{"id":4124,"date":"2026-01-05T15:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/?p=4124"},"modified":"2026-01-05T15:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:59:14","slug":"sultans-of-separation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/2026\/01\/05\/sultans-of-separation\/","title":{"rendered":"Sultans of Separation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/premium_photo-1664104722498-7fa26de2144d.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/premium_photo-1664104722498-7fa26de2144d.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"367\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4125\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/premium_photo-1664104722498-7fa26de2144d.jpeg 900w, https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/premium_photo-1664104722498-7fa26de2144d-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/premium_photo-1664104722498-7fa26de2144d-768x512.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong>Sultans of Separation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Why have We Let<br \/>\nthe Experts at<br \/>\nDamned Dichotomy &#8211;<br \/>\nHeaven or Hell,<br \/>\nSaved or Lost &#8211;<br \/>\nDraw the Maps and<br \/>\nWrite the Instruction Manuals,<br \/>\nCompose the Curricula and<br \/>\nCut the Paychecks?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Their Lexicon is Endless:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Good or Evil,<br \/>\nGod or Satan,<br \/>\nWin or Lose,<br \/>\nRight or Wrong.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">The Sultans of Separation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Imagining in Nightmares<br \/>\nof Being<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Something Other than<br \/>\nDivine.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">As If<br \/>\nThat Could Ever<br \/>\nBe.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">They\u2019ve Dressed Fear<br \/>\nIn a Bogeyman\u2019s Mask.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Perhaps It\u2019s Time to<br \/>\nSet a Trap of<br \/>\nUndiluted Love,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Bait It with Joy,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">from Which Fear<br \/>\nCannot Escape.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Adopt Separation<br \/>\nInto the Family and<br \/>\nChange Its Name to<br \/>\nLaughter.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><em>(Photo by Brooke Cagle; UnSplash)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Sultans of Separation Why have We Let the Experts at Damned Dichotomy &#8211; Heaven or Hell, Saved or Lost &#8211; Draw the Maps and Write the Instruction Manuals, Compose the Curricula and Cut the Paychecks? Their Lexicon is Endless: Good or Evil, God or Satan, Win or Lose, Right or Wrong. The Sultans of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4124"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4129,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4124\/revisions\/4129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}