TALES OF THE NIFLHEIM BAR : WHEN IS LOVE UNJUST?

Story 01:


It all started at the bar.The smell of golden ale and ambrosia filled the air with a rich scent that dwelled on the tongues of every person there. The tables were filled as they usually were at twilight. The waitresses, as they are called now, were serving everything to roasted bull legs to giant wooden cups filled up with the golden ale.

Smoke filled the air of the bar but it did not smell like the cigarette or cigar smoke back home. The smell mixed with the ale, which was light . . . even pleasing. Tucked in a circular table in the back, I sat with several friends and associates of mine. As usually, there was a heated debate going on. This time though, it wasn't between the usual orators, one, if not all of the three sisters that have been coming to this bar since the moment it was created and a brutish, muscular guy wearing armor- who drinks the ale like it was water after running in the desert. No. Today's little discussion was actually between two of the more quiet members of our little group.

The small guy whole sat beside a quiver bellowed, "Are you kidding me? That's not right! That's not right at all!"

A woman with a blindfold on her eyes barked, "That's where you are wrong. This is very much right. It is what is suppose to happen in these situation."

"The girl found true love at last and you want to chop her fuckin' head off?!" exclaimed the small guy, who looked a lot like a freshmen in college . . . maybe even a high school student.

"The bitch found true love in the arms of a man that wasn't her husband you idiot," stated the woman. "That makes what's she doing wrong."

The small guy quickly gulped some ale then spat, "Oh! So you mean to tell me that its okay that most of the men in this world can go fuck around and get away with cheating on their wives but when a woman does it, you have to chop off their fuckin' head? I don't see the justice in that."

"That's cause you're so focused on the whole happily ever after bullshit that you don't see something that's morally wrong in front of you. And again . . . the man are just as guilty . . .I know cause I take care of them too!" the woman took the giant wooden mug of the armored warrior and downed the whole thing.

"Why you wentch! That was my mead!" yelled the warrior in protest.

The woman burped in the warrior's face. "Suck my . . ."

One of the three sisters immediately cried, "Don't go there!"

The small guy stood up from his seat, thrusting his fists onto the table. "Look! Those two belong together. They have gone through hell and back to be together now. And just cause the girl hasn't left her man yet, you are going be judge and jury and execute her? I can't believe that you would be so damn two faced."

The woman with the blindfold leaned over the table and easily faced the small guy as if she could still see. "The girl has done something wrong for the wrong reasons. And you know how this goes . . . the guys a slut so I take her fuckin' head. There is no maybe this, maybe that bullshit reason behind her actions. She's in love and fuckin' another guy that she's not in a relationship with. It's as easy as that. And love . . . for all powerful as it is . . . is just an excuse."

The small guy growled for a moment, downed another drink then began his rebuttal. "Love . . . love is one of the most powerful forces in the universe. It has made people will themselves to live. It has caused women strong enough to save their children from fires or take bullets. It has made men fight to the death over someone that means the world to them. I mean . . . men have started wars over love!"

The armored warrior nodded in agreement. "This is true. Why the great Trojan war was fought for the sake of . . ."

"Love? Shit. You know what love did in that case? It killed an entire culture of people. Every last Trojan was wiped out primarily because of that war. And that was was started cause one woman was being a tramp sleeping with someone else and lo and behold . . . bloodshed. Oh . . . yes. Love is very powerful. Very powerful bullshit. There are lines that are not to be crossed . . . love crossed that damn line in that case and it crossed it in this one. If this girl really loved this guy, she would have left her husband long ago.She could have walked away so many times. But you know what? She didn't."

The small guy stumbled for a moment to collect his thoughts. In all the time we have gotten together for these outings . . . I never seen these two so passionate about their subject matter. The small guy took one more drink of his ale then started speaking.

"You make it seem like love is something easy. Love is never easy. It's those day when you are high and someone is there with you basking in your happiness. It's those days where tears burn down your face with pain or regret and there is someone there holding you in an embrace that is tighter and warmer than lining within a mother's womb. It is, deep down, the very thing these people live for and want. Nothing . . . and I mean nothing . . . is wanted more than love. Not cash. Not a fame. Not even sex. Love. Love is wanted more than anything else is this vast existence. And cause of that, people let themselves go outside the moral laws in order to achieve the one thing that crave more that life. So your little guidelines are fuckin' with the thing all humans need."

