Sin !!!WARNING! LINKED SONG HAS EXPLICIT LYRICS!!!

Back in High School when I was wheelchair bound after corrective surgery on both my feet (an absolute failure honestly) I was assigned a student to assist me.  She was very zealous non-denominational Christian.  We had lots of talks.  At one point she told me I would make a good Saint.  Their use of that term was not the same of the Catholic Church, it was grounded in an entirely different church culture, one that was probably just as mystically inclined, but less hierarchical in organizational structure.  Anyway, I took it as a compliment, and considered what it would require of me to pursue it as a goal, but to quote a classmate I thought highly of, "I Ain't No Nun Willie!" and I knew then I wasn't a Saint.  I wanted to be, but I was a sinner moving towards the light.

One of the most troubling things that came out of our talks was Profanity and recordings.  She said that every time a recording of someone cursing was played, they sinned again.  For me this had staggeringly profound implications.  I was an MC, rapper, whatever you want call it, and deeply invested in Hip Hop culture, which wasn't a place for the easily offended.  I'd thought about getting rid of all my music with profanity in it, not using profanity when I freestyled (which was probably the easiest thing for me to do given I was in control of what I said), but at that point (early 90s) if you stopped listening to rap with cursing, edited out or not, you would ultimately not be listening to rap as a genre, you would be listening to a handful of rappers.  The culture dictated the language, image, and in many cases, acceptable behavior of it's young, impressionable practitioners, and I was one of them.  I would reason with myself that I could reach more people to share the positivity in my life if I could relate to them through our shared culture.  I also remember my elation when a few "polite" artists got a little break now and then which allowed me to feel a sense of solidarity as part of a semi-vocal minority of Conscious & Courteous Hip Hop Heads. But, given the household and community I was raised in, talking like a sailor was something I still held with a little regard in certain company.  Colorful language appealed to me in a direct and undeniable way.  It had power, added zest, when used for affect in the right context.

Eventually I got into scripture, and not just the IDEA of being Christian and moral in action, understanding the philosophies behind the faith, and their spiritual origins.  One of the more challenging ideas for me was that all sin is the same in the eyes of God.  I'd heard of the Seven Deadly Sins, learned what they actually were thanks to a movie.  In my mind and heart, they couldn't be judged the same.  Then I really tried to wrap my head around the Eden scenario, through scripture, and even Gaiman, who's own use of Eden as a backdrop for some of his Dreaming stories, got me to revisit Genesis.  I began to understand that the Original Sin was Self-Mindedness in principle, and Disobedience in action.  Death entered the world by way of Sin being introduced to humanity.  If you could have paradise, eternal life, companionship, and dominion over your domain, so long as you simply follow one rule, given to you by that which made you, and all you know, why would you risk losing it?  Well, the answer was simple:  The Belief that you could be like your maker, which creates a scenario where you have no need to adhere to the order that was set forth for you.

The Fruit of the knowledge of good and evil wasn't something that Adam and Eve needed to partake of, they were not starving in the Eden scenario, they were simply tempted.  They did not know right from wrong, or what would they gain from the fruit.  At best we can say they knew God's Will, and their Sin, the original Sin, was Rejecting it.  That said, to go against God is to invite Ultimate Death/ non-existence into your life with open arms.  We are born into Sin, perhaps in part because we are aware of such a choice, the gift born of that fruit that each subsequent soul has harvested in the core of their being?  We are born putting our perspective before all others, pursuing our own intellectual satisfaction rather than receiving and adhering to the direction of those who know better and preceded us.

Those are just some of my ruminations on the subject of Sin, which I learned means "without" in some languages, which is perfect given that all Sin is to act without/ apart from God, and Hell is described as separation from God.  I guess that begs the question. "What is God?"

The source of life
The essence of truth & righteousness
Love incarnate
Infinite & beyond comprehension