal that preys on others, the top of the food chain, the intellect, the trickster, the mighty and the resourceful. Survival is only for those that can perish.

Perhaps survival is a greater force than principle, or immortality, or might?

In it lies great power. In it lies men with agendas.

When we talk of the gods and superheroes– does none of their wishes really matter, because they cannot die?

Or does everything matter?

The reckoning that comes to those who have raped, pillaged, subsumed and destroyed others for centuries is fearsome. To face it would mean death, maybe even suicide. So, they fight, kill, maim and oppresses to win. To win another day in the sun, without facing their day.

And it has worked, a reckoning staved off. A moment cheated from karma, a cycle of evening averted. Jesus saves. Jesus gives

Winning.

Some think superheroes are stupid. No one should save humans. Humans should save themselves. Humans are too busy trying to remake themselves as gods, or else praying to men who pretend to be so.

What is here, right now is all we have to work with if we are to survive. And survival instinct is our greatest strength. The gods have everything else.