RICIMER is 'on hold' for the time being for a couple of reasons.
One is that right now I need to be prepping for some art-related stuff that's on my horizon and that's going to be taking all of my available time and energy for a while here.
The other, perhaps more significant, reason is that my instinctively-pattern-seeking brain is trying to cope with a pattern that I darned well should have anticipated and been prepared for - but I honestly wasn't expecting things to accelerate the way they have just recently.
The pattern?
It's sort of a double-or-triple pattern. Quadruple maybe even, or more for all I know - although it's the same pattern repeating ...
We'll go back only as far as the Roman Empire - set out to conquer Europe and did all right with that, relatively speaking, right up until it got too big for its britches so to speak and disrupted the Balance. Down went the Western Roman Empire and up rose the new Nations of Europe, forged of their own wills and by the sheer strength and determination of their respective Peoples finding their Balance.
Then it was the Church of Rome. Again, did all right, relatively speaking, right up until it got too big for its britches, so to speak and disrupted the Balance. The Church of Rome sank in power and up rose the Protestant Denominations as the Peoples and the Nations of Europe were finding their Balance.
Now it's the EU apparently getting too big for its britches, so to speak and disrupting the Balance.
When will the lesson finally be learnt?
The Peoples of Europe will only stand for so much before they unequivocally say, "NO MORE!"
What with one thing and another, the time of RICIMER bears an eerie resemblance to the time of Now.
I already know how the RICIMER story ends so have been watching the current version play out, that eerie sensation kind of haunting the whole thing.
That yet another version of the same pattern has been playing itself out in the United States only adds to that haunting sense of familiarity ...
It's become notably uncomfortable, writing a Story [
that's supposed to be fiction based really loosely on historic times] while the danged Story Line is happening in Real Time in front of my face. So I'm taking all the energy I would normally be putting into writing out the RICIMER Story and using it instead to pray that the path to the end of this repetition of the pattern will be one of Peaceful Balance.
The reason I have Hope for that is a little on the mystic side.
Our Fictional Family has a Destiny that includes enforcing the Will of the Holy Trinity, which has a pattern of its own:
Justice
Mercy
Peace
In that order.
Justice was served when the Western Roman Empire went down.
Mercy was served when the Protestants did not utterly destroy the Church of Rome.
So it's time for Peace to have a turn I reckon.
Yes I realize that already things are a bit less than altogether Peaceful - but nor are they what could become.
And no, I'm not talking about that utopian magical world peace everyone lives happily ever after thing. That's not going to happen, sorry. At least not yet, not now, and likely not any time in the foreseeable future.
But a relatively Peaceful and Balanced resolution can and will be found if people put their minds and their wills to it. If you've been paying attention, you might realize that there are people who are putting their minds and their wills to it already, so yes there IS Hope that a Peaceful Balance will be possible, relatively speaking.
*wry chuckle*
Went looking for a symbol for Hope and Balance.
Guess what showed up.
Yeah, there are others, but this one sort of jumped out of the bunch as it's pretty darned familiar.
And this one of course, also quite very familiar:
O_O
