True Happiness

“Theoretically, there is one consummate possibility of felicity(true happiness): To believe in the indestructibility in oneself, and then not go looking for it.” — Kafka

Rabbit in your Headlights

Just a rabbit in your headlights
A memory as you pass on by
Just a sad person to pity
Broken humanity ravaged by time
But somewhere a saviour awaits awakening.

Christ as King; Christ as Saviour?

This is the first part of something I want to do for the next whatever length of time.
Link to some Youtube clips that seem to have something to do, or something to say about The Christ.

It will be an interesting (and be warned) occasionally potentially offensive, review of what culture seems to be saying
about the incarnated God.

I knew this religious guy once, though I was never quite sure what religion it was he followed
All I knew was that he was not allowed to touch anything made of gold.
Gold, he believed, would corrupt the soul even after the briefest and most cursory of encounter.

But, to be honest, he wasn’t very good at following the dictates of his religious doctrine.
While it is true that he never did own or even ever touch anything made of gold,

He would often spend hours peering through the windows of jewelery stores,

Delightfully gazing at golden watches, rings and anything else with that particularly beautiful shine.

One day, though, the strangest thing happened.
As he was walking home , a beautiful sparkle
From the side of the road caught his eye.
With eager anticipation my friend scurried over to catch a glance of this oh-so-shiny thing.
And lying on the ground below was the most beautiful pair of golden earrings he’d ever seen.

They obviously belonged to someone, and someone would soon be missing them.
My friend stared at the earrings for quite some time, unsure of what he should do.
To touch them would violate all that he’d believed
All that he had lived for.

And yet, he could not just leave them there.

Either someone to whom they did not belong would stumble across the valuable objects
And take them to be their own.
Or, perhaps, the owner of the earrings would come back and find them
And place them on her ears, smile, be happy and yet, perhaps, never know what a life without them was like
Both  outcomes, my friend realized, would lead to him never again setting sights on such beauty.

He could not just walk away and forget what he’d seen.
More easily could he forget his own name.

So what happened in the end?
Well, to be honest, I don’t really know.
Did he stay true to what he professed to believe, living a life forever knowing what he’d lost?
Or did he in that moment, decide that belief, that religion, that life itself could not be more meaningful
Than even the briefest of momentary encounters with beauty.

Religion and Divinity

Religion(despite, perhaps, the claims some make)does not, I think, reveal some kind of absolute divinity, but rather, it seems, forces us, by its own claims along with our following introspection and interpretation, to discover within ourselves that which is most relative about our humanity. (ie: values, culture, “truth”, the meaning of life, etc…)

Or maybe, even simpler… Religion does not lead us to the god(s), but instead, to that which is most human.

Hmmm….