Jesus gave them leave. They came out, and entered into the pigs; and the drove – about two thousand in number – rushed down the steep slope into the sea and were drowned in the sea.
permission to be ourself
opens a hand to release
Pandoran fact and fantasyinvasive species run wild
upsetting usual accommodations
eroding standardized relationshipsseeing the result of our toxicity
injected in a test animal
elicits a sense of great pityyes we’ve wanted to drown
a first-step refusing secret
at a horrendous cost we awakethere is no taking back harm done
for all that has been weep
for all to come choose again
The slightest of nods is sufficient for Legion to bolt before a second thought can be brought to bear and they find themselves even further afield.
This is not a slow exit like a Guinea Worm but a mad dash as Legion swarmed out. Such an exit would likely leave the still unnamed man (meaning you or me or all) both relieved and seizuring.
And so the irony as described by Perkins:
Although the demons try to avoid being driven out of the country, they wind up in the sea (the waters of chaos), where they belong. To a Jewish audience the loss of such an enormous number of swine might have been a humorous reversal in the story. Or, if the impurity of the setting was evoked by the swine, the drowned legion of demons suggests that Jesus has cleansed the area.
Such a potential cleansing is not limited to the biblical literalism identifying swine, by virtue of their hooves, as unclean. The uncleanliness of Empire must also be considered. While priests may rejoice at the keeping of the letter of the law, Jesus’ prophetic tradition is never satisfied with such an easy response. That which Legion represents, the economic/military machine that is Rome, must also be included—even as it would include the economic/military machine that is present day United States of America (as well as other powers such as Russia, China, and India—including anti-client-states such as ISIS).
The process of making whole again is never only individual, but touches every part of a context. We seem to seldom get out of dis-ease other than through paroxysm.