Fig

(n) a sweet, soft fruit that grows on fig trees. It has a unique texture with a thin skin and tiny seeds inside, often enjoyed fresh, dried, or in recipes like desserts and salads.

In language, "fig" can symbolize something small or insignificant, often used in phrases like “fig leaf”.

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”

Genesis 3:7

A small, insignificant thing to cover such a thing as all knowledge of good and evil? That was never really going to work, was it?

I lost my innocence far too young, but that is a story for another time. I mention it here because while a fig leaf is small and thin, the confession of sins is vast. I am a sinner. I lost my virginity with a woman who was too drunk to consent, and that’s not the worst of my sins. I have picked more splinters out of my eyes than I care to count. I will pick more out before I leave this corporal body.

Oh, like a baby, stillborn
Like a beast with his horn
I have torn everyone who reached out for me
But I swear by this song
And by all that I have done wrong
I will make it all up to thee

-Leonard Cohen, “Bird on the Wire”

If am I accused credibly, I will beg for mercy and grace. If someone begs me for mercy and grace, I give it willingly. This is the way I was taught to be in Vacation Bible School at the 1st Baptist Church. I know I am not alone in being taught this important lesson.

Thought I saw an eagle
But it might have been a vulture
I never could decide
Then my father built an altar
He looked once behind his shoulder
He knew I would not hide

You who build these altars now
To sacrifice these children
You must not do it anymore
A scheme is not a vision
And you never have been tempted
By a demon or a God

Leonard Cohen - “The Story of Isaac”

If false witness is bourn against me, I look for the nugget of truth which inspired the lie and bridge my truth with that nugget. This is relatively new to me, but I will practice it for the rest of my life.

"I'd like to tell my story"
Said one of them so young and bold
"I'd like to tell my story
Before I turn into gold"

Leonard Cohen - “A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes”

Eric Arthur Blair wore a veil to write as he wrote and survive. It is long past time for us to remove that veil: the type of men he wrote about have stolen his now famous veil for their own dire purposes of confusion and misdirection. I write in honor, respect, and duty to Mr. Blair. I could not do so if I did not tell the truth as best I see it.

“Prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”

-Isaiah

I write this today, following a form I landed on for an audience not yet ready to hear it. But my audience has changed since Habeas Corpus was first denied. My audience is you: the dissident in what I expect to be an even more entrenched authoritarian oligarchy when this is published some weeks from now.

The fascist hides his sins. Pays hush money, extorts, manipulates, and murders to hide his sins. He will buy the press to suppress any rebukes of his sin. He will distract with the sins of others. The problem for the autocrat or oligarch or king is that all the gold in the world won’t buy more than a fig leaf.

“The stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.”

-Revelation 6:13

I hope that when this is published that the citizens of the USA will have the oligarchical technofascist dominionist nazis on the run. Whether my hope comes true or not, there will no doubt be much more work to do to save representative democracy in the USA. Most citizens lived in a one-party state before Trump and most will live in a non-competitive state after. This is a problem whose solution we must not relent in finding. That death camp in El Salvador (call it what it is) must fall to the ground and never rebuilt. Some measure of justice for Palestine must be grown from the ashes. Ukraine must be at the forefront of global democracy. The USA can no longer be the only shining beacon on the hill, and Ukraine has earned the right to join us there. We must earn the right to remain beside them. They will win. How quickly depends on whether or not we push through the initial pyrrhic victories to achieve a more perfect union of states than we had before this whole mess.

Jeremiah 24