life as a persian king

I find it interesting how little we’ve talked about the actual story of Esther during our study of this book. The narrative keeps bringing up unexpected tangents. This week, our little question sheet said the following: “Persian kings lived in isolation from the real world. It was unlawful to be unhappy in the king’s presence and service”. So we were, of course, feeling a little indignant to the self-centered king when Mo asked us if we, in the West, are just like Persian kings, refusing to allow any unhappiness in our presence, content to turn a blind eye to things like genocide? We see pictures of Darfur on the news and say “My gosh, isn’t anyone going to stop this?” And then we find the remote between the cushions of the couch and start flipping channels—oh look, the Simpsons is on.