What Man Did

 Angela Allard

September 5, 2010

Assignment 1

What Man Did

            Before us there was nothing. No beginning and no end. There was only space and time. Space and time grew tired of being alone with nothing to fill the void. They wanted warmth and feeling. The yearning for something other than nothing, created an idea. With the presence of an idea, many things began to come about. The idea to fill the emptiness created matter, which all things that exist are made of. The idea for these things to be seen created light out of darkness. There was now a world with matter.

             Even with all this matter, the universe was cold and lonely, because there was no governing force to carry on the ideas, and nothing to appreciate them. With this idea, a human being was made. She was called Woman. Woman would instill order and organize the matter in the universe. She created the earth, the water, the moon, the stars, the food to keep going, and all the animals of the world. Woman then realized she was lonely. With all the wonders she created, it was at the same time nothing at all. All this matter was pointless. It did not matter.

            What Woman needed was feeling. Feeling would put purpose into this world filled with meaningless matter. So Woman created Man whom she could love. She made man strong and powerful so he could take care of her, and help her take care of the world. Woman and Man discovered that through pure love they could create the most important thing: family. So the world became populated with many people. All the people got along and thanked Women for creating a world filled with such beauty, happiness, and purpose. They listened to what she told them because there was not yet a reason for them to mistrust her. 

            One day Man began to get this awful feeling when he noticed Woman getting all the thanks and praise. He thought it wasn’t right that she was getting all the credit from the people that he helped create with her. This feeling produced another idea. It was jealousy. Man became jealous of Woman and began to resent her. He told all the people that they should not listen to Women anymore because she was ignorant, and did not know the ways of the world. He said that it was his idea to create them. By Man saying this he confused the people. They began to question Woman’s judgment. They didn’t trust her and this made them fearful. With Woman’s judgment in question they approached her advice cautiously. Everything that she said was right--like being naked, trusting your friends, and living in harmony—they questioned. They became conscious beings and often did the opposite of what she said. People lied, didn’t trust their friends, and argued. The world was in an outrage of fear, confusion, and contradictions.

            Meanwhile, man sat back and felt satisfied by the feeling of power and manipulation he could hold over the people. Woman became sad, not understanding why the world and the people in it seemed uneasy. She approached Man for advice and noticed that he became angry when she wanted to solve the problem. Man was threatened by Woman’s power and feared he would lose his grip over the people. He knew that all he had over Woman was the strength that she had given to him. Man used his strength on Woman and trapped her in a cave so he could govern the people. He went to the people and told them there was nothing to fear. He told them to trust their friends, to not be so conscious about how they are perceived, and to live peacefully together. This furthered the people’s uneasiness because now they felt they couldn’t trust Man. Man had told them that Woman’s teachings were wrong and ignorant, and here he was preaching the exact things she had said all along.

            Man did not know what to do. All he could think to do was to go to Woman for advice. He realized what he did was wrong, and that Woman was the one with all of the knowledge. He knew she should rightfully possess all the power. But, Man was stubborn, so he compromised. He let Woman free. Man told Woman that he would allow her to be free and help the people through him. It was he who would be the one to receive all of the credit, or false sense of power.

            With Woman ruling through man, the people’s fears were calmed. They made conscious efforts to live in harmony. But, they were scarred. The contradictions that Man laid out instilled in them fear, confusion, and mistrust. Now that the idea of chaos was put into the world, it would never be the same. There could never again be that innocence and complete trust from the people that there once was. Man had created this idea of jealousy because he couldn’t be satisfied with and appreciate what he had been given by Woman.

            From this point on, human nature would go on with this moral ambiguity. People’s lives would be filled with all these contradictions and dichotomies. There would now be this issue of morality. From the time Man had told them Woman was wrong in her ways, was when they had first been introduced to the idea that they might not know really what is “right”. Humans would question what exactly is the “right thing” to do because now they realize that what they thought they knew could be disproven so easily.