Being Human...Sometimes.

Looking at the world today it's pretty easy to say we're a mess, we're doing what humanity has been doing since we stood erect and called ourselves 'Human'...We fight, we hate, we covet and we all want to be right about something...Anything. Face it, we're a greedy, petty species and we'll argue about our worth without a thought. For centuries humans were taught we were the center of the universe, that everything revolved around us, that we were special.

 

Somewhere along the line religions were built around this idea. We couldn't, and some still can't, bend our minds around the idea that we weren't just dropped down onto this incredibly beautiful planet and told to take care of it and we'll be rewarded for our efforts. Okay, that's a bit simplified but religion is a tricky thing. In the ancient world there were 'Gods' for everything, the forest, the ocean, the sky, the sun...Everything and everyone had a 'God' they could believe in and along the way we came up with the idea that if we're good and studious with our 'Faith' we'll live forever. Considering the one, singular aspect of being human we can agree on is that this body we inhabit will ultimately die.

 

The human being we are will be no more. You can have all the faith in the world and it won't stop the body from ending and no matter what anyone tells you otherwise no one knows what happens next. Heaven? Hell? Reincarnation? Pick one and hold onto it and believe and be happy in this life...That's your choice. 

 

More or less. 

 

The truth is different. Look around at all the religious wars that have always been with us. Inquisitions, death sentences for those who don't agree with this Faith or that Faith, attacks upon those who choose not to believe, who are, in any way, different. Hitler and his ilk didn't like the Jewish Faith. Hardcore religions have no room for anyone who disagrees with them in any way. If you're lucky you're evicted from their sight...If not?

 

A whole lot of dying is going on because of 'Religion'. I've been in a lot of different places of 'Faith', have a degree in one of 'em, and inside the walls of their world it's all love and joy and singing and praying and outside...There's a phrase used to excuse their hate, their vileness: 'Hate the sin but not the sinner'...Unfortunately this is usually followed by a severe beating, mental, spiritual and physical. 

 

We can't get along with each other. That's why we find others who believe like we do and insulate ourselves from the real world. We ignore science, history, education of any kind if it differs from our idea of 'Faith'.

 

Personally I've been assaulted with baseball bats, shot at, and hated because of my own belief's and life would be a whole lot easier for me if I just said nothing and nodded in agreement with their belief's. Who and what I am is pretty much evident to any who know me and I embrace and love a whole lot of people of different Faith's and belief's, I have good friends who are Christian, Muslim, and so forth, because they chose to get to know me as a person as I do with them. I will never argue 'Religion' with anyone...We can disagree and still be 'Human'

 

All it takes is a little love and patience. When we die we'll know, or not know...Either way it's here and now that matters. 

 

I spent the last couple of weeks in and out of consciousness, closer to death than I've ever been, and thanks to my sister I am starting to recover. My legs are pretty much useless right now and can't really walk without aid, but I'm still here. I've been having dreams about friends who have died and I miss them...A lot. 

 

Death is easy. We've been doing it from the beginning and we can live our lives knowing that it ends, or we can continue to do what we've been doing as a whole and fight, hate, and leave behind a bitter memory. 

 

I accept my humanity, faults and all and, yeah, there are a boat load of things I've regretted in my life, words said and, more importantly, unsaid. I can't change the past but I've tried to make amends when possible. The details are pretty well known and I have to live with my past.

 

My Faith is okay with that. 

 

I believe in Mother Earth. She gave us all life and we will all return to Her. It's not difficult, pretty simple really. But as long as She continues to live, so will humanity. 

 

Later.