More thoughts on Bes.

As I worked on the t-shirts, coffee mugs, and stickers over at CafePress yesterday [for Bes’s sake, CafePress, make your processes make sense], and the more I thought about the Be Bes Initiative, the more existential it became rather than just political.^{[1]  [2]}

To recap: Bes was the ancient Egyptian god who protected households, particularly mothers, children, and childbirth. He came to be regarded as the defender of everything good and the enemy of all that is bad, and since he drove off evil, Bes also came to symbolize the good things in life – music, dance, and sexual pleasure.

Faced with an existentially cruel administration seizing the reins of power in our country, we must commit ourselves to the side of Bes, to the side of homes, families, food and drink, music and dance, human intimacy — in all its forms.

So herewith, a minifesto:

• We believe that home, family, food, drink, music, dance, intimacy are good.
• We believe that everyone, every human, has the right to that which is good.

sidebar: In his Ethics for a New Millennium, the Dalai Lama begins by asking the reader two questions: Do you seek happiness? Do you seek to avoid pain? And then he asks a third question: Do you imagine that other beings seek the same things? All ethics proceeds from there.

• We believe that anyone who denies any human the right to the good is placing themselves on the side of evil.
• We will defeat evil

But but but… I can hear objections already. No.

“They should have come here legally…” — bzzt! You’re on team evil.

“Their lifestyle is a sin…” — bzzt! Team evil.

“They shouldn’t have done drugs…” — bzzt!

“Homelessness is their own fault…” — bzzt! You have chosen to be on team evil.

“Yeah, well, why should I obey a pagan god…” Sure. Fine. Try listening to your own god, then.

And he will answer them, ‘Yes! I tell you that whenever you refused to do it for the least important of these people, you refused to do it for me!’

Be Bes.

—————

^[1] You’d better believe it is political.

^[2] Please understand that I am not doing this to sell t-shirts. You are all welcome to steal the Be Bes image and use it for good. My interest is in the initiative, to shame and expose the evil in our country. (Bigger version here.)