thoughts re: that post Tom reblogged…

asdfghjkl. how do human? how do GOOD human? it’s definitely the piece I miss keenly, almost on a daily basis, about abandoning my religion (for the time being; I have some curiosities in a particular direction). having what felt like unarguable metrics of success and failure gave me, at the end of the day, a map marker. a milestone. I could sleep in the peace of knowing the lord was probably pretty happy with me.

now I find I’m constantly comparing myself to other things, most of which are unproductive. how are other people in my age group doing? how about by race, sex, orientation, class? how about to the ideals espoused by Jake? or my mother? or my boss?

I suppose the only metrics that really matter are: how do I measure up to myself in the past? and how do I measure up to what I want to be?

…but how do I know what I want to be?

…and how do I be that in the world while still caring for others, for the planet, for the future – while still respecting my personal history and my origins as an animal being?

here I am, passing the quarter-century milestone, arrogant as fuck still, but finally realizing how easy it is to need a god.

One of Us

One of Us

The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything.

The Stand, Stephen King

Jesus loved the world as himself, saw magic in everyone, and talked to everyone like he was talking to himself. He gave in love, he asked in love, he rebuked in love. This seems to me what it is to be Christlike, but it seems a mode that could hardly be owned and distributed by the Christ Jesus, nor one that any sane and loving man or God could desire a monopoly on.

Preston Fosmore

some religious songs are, like, cool and stuff, and the old hymns can be pretty moving

but then sometimes

“Set Me As a Seal” by Matt Maher