The woman with the blindfold folded her arms for a moment. The small guy did the same. Moments pass in silence when the woman said one word. "Bullshit!"

"Just because someone loves something . . . doesn't mean they lost their fuckin' brain. No matter how crazy they seem to get. At the end of the day. . .you still know right and wrong. And what it comes down to is this . . . Love is the ultimate excuse to do whatever you want but it's okay because hey . . . you did it out of love. Sure, he fucked his wife's best friend. But hold up. It's okay. He loves her. She loves him. Forget the wife. She means something to them but not as much as they do to each other. Oh yeah. Wait. How about this? A woman sleeps with a teenage boy who is half her age and takes him away from his parents and move him to another state. Fuck the parents. Why? Cause they are in love and that's all that matter. Forget the boy's mother who misses him every day. Or forget the boy's father who had such high hopes for him and wanted to see him grow up. But hey. Let them move to another state. Let the woman be charged with kidnapping but make the two run further till eventually, she gets tired of him or he get tired of her. Next . . . the boy meets someone his own age and sleeps with her and knocks her up. Well, let's forget the woman cause now he's in love with the girl! It's okay to hurt that many people and not think about the consequences of what they have each done. Why? Cause of Love. Well . . . you know what . . .fuck Love. What it comes out to is that it is nothing more than an excuse to lose your reasoning of right and wrong. It means that as long as someone loves somebody its okay for that person to go out and do just about anything . . . beat . . . steal . . . or kill . . . for the sake of love. And you know what . . . that's just BULLSHIT!"

The table was quiet for a minute. I knew the woman in the blindfold was passion but even I never knew how much. Yet it was put all into persective but what the small guy had said next.

"Spoken like a woman who never been or felt love before."

At that point, the woman with the blindfold stood up then started to walk off in frustration, holding tightly to a set of scales.

The small guy turned to the three sisters. "Girls . . . you gotta tell me. What is the fate of the woman and the guy we were talking about? What is she," pointing at the woman with the blindfold, "is going to do."

"I fear that she is going to take the head of the woman," says the youngest sister.

"In which she feels she is fully justified in doing," added the middle sister.

I open my mouth for the first time, beating the small guy to the punch. "What about the guy?"

"He will be punished. His fate . . . will be death through the very activity that is most related to love . . .in an unconventional sense," remarked the oldest sister.

The armored warrior looked at the small guy with an expression that feigned pain and disgust.

"Damn! Even that's extreme. Sodimizing the poor guy cause he's in love with a married woman!"

As the small guys stated those words, the armored warrior gave his own words. "We all this is to be. Her . . . task . . . makes her body have the parts of both man and woman . . . to truly be as impartial a judge as she . . .supposed to be."

The small guy hopped up, grabbing his quiver. As he puts it onto his back, two white wings spread wide and began to flap.

"She may have both parts of humans but she is still very very far from understanding love . . . and me."

The small guy flew away as I waved. The three sisters looked at the small guy flying off when all of a sudden, they stated a simple truth. "While strong forces they are . . . we must not forget that those two will never completely agree. Cause they will never see what each other truly has cause they are both forever and eternally blind."

And with those words . . .I was frightened for the very humanity that those two affected.

The Seven Deadly Sins, Movement 2 - GLUTTONY

In love, as in gluttony, pleasure is a matter of the utmost precision.

- Italo Calvino

Gluttony. Gluttony is, by far, the one sin that is most apparent and encompassing of the American Culture. Gluttony comes at us with such a hunger that it hardly ever fulfills us. To some, it never fills that gnawing, lustful hunger. People consume. And if you look at Americans as a whole, we consume a LOT.

Just look at gluttony in terms of its classic meaning of eating too much food. All you need to do is either look at our televisions or see our freeways and roads. Gluttony fills nearly every crack of the United States. Fast food joints. Corner stores. Diners. Restaurants. All shaped and sized differently to give people a various kinds of tastes. And while choice is not the problem, it is our overall consumption that is.

