DIFFERENT POINT OF ME
Papatūānuku and Ranginui
THE TALE
PART 1
When Earth and Sky Embraced
In the beginning, Papatūānuku and Ranginui were together.
Earth Mother.
Sky Father.
Not separated by the vast space people now take for granted.
They held each other close.
Ranginui lay upon Papatūānuku.
Papatūānuku held Ranginui.
Between them were their children.
But there was almost no room.
No wide sky.
No open world.
No place in which the children could stand upright and see.
They lived pressed between their parents in darkness.
The closeness that joined Earth and Sky left little space for anything else.
This is one of the difficult truths hidden inside the beginning.
Love can be real and still become too tight
for those growing within it.
Papatūānuku and Ranginui were not enemies.
Their children were born from their union.
The problem was not the absence of love.
The problem was the absence of space.
The children grew.
They felt the darkness.
They began to speak among themselves.
Something had to change.
They could not remain forever folded
between the bodies of their parents.
Some wanted to kill them.
If Earth and Sky died,
the children would finally be free.
But Tāne opposed this.
Do not kill them.
Separate them.
Let one remain below.
Let the other rise above.
It was a different answer.
Not destruction.
Distance.
The children agreed to try.
One after another, they struggled to force their parents apart.
They pushed.
Strained.
Failed.
Earth and Sky had held each other since the beginning.
The first embrace of the world does not loosen easily.
Then Tāne prepared himself.
He would not push like the others.
He would use his whole body.