Enjoy this fascinating interview! Wish I could spend time to really edit it, but I have a patient in the ICU I’ve really been tending to, so…

Love you all!

Me: Erik, do you think you can bring Moses in?

Jamie (to Erik): So are we up for this, Erik?

Erik: Oh, yeah.

Me: I’m ashamed to say that I don’t know much about Moses. I learned most of what I know from that cartoon movie, The Prince of Egypt!

Jamie: They made a cartoon movie about him? I did not know that!

Me (laughing at how surreal my words sounded): Go fetch Moses for us, Erik!

(Pause)

Jamie: He’s fetching! I wonder if he’s going to show up with the staff and the whole—

Me: I don’t know.

Jamie: That’s how I imagine Moses. He has the big staff and the ten commandments.

Me: I wish I knew more about him.

Jamie: We’re a go. Erik’s back with him.

Me: Oh, good. Hello Moses.

Jamie listens, then giggles.

Erik: Jamie, don’t freak out.

Jamie: Erik!

Moses: Hello.

Me: What does he look like?

Jamie: Erik’s talking to him. You know, he’s almost the same height as Erik. He’s not thin like Erik is; he’s got a fullness to his belly. He does have facial hair, but the hair on top of his head is—he’s not bald, but it’s thin, like he has a longer forehead. So, maybe a receding hairline and kind of thin.

Me: Okay. Now, Moses, did your mother, uh, well, what happened with your mother? I understand she wanted to give you away to save you, because they were killing all of the boys out of a fear that, um, well, tell me your story, please.

Moses: Being so young, I was merely an infant, so I do not recall the struggles she went through. This was only a discovery to me when I passed away. I was not given the opportunity to understand what my mother was going through, yeti was given opportunities to help bind beliefs together and make a brotherhood of—

Jamie (to Moses): I’m so sorry, can you tell me again?

(Pause)

Jamie: He has a deep voice. It’s not rumbling or anything. It’s just a deep tone. He talks on a slower note. He’s not a fast talker, but his pronunciation of some of the words is very, like with an accent. I want to say with a softer, rounder sound, but I don’t know if that makes sense to you.

Me: Yeah, sure.

Moses: I had the opportunity to bring a brotherhood throughout the whole city, and it was my calling from God to bring (he puts his arms up) that brotherhood to all who were alive on Earth. I felt that most of my life was not driven by my personal needs. It was driven by the needs of the people around me. I gave myself willingly. I do believe that some men are made to be leaders; some men are made to be voices; some men are made to be workers.

Me: And you are the voice?

Moses: Yes. I don’t consider myself a leader.

Erik: But so many people followed you.

Moses: Yes, but it was by their own will. I did not encourage them to walk behind me.

Erik (giving a pleased nod to Moses): Well played.

Me (giggling): Well played, sir! So, were you adopted by an Egyptian royal family, then?

Moses: Yes, I was.

Me: Okay. And what I understand is that you fled across the Red Sea. Was that thing about the “Burning Bush” real or was that just a myth.

Erik: Yeah, my mom is talking pretty literal, so please respond to her that way.

Jamie laughs.

Moses: Metaphorically, the burning bush was not from fire as you would think of a fire for a camp. It was a bush of light. There was light coming from it. It was bright enough to be its own source of energy.

Erik: Did it spontaneously combust?

Me: Oh, gosh!

Moses: No, it was the light of God that lit the bush. It was the vision I had when God spoke to me and gave me direction for what to do.

Me: Okay, and that was for you to ask for guidance on how to bring about the release of your people, the Israelites?

Moses: It was insight to help release the people. Because of how I was placed, how I was revered by the people around me, I had this desire to create this equality, but I never found myself begging or asking for answers. I truly believe God understood my needs and would answer me before my need to ask.

Jamie: He’s explaining it as if, um, because it was done this way, it was what God had intended to do for all of His people.

(Pause)

Jamie: He touches his heart. Oh, and he doesn’t have a staff like I was thinking about before.

Jamie and I both laugh.

Jamie: I’m so sorry.

Moses: All the times that God spoke to me, He never distinguished between society, between the knowledge of people, and between the beliefs of people. He always spoke in terms of saving everyone. I have made mistakes in human rage, anger and misunderstanding. I, myself, stooped so low to battle as a human and had many people killed.

Me: Wow, I did not know that!

Moses: It was a burden upon me and a lesson to understand who was I going to be, the voice or the human. I made a great sacrifice when I discovered that I, myself, had a connection to God that no other person I came across had. Many times I had a sense of alienation because of the understanding I had about life, the understanding about death that I could not verbalize. This confusion and angst that I had inside me encouraged God to help me become the law maker, to write the commandments, to give a platform that all humans could read and understand.

Me: And to follow, probably.

Moses: It was never written that these must be followed to the degree that they were written, to be allowed sanctity for your soul with God.

Me: What do you mean?

Moses: They were written as guidelines so that you may understand the nature of being human.

Me: Is that why you had to experience this burden, this human rage, in order to become the voice that you became.

Moses: Yes.

Me: Okay.

Moses: There is a beauty in being human, once you understand this capability of being free. For so long, there were so many humans who had eyes for war, petition, individuality, separateness. This is why I was allowed to be born and to come forward.