Large servings of food are dished out left and right. Sold either very cheaply or somewhat expensively; all to fulfill our hungers. And once we get full, it doesn't seem long till we get hungry again for more. Even meals at home, such as many meals I had growing up as a young Puerto Rican during holidays, were down right ridiculous with the amount of food given to one person(including myself). And God knows I ate MORE than my fair share.

This vast need to consume so much breaks off food and grows into other areas of our lives. Junkies need more and more drugs in order to get a better high. Sex addicts are constantly fucking people left and right; keeping their beds warm and their bodies touched for some unspoken desire for companionship. People spending hours upon hours on video games to get the highest points or finish several quests to win or gain some kind of glory.

Feeding. Consuming. Ever encompassing many aspects of our lives. This is what we must look at. Our own individual gluttony that we all take on. Look at it. Acknowledge it for what it is. And if you can, begin to cut it down. All this feeding will eventually making you too full to do anything; whether it be food or something else that is constantly consumed.

Every small bit and piece that life gives to us is precious because it is finite and uncommon. Remember, pizza always tastes good if you only have if once in a blue moon. Sex is only meaningful when it is with someone you love. Overindulging can only lead to ruin as the old saying is true: Too much of anything isn't good for you.

And wouldn't you rather have something in small portions and be able to enjoy it every time you have it?


Think about it.

Have a great morning, afternoon and evening, Boo Boo Kitties. And Happy Holidays.

Seraph (aka Frankie)

Ballads of Seraph: The Seven Deadly Sins, Movement 1 - PRIDE

Ballads of Seraph: The Seven Deadly Sins, Movement 1 - PRIDE: "Pride was always a sin that I could never understand why it was a sin while growing up. So many people walk around saying that you should t..."

The Seven Deadly Sins, Movement 1 - PRIDE

Pride was always a sin that I could never understand why it was a sin while growing up. So many people walk around saying that you should take pride in the work that you do. Or be proud of your heritage, having Puerto Rican Pride. Look at my life, there were plenty of times where Pride didn't seem like a bad thing. And of course, as life teaches you, it turned out to be wrong.

Gerard Way, lead singer to the band known as My Chemical Romance once said, “It is better to lose your pride with someone you love rather than to lose that someone you love with your useless pride.”

And how have I, like many people, have lost people because of that same pride. I have alienated close friends because of that said pride. I backed myself into corners that I NEVER needed to be in cause of that pride. I lost myself because of my pride. These are all things that have come about because I was too proud to either except my faults, ask for help or see another way. And these are things that we, as human beings, do on a regular basis.

Pride has taken many people far in life but many times, it has taken more of them down then built them up. Look at our society today. So lost in the brand name culture, the technological advances and the protective walls of ambiguity & social despondence that we as a race have let our pride dictate actions that can be interpreted into downright foolishness.

Oh, Let me buy some sneakers. No. Not the cheap ones. I need those sneakers that are at least $80 to $150 dollars cause then people will think better of me. Too proud to buy affordable shoes that are not as much as an actual utility bill.

Let me go on the computer and find my husband cause it is so much easier for me then getting dressed, go out, actually meeting people and talking to them face to face. I can just sit here and when he wants to see me, I will have him come over and treat me to dinner cause I am so worth it. And if he can't do that, well fuck him cause I am gonna get the best man possible and that man has to take care of me.
DEAR GOD! You have NO IDEA how many times I have heard that scenario in the last 5 years alone from other people that i have come across or heard about through another friend. Pride made this person chose to be lazy. Pride made this person decide that he was gonna let his dates come to him from now on. Pride make this person decide that if his date is gonna be worth anything or move on to some kind of relationship, that his date would have to pay everything for him because he is so full of pride within himself that he felt that he earned the right for someone else to take care of him.

And allow me to tell you, one and all, that that is PURE BULLSHIT!! Pride is only going to get you so far in life and, 9 times out of 10, it is not going to be a good place. There are reasons that Pride is a Deadly Sin and I just gave you quite a few.

So remember ladies and gentlemen, just because you feel the need to be proud, does not mean that you need to be so excessive with it that you will create problems for yourself because it is true what they say:

After Pride, Comes the FALL!

Remember that!

Have yourselves a great day, afternoon and night Boo Boo Kitties!

Seraph (aka Frankie)