Of Elephants, Eggshells and Emperors

Silence. Appeasement. War and Worship.

When there is the proverbial “elephant in the room” people may maintain a kind of silence, if not outright denial.

“Shhh…don’t mention that elephant.”

“What elephant?? I don’t see any elephant.”

When there is the proverbial “walking on eggshells” people are very, very careful what they say. There is an appeasement to some “elephant-of-a-god” hanging over the particular space, or relationship.

I wonder, why eggshells? Why isn’t it glass that is being carefully tip-toed over? I suppose glass is directly cutting and sharp, and strong, while eggshells represent very fragile things. Some particular “spaces” and relationships are indeed fragile, and eggshells also might represent that something has hatched. Whether the metaphor might be taken further–were there little fuzzy chicks that hatched from the eggshells that we also don’t want to crush or step on, or, are there baby viperous snakes?

Whatever the reasoning in the development of this saying, we all understand what it means to walk on eggshells in some situation or relationship.

Moving on…

What is the difference between an emperor and a king?

When I think of emperors, the first that comes to mind is the WWII Emperor of Japan. Don’t even know his name without Googling, but I know that hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers and civilians were prepared to fight til their death and even to fall upon their own sword or drink poison if they were in imminent danger of becoming a POW.

I think of Nero, the infamous ruler of the Roman Empire who sent the early Christians to the arena with lions or set them on fire as entertainment and sinister sport.

I think of Darth Vadar–the only emperor in the gripping-convoluted science fiction work Star Wars that I might name off the top of my head.

According to this search result, “A king is a male ruler who reigns over a specific, individual kingdom or realm, while an emperor controls multiple kingdoms or territories, and is therefore superior to a king. In the ancient world, many kings were allowed to retain their positions so long as they recognized the supreme power of the emperor.“

Interesting.

So, an emperor “permits” a king to retain their position so long as they essentially bow down to the supreme power of the emperor.

So. Much. Here.

I think of the Columbine shooting in 1999 and the differing narratives surrounding the death of the first victim, 17-year-old Rachel Scott. She was a devout Christian, and though there is much online about the validity of the account of her death as well as that of Valeen Schnurr who survived 34+ gunshot wounds to tell her story, there seems to be some hodgepodge of accounts indicating the shooters may have point blank asked some of the students whether/why they “believed in God” before shooting them for an affirmative response.

We may never know what actually happened there, but clearly the “emperor” of “death” was calling for “allegiance” and animating the shooters. I don’t see any other way to view such a horrific scene.

War and worship.

Behind all the elephants in all sorts of rooms and relationships, and behind all the walking on eggshells, there is some kind of emperor. Actually, the story of The Emperor’s New Clothing seems to bring all three of these concepts together in one tale: Everyone could see the emperor’s nakedness, and everyone walked on eggshells and appeased the emperor by admiring his so-called clothing. In the video below (it was the shortest I could find), the emperor is portrayed as vain, an Slimus and Slick (the two weavers that show up) initially bow down and worship him.

“Slimus and Slick at your service, your highness!” they say to him.

Everyone had heard that “only clever people can see his clothes” so everyone cried out “How splendid the emperor looked in his ‘new clothes.'”

Of course, in the tale, a small child actually exposed not only the emperor for his nakedness, but those who complied with being silent about the elephant in the room and appeased the god-like emperor with their allegiance and “worship!”

As my mind wanders and muses over these things today, I think of a number of biblical passages relating to these things, in both concept and detail. Rather than spend time bringing them all up and including them, I will ask the reader to allow the Holy Spirit to bring relevant stories/texts to their mind regarding how we might be asked to “bow down” to some false god, and the communicated consequences of not doing so.

What will be our response when we are next in line “to confess?”

I do think of King Jesus and his trial before Pilate.

“What is truth?” Pilate asks Him.

“So, you ARE a King?” he says to Jesus.

“It is as you say,” Jesus replies.

I think of Handel’s Messiah: the kingdoms of this earth (of “emperor Satan”) have become the kingdoms of our God! “And He shall reign forever and ever.”

“King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” (from Revelation)

I suppose I did just there what I said I wouldn’t do (put specific biblical references here). I’m not looking up the exact scriptures however, for exact wording.

I’ll leave that to my readers, if there is interest. Actually, I would love readers to comment below with scriptures that come to their mind, prompted by this piece.

Meanwhile, I will close with a creative song that is also coming to mind by an indie-bluegrass artist I like, Mean Mary James. Many of her works seem to be Christian-based in concept/lyrics, though she does not promote herself as a Christian artist, per se.

There’s an album she has called “Hell is Naked.” And this is the title track:

HELL IS NAKED

I listen to the night talk, sometimes it is very wise

Tonight like an alarm clock it cried out to me, arise

I’m awake does anybody hear, is anyone awake at all?

Came a voice, a voice of fear, find me now, I fall, I fall, I fall

The night pressed down around me, wrapped its chill about my head

Could nobody at all foresee the darker work ahead

A haunting voice, a hazy tryst, they felt so unrelated

Until I saw what first I’d missed – hell stood before me, naked

CHORUS

For destruction wears a thundercloud, deceit dress in white

Death hides in a misty shroud, despair is cloaked in light

But in this world where nothing’s sacred, nothing’s sacred, nothing’s right

Hell stands boldly naked, hell is naked tonight

I will search this desolation till I find what I have lost

And bring back the confirmation though I pay the steepest cost

Resolutely stated, I will find what I must find

If hell stands before me naked, I’ll fight blind

It’s not what you hear in the silence, or what you see in the dark

Or from the touch of violence, it’s that final punctuation mark

The masquerade’s vacated by each player in disguise

And only hell stands naked, hell is naked to all eyes

CHORUS

By Mary James & Jean James