"An Exercise in Creative Writing"
By Joe Belotte
Let's start at the top of the creativity hierarchy.
Let's start with God, certainly the most creative "creature" of which we know, and then work on up from there.
How could we start at the very top, with God Himself, the creator of All things, and then go further? No problem, we'll let God take care of that.
Scene One:
It was 12:01 am on the Eighth Day. God had done six days of creating--- and one day of resting. A new week had begun, and God decided to set out to do bigger and better things.
He had polished off the Universe, and Angels, and Man, but that was just a kindergarten exercise, a warm up for what was to come. For now, God decided to really create the most creative thing he could.
What might that be? It didn't take God long to figure it out.
He decided to create...one more...of Himself, another God, identical to Himself, fully equally powerful and creative as He.
He didn't just decide to, He did. And then there were Two. What a way to start a week!
Scene Two:
So, there was God, face to face, so to speak, with God. And, although He had been truly all knowing before, suddenly there was something new He didn't know. A strange and curious situation.
So, God First said to God Second,
"Mirror, mirror, in front of me,
Who is the most creative one you see?"
The pause was strange, but then the answer came.
"Well, my friend, it's hard to tell.
Could my answer send me thus to Hell?
Why not test it out and see,
All in the name of creativity."
Which brings us thus two ...
Scene Three:
What a strange and wonderful game. God had a playmate, and quite a legitimate playmate at that. A creation, but... nevertheless, an equal creation. Another creator. Not a paltry angel, not a puny and neurotic man, but a thoroughbred duplicate God. Not a chip off the old block, but a whole new fresh and complete block unto itself. The game of life was beginning to have the potential of a real game.
So, they got into having a really good time. Here was a whole new world, someone God could really communicate with. And, His new acquaintance was just as delightfully creative and appreciative as He.
So, where would all this creativity go?
Shall we take it one step more,
and move on further to scene four?
Scene Four:
"That was good, what a wonderful scene," said God 1, or was it 2, to the other being.
"And did you see this?" the other said, demonstrating his latest twist.
The creativity game went around
And came around,
While creation came abound.
And somewhere along the way, God 1, or was it God 2, got the bright idea of having a Creativity Contest. What could be more fun? So, they agreed, and began.
Scene Five:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the word was..." "Go." They started quick, and created, and created the most wonderful and beautiful things, one after another, one on top of another, sounds and sights, worlds, stars, galaxies, and universes, each one more intricate than that which came before.
Can-You-Top-This was never played so well.
However, as you might have thought, God 1 was sure His creations were the better, which was true. And God 2 believed His creations were the better, which was also true. So they got in a bind. Neither could win; neither could lose. And they didn't know, if you'll pardon the expression, "what in Hell to do".
Both were infinite. And one infinity couldn't be any more infinite than another.
In a moments pause they reflected on this irony, and decided to end the contest with one more try. They would each create the very biggest, greatest, most wonderful thing they could right at that moment, and then try to judge who wins.
Little did they know, where in Hell they were bent to go.
In one fell swoop they each brought into being the very bestest of their expertise... one more God. (Shades of the Sorcerer's Apprentice.)
Thus, then there were Four, and syn had finally reared it's ugly head.
Syn? Of course, that isn't the kind of sin we know of now. That sin was spelled "S-y-n". It was the syn of synergism, for together They had managed to create something that was ultimately--- bigger than both of Them.
And, Scene Five turns dramatically to
Scene Six:
Four Times Infinity. Four Gods, not angels, but fully Gods, equally creative, and equally bent on a desire to experience, and create and impress. Perhaps there can be too much creativity.
Have you ever had a four-way telephone conference call? No one knows what anyone, or whom, will say, or do, next. That's the way it was.
You've heard the phrase, "In the beginning, there was chaos." Was this the chaos of which the Bible spoke?
Certainly there was confusion.
First, there was a problem of identification. Four Gods, all everywhere. All equal, with no other distinction.
Wait. There was God 1 and 2. One came first, the other second. But 3 and 4? Not so. They were created at exactly the same time. They were both God 3. Possibly 3a and 3b, but which was which?
Luckily, one of the Gods liked the word, Alpha, and chose to be called that. This set a precedent, and all agreed to choose names for themselves. So, they called themselves Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Omega, which worked well for them, although not for us, because we don't really know which one chose which. Was Omega God 1, or God 3b? Since they were all equal, they didn't feel it really mattered.
It didn't matter and they didn't care. They were all equal and they were just having a really good time.
Scene Seven:
What really did matter was that Gamma was showing his latest creation to Omega when Beta decided it would be a little better if it were a little different. So, Beta made a small alteration, did a little fine tuning, on Gamma's creation. Omega thought it was cute, but Gamma was mighty surprised, and chagrined to say the least. And the word "argument" came into being for the first time... early on in the dawn of the eighth day.
Omega and Beta had ganged up on Gamma, agreeing that Beta's improvement was better and should survive. Alpha remained neutral, for a while. And Gamma lost the Universe's first argument.
Gamma then got angry. He said, "Hey fellas. You gang up on me, and I'll gang up on you," and created 9 additional Gammas to be on his side. Of course, some of them did, and some of them didn't. But, he did get the better of Beta, at least for a while.
This did start a creativity snowball effect. Not to be outdone, Alpha created an unknown additional number of Him. There didn't seem to be any end to it.
The contest became not one so much of creation, but of "Who could get the most other Gods to agree?". It was the only way anyone could win. And if a God couldn’t get enough Gods on His side, well, He would just create some more.
However, this only went on for a week... which is just about all we can take... which was just about the same length of time as the First week of Creation. The ultimate result was actually only 57 hundred... and ninety three... million... or was it billion, Gods, as Week Two of "Creation" came to a close.
To be continued...