Yes, it’s been a long time since the Snark was Snarky. I’m feeling snarky. Big time. Today, I’m not taking it out on defenseless T-shirts and coffee mugs. (g)
Earlier this week, I posted about feeling a little sad.
I’m amazed that people took this personally. I never once mentioned Christians. I wasn’t talking about any particular religion. I may not understand some of the Christian religions, but I would never, ever put down such a large group of people. Especially when I love so many.
To some, my point was missed entirely.
No one should have felt the need to defend their spirituality. This wasn’t a personal attack on anyone or any particular religion.
I happen to believe spirituality can be a beautiful thing. I don’t talk about my own spiritual life on purpose. It’s mine and it’s private. I don’t have all the answers. I study. I read. I’m curious and I want to know as much as the next person what this life is about.
But, I was raised to love and respect all people of all religions and while sometimes, it can be really, really hard, I strive for that because to do otherwise would snuff out the part of me that makes me ME.
I was feeling bad because I have a difficult personal matter I’ve been dealing with.
I was feeling bad because friends I love are dealing with things like cancer and sick relatives and sometimes it feels we don’t have enough to offer to help them with these burdens.
I was feeling bad after witnessing a cruelty to a sweet, young man who was merely being himself.
I was feeling bad about two little girls who were treated like filth in a backwards school. I never even said what religion that teacher was—there is prayer in all religions.
I was feeling bad because we have such cruelties going on with war and politics and I’m not sorry that I don’t have my head stuck up my ass so I can constantly ignore these things.
I am a writer.
I am an observer of human nature.
I deal with the good and bad of human beings and if it were all good, I wouldn’t be much of a writer would I?
I dig deep into my soul and try to write about real people dealing with real human issues. ( And okay, since a lot of my stuff is in alternate realities, they deal with issue of their world– all that could easily be metaphors for this one.)
I try to find solutions for them and to write a damned interesting story while I’m at it.
I cry when people are hurt. I laugh when people laugh. I can watch the news and feel the breath ripped from my lungs over an image of war. And I don’t care who you are, Christian or not—there has to be at least one time in your life that you wished people could just be a little bit nicer to each other.
As far as I’m concerned we are on this earth for each other. To care, to share, to understand, comfort and love.
To respect.
No, I’m not one to dwell on the negative constantly. (Or the Snark would be way more Snarky (g) )
I have a lot of close friends who will tell you I’m a goof, but I am a LOVING goof. I will never be ashamed of that.
But after witnessing two women belittle someone they didn’t know, for reasons that make no sense to me, I was feeling a bit down in the dumps. Yes, this is something that happens daily. Every single second of every day.
But this one time, this one narrowly, focused, intimate time, I looked into a young boy’s eyes and shared his pain. It hurt me on such a deep level, I talked about it. It was just one more thing on top of a couple of hard weeks out of my life.
If this makes me weird or naive, then so be it. But do not misread my words and feel you need to defend your spiritual choices.
The entire point of that post was a simple wish.
A wish that the people of this world try to respect each other more.
Simple.
And on that note, tomorrow I’ll be posting the results of the last Scene From a Pic. If anyone had an inspiration from that photo, feel free to share. We had a new player this time and he wrote something just lovely. 🙂 Of course, I may have scared him and all my other readers away this week. LOL!