Government by the Lowest Common Denominator

According to your average "tea party" type citizen, Sarah Palin ROCKS! Let me tell ya, folks, we gotta GET US some of THIS!



That's right, folks, we need people like THIS planning the future of this great country of ours.

I am afraid....VERY afraid........

The Truest Measure of Blood

It sometimes amazes me the things that make us who we are. So many variables, including country/state/local of birth, race, gender, physical build, temperament, socio-economic situation, etc, ad nauseum, all add up to produce an individual that is totally unique, no matter how similar to his/her peers he/she may appear to be. The real tragedy occurs when the "human factor" plays it's irritating hand. A person who could have had a pleasant upbringing due to his economic situation might instead think back to having spent time in hell, only because their parents decided to inflict their child with a home that was so counter to their surroundings as to make them feel like aliens in the greater scheme of things.

The worst offender when it comes to this morbid influence on our lives is, of course, religion, whether that be mainstream or of the cult variety. When we as humans decide to accept a belief system as rock solid fact, we tend to attempt to indoctrinate our children into accepting these same beliefs, no questions asked, and we tend to get bent out of shape when our children, as children tend to do, question those assertions we hold so dear. I suppose it is only normal that we get upset that our children decide not to take what we try to cram down their throats at face value, but to DISOWN, or at the very least DEVALUE our offspring for daring to think for themselves, well, that to me smacks of a certain kind of fratricide. You might as well just sacrifice your own children on the alter of intolerance if you think less of them for daring to seek their own paths in life. In addition to that, why don't you ask yourself why you even had children at all if all you really wanted were identical little cloned copies of yourself, happy to accept whatever dogma is fed you, rather than to dare question it? Have you no faith that daring to QUESTION your faith could possibly make that faith even stronger? If so, then allow THEM that same respect and be willing to accept the possibility they might come to some different conclusion than you did. Is your love strong enough?

I happen to have a family that is as diverse in it's characteristics as this country is diverse; creed, temperament, and ability to think critically. Some of this diversity is divisive; Parents are estranged from their children, and some children think less than highly of their parents. Yet, in this late stage of my life, I find myself fervently hoping that just like this country of mine, this family can somehow rise above all those petty things that tear families apart, to no good end and for no truly defensible reason. I love my family, despite many perceived reasons not to, and I want them to love me back, equally, despite whatever motivates them to love anything in their lives. There are things about their belief systems that, if I were to allow it, would make me think less of them, but I HAVE to believe that love of family trumps everything. If it doesn't, then we should just accept the fact that we really are all on our own in this harsh world we humans have created for ourselves, with no safe harbor to turn to when fate has it's way with us in a less-than-desirable manner.

All of you reading this post today, I know, if from nothing else than my own unique experience, that life is not fair, that no one has any kind of carte-blanche on perfection, and that relationships can be complicated. That's why we sometimes have to take those long, hard steps towards the middle, meeting these people related to us at least halfway, and yes, sometimes even reaching a bit further from our side if that's what it takes. Yes, there are alternatives. Settle for them if you must, but please, just ask yourself if those alternatives really ARE all that superior to simply growing up and loving your family, no matter how insufferable they might be. They just might return the favor.

The Truest Measure of Free Will

Sometimes, it takes me awhile to get around to performing the proper post, and this is one of those occasions, for which I apologize profusely to those who expect some regularity in their favored blogs. Since this is the place I choose to do my pagan pontification, I do not have the luxury of using diary material as filler, but must actually come up with something relevant to the art of being pagan. May these efforts do these pages justice……

Although I have considered 98% of all religious people to be practicing a sort of warped fantasy dance with twisted logic, it amazes me that in the face of human behavior, anyone can remain spiritual at all. The atheists really have it easy when you think about it, since their only standard is plain, ordinary, concrete proof. If God can't seem to stride right out of the heavens and onto main street for all us mortals to witness without being high on something, then there's no reason to feel particularly guilty about dismissing his/her/it's existence outright. I myself have been strongly tempted to just give up on the idea of "higher intelligence", especially the omnipotent, gets-bent-out-of-shape-when-not-being-worshiped kind of supernatural being. It also really offends my sense of logic and autonomy to think that something bigger and more powerful than me is supposed to OWN me and will do horrible things to me if I don't love him/her/it for enslaving me. If I TRULY had free will, then I would have no need to fear missing the boat to heaven, since I would truly have the freedom to take it or leave it. What's supposed to be the big attraction in "eternal life" anyway? Think about it; who do we associate most with that state, other than God? Vampires! And do we portray vampires as being particularly happy with their state of immortal existence, the boredom getting so intense after a few centuries that they go looking for release? No, really, I could not conceive of this world providing me with enough entertainment and distraction to keep me from going bonkers after a few hundred years, and I sure as hell don't understand how this heaven all these monotheists want to get to so badly would fare any better. So, the streets are paved with gold……..so?

That is why this nature religion I have embraced is so much more palatable……it enables me to combine my desire to be good, moral, AND logical, never being required to suspend my analytical nature, or believe that the Earth was created in six days only five thousand years ago. Ethics and morality come about naturally in the course of civilization building, and do not require any divine stamp of approval in order to be relevant. I don't want to spend all that energy fearing assault or murder, thus I and all those like minded individuals who share this society with me enforce the rules which at least attempt to moderate such behaviors. Who needs a God to make the rules when all any society needs is common sense and a desire for safety and security?

What my religion requires of me is pretty basic, in some ways much easier than monotheism, in some ways much harder. It leaves the consequences of my actions squarely on MY shoulders……..An it HARM NONE, do as I will. I must regulate my behavior is such a way as I do not harm others by my actions, without making me live by a mile-long list of rules that I break at the risk of eternal damnation. The Catholic church used to try and convince me that masturbation would damn my soul for all eternity….DO NO HARM laughs at that idea and skips the guilt altogether. Same with birth control and wild monkey sex…….there's a reason we do things or we wouldn't be doing it with such gusto. It's when we cross the line in concrete ways that hurt other people that any behavior becomes toxic, and one of those is this hypocritical intolerance for other people's chosen belief systems which Christians and Muslims practice on a regular basis, IN DIRECT opposition to the way their own prophet asked them to behave. "Kill a Commie for Christ" is one classic oxymoron if ever there was one.

Left to right-wing fundamentalists, a large segment of our population is not allowed to love each other, to raise children or serve in our military. Left to those who profess the love of "our savior", spittle-spewing protestors line the streets, their faces contorted in rage and hatred directing their self-righteous propaganda at easy targets who never did any harm to them. Mainstream religion thrives on fear, and I will not bow down to a God that rules by such fear. That's right, this puny mortal does not sell his love, it is freely given or not given at all.

So who DO I worship? No one. No thing. I honor the Earth Mother, that cradled all life and made MY life possible. I honor those forces in the universe, in whatever form they have chosen to exist in, that wrote the rules of physics, of light, and of love, and through the process of evolution, gave this intelligent ape the ability to achieve great things. I love and honor my ancestors, who passed their wisdom and genetics down to me that I could carry on their legacy, or choose not to. And I love and honor the Goddess, representative of nurture, and the God, representative of nature, the combination of which I celebrate with the Sabats within the wheel of the year. Do I have ANY need to bring you, my reader, into this fold in order to save your immortal soul? No. Your soul is your own to cherish or not as you see fit and there is nothing my religion can do to give you or your soul life eternal, for that thing, call it a soul if you wish, is just one spark of the essence that is life, and life takes within it's bosom all that come and go. Energy cannot be destroyed, only changed from one form into another. May YOUR passing beyond this veil be as joyous and revealing as I HOPE mine to be.

Blessed be!