Brian’s Reflection: Friday, April 24, 2009

The poem is a little myth of man's capacity of making life
meaningful. And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see –
it is, rather, a light by which we may see …. and what we see is life.

- Robert Penn Warren, 1st Poet Laureate of the USA,
born on thus date, 1905

I agree - even if it sounds a little pompous of me to agree! The older I get, the more delighted I become over the human being and our capacity to struggle for understanding.

Now. “Holy Scripture” is just like “the poem”. In fact, they are poems. Imagination, seeking meaning. I like, for instance, looking at the Bible as an attempt of those two groups of particular human beings, Israelites and Jewish/Gentile “Christians”, from about 2000 BCE to 325CE, to throw light on what Life is.

Problem? What people think is weird. Gods/Goddesses, supposedly eternal spirits, don’t “talk” to human beings. Human beings enlist their imaginations to portray these divinities as “talking” to them. And onto these beings they project their hopes, dreams, wonder, ignorance, control issues, fears, needs for courage and support. Naturally, most of such projected deities end up being pretty screwed up beings! Just like the people who created them. Let’s face it: we humans are pretty weird dudes/dudesses!

I realize that I have spent the last 40 years of my Life unraveling the various cultural, time-bound projections of “God”. Bottom line: everyone has made up their own image of “God”. Some have been helpful, most not, in my opinion. So, I have decided to be bold! To do what all the rest did. I have distilled my own understanding of “God”, from various sources. Jesus remains central - because “He” (whatever “He” is) is a mythological Deity that makes sense to me! Compassion, generous love, understanding, delight. Just what a “God” should be! Or, just what I want a “God” to be. Forget the anger, the power, the vindictiveness, the pettiness, the judgmentalism, all the negative stuff. “God” should only have the nature that helps us human beings to disempower all the negativity and hate and show us how to be beautiful and caring and supportive of each other. And, sometimes against all odds, this is what I choose to believe we humans really are.

Friends: it is up to you to have the courage to reject any “deity” that is against humankind. If we can reject any projection of a “God” who sets us against one another, who punishes our weaknesses, who withholds the power we need to be loving and generous and kind, we will have, I believe, found something near to “the Truth”.

Take courage! Believe!

Brian+