...several months back, i wrote a little piece here, riffing on the word "cowboy"...just that i thought it was funny word...didn't impune the job or character of the american cowboy or the argentinian gaucho for that matter, or of anyone in ranching or agri-business or any of the related fields...nonetheless, i took a good deal of heat for lampooning a sacred cow (pun intended)...
...well buckle in, boys and girls because this ride might get rougher than popping out of the chute on the back of a brahma bull that's just had 120 volts applied to his balls...tonight's topic is God...
...that is the most succinct name for a concept that has thousands of names, thousands of faces and yet is nameless and faceless...there is the loving god, the jealous god, the hairy thunderer and the soothing earth mother, gods of rain and wind and rock...there is probably somewhere in someone's theology a god of sensible footwear...a long time ago, somebody figured out that if the masses were told that there was this all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful invisible being judging every action, that said masses would be easier to control...and then civilizations the world over set about to codifying their mythologies in stone and parchment, coming up with a vast array of rules and regulations to live (and die) by...this is not to say that there are not good compassionate works done in the name of God... there are many; but i would submit that more people have been killed in the name of one god or another than have been killed for money...
...and that is a staggering, mind-numbing number...even the blind can see the misery, the deaf can hear the wailing that goes unheeded...trillions of dollars spent on bombs and mere pennies spent on bread, and we wonder why there are terrorists/freedom fighters who figure, "Fuck it, i have nothing left to lose"...and all the while we kneel and genuflect and rub our beads and face the east in prayer, the planet spins further and further into madness...
...if there is a supreme being in charge of all this, i think he, she or it has been on vacation for many millenia in some remote place, in some distant dimension, and left the loonies in control of the asylum...
...or we might just be on our own, to care for each other as best we can...
and thus far, we've done a piss poor job...
"you say you've lost your faith,
but that's not where it's at
you have no faith to lose
and you know it..."
Bob Dylan
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so, don't leave me hangin'...what is this gutwrenching news, if i may be so bold as to ask?...
...and is that the same Winchester cathedral sung about way back in the 60's by The New Vaudeville Band?...a quirkly little tune, that one...the singer actually sang through a megaphone like in olden times...
As for God, I have only one response: free will.
Love.
...ah, yes...free will...a blade that can cut in both directions...and then there's free willy, which was opened for discussion in the subsequent post...
...ah, yes...free will...a blade that can cut in both directions...and then there's free willy, which was opened for discussion in the subsequent post...
Yikes! Please don't free that willy! *snort!*
...that last comment was brought to you by your Department of Redundancy Department...
I have a relationship with God... I kinda like him, actually. I hope he likes me, too.
I get tired of people using him as an excuse ("Oh, it's God's will,") or as a weapon ("You're going to hell for that because I know for a fact that God doesn't approve,") because I really think people should take responsibility for their own actions, and they should quit trying to guess what God's thinking. I mean, really now.
But I do recommend God as a friend... He's treated me well. I hope to return the favor -- mostly by not acting in His name.
You know? I mean, does that make sense? Point to God. Where is he? Some people point up, where Heaven is traditionally thought to be. I tend to think of God being here... He's the tree, the land, the deer, the sky, the field...
I dunno. I'm getting a tattoo (my first) that will say, unless I change my mind, "Just do what's right." That's what I imagine God would say... Then he'd follow it up with "Be kind, dammit, and quit that squabbling!"
...my good friend and partner in musical crime, Tom, likes to say that the love that exists between people is the best definition of God he can think of...i tend to agree with this...as Heinlein said in Stranger In A Strange Land, "Thou Art God."
Grok?
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