Quicksilver

Can o' Worms... er... Faith

Someone said, "Today's blasphemy can be tomorrow's dogma..." Yes and yes. Although the word 'dogma' sticks in my throat (There's even a gag built into it!). It does seem that we've come to need the sound bite, the schtick, the gimmick, the hook or tag line. What we may need to devise is one short message but encompassing a concept that can be grasped AND accepted by all. Now, where do we get one of those? With the current attention spans and activity levels, it would have to fit on a bumper sticker.

My personal theory is intended to LEAVE ROOM. We are all individuals. We all want to wear different clothes and yet, we all have closets that look and function pretty much the same. We need a very basic framework, to hang our proclivities on, which suits everyone. Some will want organizers and shoe racks. Some just want a single bar for hangers. BUT... it's still the same concept of 'closet.'

IMO, we have to flip the old addage... Let's build a mountain and leave the molehills out of the discussion altogether. Let the moles build their own hills as they wish. Any framework we try to build for All must be loose enough to allow for whatever idiosyncracies that people are prone to add.

What IS it about the human mind that makes it SO very hard to let someone else think differently from ourselves? WHY do people get into a heated argument on whether God created everything in six days (literally six cycles of daylight on the Earth) OR a turtle carried the world in on its back OR we had a big bang and stuff and 65 million years of evolution? WHY does that matter? We're HERE. Let's each pick our favorite story and then... MOVE ON.

For me, it's so simple. I have a million metaphors and cliches, like "Bloom where you're planted"; "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade." If we'd just use the guidelines already developed, it could work.

"An ye harm none, do what ye will."
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
"Love your neighbor as yourself."
"If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."
and so forth... These are all echoed in some way in most every flavor of spirituality on the planet. (Wouldn't Thumper's mother be proud!)

Are we so simple minded that we have to have infinite and specific minute rules, rituals, codes and assigned punishments just to keep peace with each other? IF we are so simple minded, wouldn't it be easier on all of us to just have one decent rule to live by that applies in all cases? Couldn't we stop trying to convert everyone to a single dogma concerning divinity and just learn to live together safely, comfortably, peacefully? Then, wouldn't our spirits all have the freedom to take care of the rest?

Any version of "Love your neighbor as yourself." applies for me. In order to fulfill this you must value yourself. If you feel you are worthless, then loving others in that way will lead to problems. Don't love them more. Don't love them less. Love them the SAME AS yourself. That's all we need. OF course, we'd have to reword it so that non-christians wouldn't recognize it as coming from the New Testament and gag on it. The word Love has to be changed too. It's been overused to the extend of becoming almost meaningless.

05.15.2001

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