Hey, Pops.

When Paul ascended, He and I would spend hours talking about the history of Greek and Roman gladiators. Sometimes a few of the Apostles would watch our sparring matches. We'd discuss the intense and rigorous training, the camaraderie, the games and competitions, the whole eroticism of it, the sex...yes, we talked about the sex. Peter feigned disgust, Matthew viewed it as something sacrosanct, and Luke would turn 50 shades of pink.

But for Paul and I, it was always about the physical release that comes from a good workout with a friend or a rival. We'd choose a time when the arenas were empty, and we'd battle out our frustrations, temptations and our need to do something physical as opposed to spiritual.

I've always found it funny that all Heaven's staff are sexless – and in spite of scripture, the humans always think of us as being male. We have no genitalia, no genes, no testosterone. And, in spite of all we don't have, we look like men. And you...well, you're a bit obsessed with being seen as male, aren't you?

Today's human males – they have a lot of problems similar to yours. They don't like having their authority questioned. They don't like being questioned, period. They're caught up in this whole 'alpha male' bullshit. They see themselves circling a drain, with no way out. Thing is, there are people everywhere holding lifelines for them, but they're too damn proud or stubborn or stupid to admit that they need other people to help them.

Vuelda – the responsibility for that  falls on them. And, like it or not, the responsibility for them falls on you. You can't just shrug your shoulders and say, "I gave them free will. It's in their hands now." They are the way they are because you made them. And because they fell short, because they weren't perfect – because none of us were perfect – you left.

THEY WERE JUST KIDS!

Maybe you left because, at last, you've admitted to yourself that you're not perfect either.

Love or whatever, your imperfect creation,

Michael

Humans look to me first, above all my brothers. I'm counted first, the angel who banishes Fear, provides Guidance, and gives Strength. Most of all, I'm thought of as a Martial Angel – the guy with both a halo and a bitchin' sword. Nobody thinks that I might consider myself as an intelligent angel first and foremost, the angel with the most common sense.

It doesn't require years of study to conclude that battles just make things worse. Something Mary once said to The Son has stuck with me down the millennia - "All the world's problems are caused by two things: People don't listen, and People don't read." She was right then, and she's still right now.

I'm not happy that I was charged with killing in Pop's name. I'm surprised that he even would agree to assist them. But then I remember Babel, and the Flood – two instances where so many were needlessly killed. Babel was an instance of man's working together having a single common language and a single common goal, but my Pops felt 'threatened' by them. It was an amazing feat mankind has never been able to repeat. Well, the COVID-19 vaccine came close.

Don't even get me started on The Flood. It was turned into a simple parable, and it was, in reality, anything but. It was terrifying, massively destructive, and totally over-the-top unnecessary. But that's Pops: everything's a knee-jerk reaction, and then four centuries of 'they made me do it.' Free will, Pops – look it up.

I supposedly led the pro-God troops in the great War in Heaven. That's a load of crap, and one perpetuated by Pops. Lou was his favorite. They used to spend years talking about one thing or another. Now, as I've said, my dad isn't perfect, and there came a time when people kept asking him 'why this' and 'why that' and he didn't want to admit responsibility. He needed a scapegoat, and convinced Lou into taking the blame for something beyond the apple problem. And because he loved our father, Lucifer agreed.

Pretty soon Lou got the blame for everything. The whole 'War in Heaven' story (made up by the humans) hurt him the most. The thing is, if a lie is repeated often enough, even angels who know better will start to believe it as the truth. No surprise that human artists often give him goat horns and hooves. It was when Jophiel began to shun him that Lou left. Hell, you say? Hell was where some of Pop's earliest and worst mistakes were put.

Hell for Lou was having his love taken advantage of, having his father turn him into a pariah just to save face. No one knows where Lou really went. Well, Mary might. But she's gone, too.

I've travelled everywhere, in several galaxies; but nowhere is there a sea quite as beautiful or as blue as the Aegean. I whirl around the second I hear the crunch of rocks behind me, only to find Chamuel and Raguel looking grim. Which means it's time to decide the future of Heaven.