Grey in a Black and White World

I once had a Jehovah's Witness guy come to my door. He was standing there with his sweet little boy, about 8 years old. He was smiling and we stood on my porch and chatted. He asked me if I feared the devil because there was so much evil in the world. I said, "When your heart is full of God's love, there is no room for the devil." He said, "You must be a Christian." I smiled, "You think?" Then I told him he was on a street with mostly Catholics, so good luck with that.

I think it's human nature to have a tendency to put Panacea Blinders on and think that if everyone _________ (fill in the blank here: became Vegan, went to the gym, learned Reiki, became a Christian/Muslim/Buddhist/whatever) the world would be a better place. And it would, wouldn't it? Or not.

I was watching an interview with that great philosopher Larry David. He said that he got criticized because in one episode of his show, he was making fun of his father-in-law's religion. He replied, "It's a comedy!" It's not real, it's a show. And then he went on to say:

"Your religion SHOULD be made fun of. It's quite ridiculous, isn't it? Think how people spend their lives. They have no idea. They go around as if this is a fact. It's so insane, you know. If I really believed that stuff, I'd keep it to myself lest somebody think I was out of my mind."

The beauty of this world is that we have free will. We are all branches on the same tree. What good does it do to argue the value of one branch over another? But we will. Reminds me of the days shortly after 9/11 when I had a friend who left NYC to stay with us. She was a v. strict vegan and we were out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Her first order arrived and it had meat in it. Then came the anti-eating-innocent-animals rant. She sent it back. The second order she said the enchilada sauce had meat in it (it didn't--but was followed by another it's-wrong-to-murder-animals rant). In the meantime, her starving husband ordered french fries. Finally her food came. During the course of the conversation, she said, "If I were a man and my country called me to serve, I would."

I said, "I find it interesting that you think it's wrong to kill animals, but you're willing to travel to a foreign country and kill people you don't know."

Now, this is not against anyone serving our country. Far from it. It's not anti-vegan. This is not against anyone's religious beliefs, either. But they are just that: BELIEFS. Beliefs are our filters and we will experience the world as we believe:

The world is a beautiful place. Or not. People are basically kind. Or not. God is a loving God. Or not.

It's all in what you believe. And it's not like we are even conscious of our beliefs, it's all programming, as Bruce Lipton points out in his book, The Biology of Belief. The problem is that we then create rules and then we SHOULD all over ourselves and others. We cast judgements and dispersions against whole populations. We try to convert people to our side. Like we know. There's a Sufi saying, "Take responsibility for sweeping your own porch, and all the porches in the world will be clean."

On the eve of Valentine's Day, the ONE day greeting card companies and flower shops have reserved for love, perhaps we can make room for other people's ideas, opinions, and beliefs without judgement. Personally, I think God can handle a difference of opinion. Of course, that's just a belief.

Day of Rest

Remi and I are listening to The Savoy Express, Track Number 4 on XM this a.m. Playing all the hits from the '40's. Growing up, I used to have a huge time-warp-crush on Gene Kelly, circa Singin' in the Rain / American in Paris. Mmmm...he was so dancey. Anyway, post is late-ish due to cleaning attack of my stove. Sometimes I'm my mother's daughter, and when the mood strikes, it's just time to put on the rubber gloves. So really, I guess I've switched my day-of-rest with yesterday when I had a Curb Your Enthusiasm marathon. Happy Sunday. :-) H.

Gone Fishin'

Sunday I caught a rock...not a rock fish, just a rock. I know my friend Willie is wondering how in the world I ever managed to land a 31 inch, 12-pound catfish. Haven't made it out of the RGC to upload any photos of my fishing adventures. I have a picture of that 12-pounder but when Willie told me I'd have to put my hand under its gills, I took his picture with it. I don't bait the hooks and I'm not touching anything icky. Eeeewwwww!

I've been making my way through Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm.

It's preTTy, preTTy, preTTy hilarious.

So. In The Surrogate (Season 4) Larry comes out of a restaurant and hands his valet ticket to a black man standing by the valet sign, but the guy isn't the valet. Larry gets accused of assuming the guy is the valet because he's black. Guess what? Yesterday I was at a Spirit School gathering and met a woman named Wendy at lunch. I was talking about Larry David and she asked, "He's bald with gray hair and glasses, right?" It turns out it was her friend, Dylan, that that happened to. Larry came out of his hotel and handed his keys to Dylan. Then he laughed and said he'd prolly use it for his show. I told her, "I saw that episode!"

Cool, huh? Other than that, I got nothin'.