Politics and religion, a beast proportionate to the wills of our hearts, yielding two ugly heads that blindly and faithfully snap with each other, or at one another. Captive in our own psyches until a lone Knight in armor dares enters our caves, sword on the ready, prepared for battle. Facts give way to opinions or assumption, a disillusioned child birthed from the accompaniment of misunderstanding and knowing it all. Small talk, the waiting room for the arena of pressing issues, where there is no societal code of conduct to follow. Lines get crossed; bridges are burned, while words split through the air like harpooning daggers aimed directly at the egos abound.
Side note: I have never felt comfortable talking openly about politics or religion, mainly because of the giant backlash that comes with doing so. Today I will attempt to address, on some level, my take on both, which interestingly enough are quite alike.
In politics I am a middle of the road kind of gal. I struggled deeply in trying to find the right party for me, key elements stood out from every party that I was both for and against. I even did a survey, at the time I was registering to vote, to help me better determine which party best described me; it said I was a Democrat. But, something in me could not choose a party that I couldn’t stand behind entirely. Sure, we don’t always get what we want entirely. But, I wanted to keep my options open, which is why I became a nonpartisan voter (finding out later, that it isn’t a guaranteed opened option sort of thing, some parties don’t like nonpartisan voters). One of the main reasons I didn’t want to choose a specific party was because I didn’t want to feel tethered to it. I want to have the ability to absorb different aspect without feeling the need to defend a specific party and their guidelines. To some, I may have taken the easy way out, which might be true. To me, I’m just keeping the door open waiting for someone to address it in a way that causes me to find a reason to shut it.
A big thing that I rely on in my faith is evolution; because of this I am not a participant to a specific sect of religion. Again, like politics, I find myself wanting to keep this chapter in my life free of absolution. For me, it’s a journey meant to be traveled, experienced and understood, and not in a decidedly so fashion that is full of forethought and resolve. I can’t imagine cheating myself out of different paths of enlightenment. When I think of my belief structure, watching it over time; the constant of change, no matter how simplistic those changes can be, I know it has always been for betterment. I believe we are all inherently aware of what is right and wrong, a core structured code to live by that we build upon with our faiths. To me, it doesn’t matter who follows what religion or if they even choose to believe in a God or not. As long as they have a driving force within them that encourages good will, humanity, and compassion what more can we ask for? When I look at the perplexity of the meaning of life, I can’t help but come to terms with the thought that there isn’t only one path that leads us individually to the answer. Because, I believe, we are all on different evolutionary paths, designed to give deeper meaning to our own personal struggles, efforts and life.
It is our faith in humanity, in each other, that proves to be the most difficult thing of all to attain…if for a moment we could allow our personal opinions, be just that, a personal opinion, that we decided to live our lives by and let others have the same consideration, even without fully understanding them, I believe we could be a much happier species.
take a leap