Oct 03 2009

Believe it or not. Does it matter?

Category: Random,Social IssuesIronWynch @ 6:15 pm

I personally don’t think it matters whether a person believes in God or not.  If there is one, it exists whether we believe in it or not.  The only one in that exchange who is affected by the belief is the believer.

The believer is the source of the belief, so people whose minds can’t imagine a perfect God or a functioning universe will constantly be at odds with nature.  They can’t begin to surpass themselves because they can’t understand or believe in themselves.  They can not believe that everything was made as it was, regardless of how they believe things were made.  Because of this, they can’t think of a way to enhance things.  You have to know what’s there to figure out how to make it better, or even if it needs improvement.

So God or nature becomes an excuse for personal failures that are within their power to change, but apparently not within their will…or it would seem so anyway.  I personally believe that one’s will is part of one’s power.

On a personal or societal level, to direct things to how they should be, one has to first know (well enough anyway) what is.  If one refuses to see what is, they will fail or lead themselves or others into destruction.

Both camps are guilty of leading people to destruction because thusfar, few seem to be willing to face the way things are, including the human imagination and will, or how they relate to each other.

Religious people claim to believe in an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, unfathomable God and yet they reduce it to little more than a hatless Santa Claus each time they pray for any purpose but gratitude.  Non religious people claim not to believe in God, and instead, reduce the universe to something that should be their hatless Santa Claus every time they hope for anything but what they have earned.  So they have a god they believe will part the Red Sea for them.  I like to call it the Denial Fairy.

I have a sort of hobby of naming people’s god or at least their anthropos figure by their behavior.  One can tell who they really worship by what they do.

Whichever it is though, nature is still what it is, and none of us is smarter than it.  Worst case, we can make this tiny rock we infest uninhabitable, but said rock will still orbit the sun until it is consumed by it.  So I’m trying to live in peace with my fellow inhabitants unless they don’t want to live in peace with me.  If the latter is the case, then it’s on.

Whether I am a child of God or merely a gob of flesh, my life is important to me.  I give and receive much love, and for this I am grateful.  I live on a planet that has many habitable areas where I could live rather pleasantly for years with nothing but my wits, and should I lose those, my suffering will not be long.  I will die of dehydration or exposure, and my body will feed some worms and flies that may someday feed a toad or maybe a fish that may someday feed a bigger fish or maybe even a child.  I am a part of the cycle of life, and when that stops, I will be a part of the collection of minerals that make up this universe.

It’s nice to think there may be a God.  I don’t presume what it is, if it exists in the ways I can possibly imagine existence, or try to parse its will aside of what is naturally creative and destructive, and the balance between those that sustains life.  No book is needed to see this, though reading the ideas of others on the matter helps as a nice springboard for forming one’s own ideas.  Everything we need to know, and may instinctively know already is spelled out in flesh and blood…and in trees and stones.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,


May 31 2009

Dinner With Verbil

Category: Days and NightsIronWynch @ 5:36 pm

Well, I already knew not to judge a book by its cover, but I wasn’t quite expecting so complex a storyline.  I’ll spare the details, but by all accounts, Fender is to say the least, alright.

We met at the Greg, and continued to the Walk, and understood each other very well…too well.  In my acceptance of Nature as smarter than myself,  I spent most of the night wearing my signature sideways smile.  No need for masks.

It was comforting on the one hand, and disturbing on the other, much like the first time I saw Shai face to face.  I knew my life was going to change…no idea really how, but that it would.  This time I’m not as blind as I was in my very slightly more naive youth though.  I’m proceeding with extreme caution.  I was speaking to someone who could see into my soul, but this time, has no fear of what he observed there.

We have so many mutual acquaintances that it’s strange that we hadn’t met before.  We go to the same cafes, buy cigarettes at the same places, have a similar style of dress, sideways smile/smirk, vast vocabulary but simplified and blunt delivery, been on the net since there was one, and have quirky browsing and community habits, but both use it to enhance rather than replace our offline lives.   He’s impressed that I managed to squeeze some money out of it, though we both attempted to get through the night without talking too much about business.  We both come from “ethically mixed” families.

So now we get to the suspicion.  We know so many of the same people and have so much in common that if he’s never met me before, it’s coincidence on the level of a lightning strike.  He was so comfortable and smooth on the first meeting, that I knew I was talking to a guy with mad game…MAD game.  Nervous as a corpse.  I suspect that we have encountered each other before, but that at that time, I had no chance.  I’ve seen photos of his grandparents, but none of him before the last accident.  I believe he’s saving those for after he knows I’m into him.

In his defense, he was probably married all the times we’ve very likely been in the same room until recently.  It would have to have been over 2 years ago.  I’ll usually however, at least get a smile, a hello, and maybe some cavallier smalltalk from married guys who recognize.  They’ll go home and tell their wives about this incredibly interesting lady they met, who they should meet and swap recipes with or something.  I’ll see them with their wife later, and have a nice conversation, and she’ll either love me or fear me, depending on her personal hoe quotient.  Hoes don’t fear me at all until…well, I digress.

Point is, the little devil on my shoulder, much wiser than whatever angel I must have gotten assigned, says stall until he’s fully recovered.  Granted, listening to said devil completely would leave me a total recluse, but there is some grain of truth in her warnings.  If he preferred hoes and was new school looks conscious before the last accident, he still is, and just thinks I’m a better option because I’m more old school.  While he’s physically vulnerable, he’s loved up from the good women in his family, and going with the sweetness and hard core loyalty flow.

When or if he no longer needs them that much day to day, he might go back to his old ways.  If his old ways are the same as his new ways, I’m in.  If on the other hand, he was a skirt chasing maniac with bad taste in hoes, then getting involved with him would be emotional suicide.

So in case this is all a Verbil Kint act, bad ass with a heart of gold, I’m keeping things light.  I think I’ve already made a friend with tension.  Thing is, since we do know many of the same people, and these people are treating me differently now, I need to know why…if it’s because they’re afraid for the condition of my soul, or if they’re afraid for the fragility of my heart.

In my sphere, there is no actual talking about people behind their back.  There are statements of hopefulness, and collaborations on how to handle issues that have been brought up with the person in question…but if one doesn’t have anything good or constructive to say, one doesn’t say anything.  Nobody talks about other people’s business.

Yet there are unspoken things that come into play.  One is that suddenly all of our mutual male friends who used to be mildly flirtatious, are boyscouts looking over their shoulders before giving me a simple hug.  If he’s present, I barely get a handshake, and nods have turned into near bows.

…this from guys I know are thugs of some rank, and non thugs who normally walk around like they own everything.  Twice, places were closing around us, and nobody said anything until I noticed and apologized for delaying them.  Instead of an it’s alright that meant it’s not alright, we got told to relax and stay as long as we liked, and asked if we wanted anything else.  I said no, and looked at him, and he seemed to be waiting to see what I would say.

At the beginning, I thought it was a ”pushy disabled guy” thing, but now I know different.  Nobody’s going to tell me if I’m his normal fare, and I’m not going to ask.  I’ll just wait for the physiotherapy and time to do their work, and see what happens.

Tags: , , , , ,