A Story of Good and Bad

Ares prided himself on his courage. After all, he was the God of War and every brutality that war had to offer. At the moment, war was everywhere. Between small conflicts between friends, civil wars, and spontaneous battles between families, militarism was vastly growing and could not be stopped. At the same time, Poseidon, the God of the Sea, storms, and earthquakes, was in a constant rage. Every day there was a new natural disaster, devastating a different area. With the combination of Poseidon’s anger and Ares’ everlasting militaristic attitude, trouble was constantly brewing, making for a world of uncertainty and violence.

Amidst all the bad, there were those that sought the good.  Persephone was one of them. As the goddess of spring and flowers, she admired blue skies and flourishing agriculture, everything Ares and Poseidon were currently interfering with. She just wanted it to end. She knew that they were too powerful to be stopped even with her own divinity. Nonetheless, she worked tirelessly. When she thought Ares and Poseidon weren’t paying attention, she would sprout a small flower, hoping for it to blossom. However, time and time after, the flower was consistently destroyed by either large gusts of wind or careless warfare. Ares and Poseidon knew of Persephone’s aspiration to make the world a better and brighter place away from the misery they bestowed. Therefore, previously working individually, Ares and Poseidon now understood that their anger was best used together. Their devastation over the world coincided with each other too perfectly. When there wasn’t a storm, there was conflict, and when there wasn’t conflict, there were storms. Somewhat inspired by the gods’ cooperation to work together, Persephone sought the help of Demeter, the Goddess of Agriculture and Aphrodite, the goddess of love. They all tirelessly worked for the good of the people, to defend against Ares and Poseidon, yet nothing seemed to give. Aphrodite tried to implement her feelings of affection within civilians so they could begin to love each other and live as one. Demeter tried to plant trees and foster the lives of crops for harvest. Yet, the land remained barren, dark, and depressing for all. A depression that seemed to never end regardless of all the good that the goddesses fought the bad with for centuries.

Years later, Ares and Poseidon faced a challenge they had never faced before. Their power was dying. Earthquakes were weaker, fights quickly ended with agreements, and the sky was bluer. The world was regaining its green once again. While the goddesses were working hard in their fight against Ares and Poseidon, that was not exactly why the world was returning to its normal state. Ares and Poseidon simply grew tired. Their power was no longer sustainable and their trouble to keep up only grew. It was slow and steady, but the goddesses worked together once more and the trees grew, the flowers sprouted, and day by day smiles became more common. The world was happier.  The goddesses did not realize it then, but the bad was always meant to come to an end. There was meant to be healing for the world to be repaired, and for broken hearts to be patched together. From then on, the world knew that to get to the good, you first had to endure the bad. Healing was not a fast process, but instead a journey of time and patience.