Hitler went to Heaven&;#063;&;#063;

I awoke one morning and found a baby in my bed. It was crying. I
asked it why it was crying, and it told me it was dying. It asked for
my forgivness. I asked it for what it needed forgiving. It looked me in
the eye, and I understood. Within the eyes of this child I saw the the
babe in the desert, it was still running from the beast, and it was
scared - it was so scared. The beast of hatred and anger and greed and
death, the beast of needless suffering, of taken innocence, of
corruption, of slavery, of war, of patronising loathing and submissive,
subdued greatness and beauty. I asked where the beast lay, and it
replied that it was the beast. I could not understand, and it told me a
simple story -
There was once a man standing next to a fire, a few meters in front of
him was a jug which contained the waters of Life. He stepped forward to
reach the jug, but as he touched it a black hand smashed it. He walked
full circle and stood next to the fire again, in front of him was a jug
which contained The Waters of Life. He stepped forward to reach it but
again a black hand smashed it. He walked full circle and faced the jug
once more. Again and again he tried to reach the jug, but again and
again the black hand smashed it. The man grew to fear the hand, and
terror gripped him at the thought of the beast to which it was
attached. Then the fire spoke to him. 'Face me,' it said. So he turned
to face the fire. 'The jug is not the life, I am the life. I will love
you, and with me the black hand will never come.' Its flames danced and
flickered, within their soft glow he found peace, within its soothing
words he found safety from the black hand. In the dead of night, when
the shadows shifted along the rocky wall, and the spirits danced in the
flesh of men, then the fire protected him. 'Do not fear, for I control
the shadows, for it is I who cast them into the darkness.' And the man
accepted the fires words, and he believed them, for when the flames
danced the shadows moved, they crept away from the light. He was
happy.
'So the man never got to the jug of life?' I asked the baby when he
had finished. I found it an unsatisfactory story since it had a
unsatisfactory ending, and a story without an ending is like a half of
infinity.
'No, and for that I ask forgivness.' Replied the child.
'I do not understand,' I hung my head. I wanted to forgive, but I
couln't see who or, what I was to forgive.
'I am that man.' said the child, 'Humanity is that man. If that man
had looked honestly he would have found that the jug of life he sought
after was not his but anothers, and if he had turned his face away from
the fire of false prophets and idols he would have seen that the black
hand was his shadow and it carried the life, but if he looked into the
jug he would have seen, reflected in the waters, written on his face
the name of God. I have spent my time running from the Devil, running
from evil; yet who is the Devil but the shadow of God, and who is the
light but humanity?'
I understood.
'I cannot forgive you your sin. For I am man as you. I understand that
sometimes advancement is not the best way forward. But I cannot forgive
you, you must learn to love yourself. With all your impudence in the
face of God, with all your arrogence in the face of your Earth, you
must turn to yourself and say I forgive you. You must then stand up
again, turn to your shadow and love it. For even as greed creates
charity, and war creates peace, and death creates life, it is only the
light in your heart that creates the shadow on you soul, from the
object of your mind. You must forget the executions, forget the
slavery, forget the war and the hate and the greed, forget the death
and the needless suffering, forget the ten fucking commandments, do the
best you can and if that isn't good enough, but I know you tried, then
I can forgive you because you weren't the beast you thought you were,
and there is no crime in that.'
'Thankyou my child, it is you who inherits the Earth,' and then I
realised that I was not the man, and it was not a child. But that we
both were man and I was the child. 'You have learnt with your
innocence, you have destroyed the lust for life, and created a need for
living. I wish you all the luck that an old sinner can, and I pray that
you can live in this world as I must now live in the next.'
And then the child died, and I was left alone. But as I raised my hand
past the fire I looked into the black hand of the beast and realised
that it would always chase me because it was me, it will always be on
my tail because it keeps me on my toes. And together we dove into the
jug of life, and drank it and swam, and drowned in ecstacy. Because I
am God, and my shadow is the Devil, and we are life.