wallbrat

Reality vs Religion

Charlie Kirk

The reality is that he's dead. He didn't pass of old age. He wasn't ill and there was no accident. He was taken from his family by another human with a gun. It wasn't political and it wasn't religious. He died because someone disagreed with him and he refused to let it go. That's a frightening concept. That leaves us all open to violence, including myself for writing this.


I'm among those that believe that Charlie Kirk was dangerous. He said quite a few terrible things. He had very inflexible beliefs and he definitely did not think that all humans were equal. There was no oversight on what he was spouting. There was no accountability. That does not mean that he deserved to die.


We need to remember that and stop making this political. It's pretty disgusting that many on the hill are making Charlie their talking point. There are other things to talk about, like gun control. If we had stronger controls on firearms and who could purchase them, Charlie Kirk would still be alive. It's all about perspective, not propaganda.


Religion

People justify evil with religion. They quote the bible and say that Jesus would do things their way. Would you like to lay some money down on that?


You can justify anything with a bible verse because it's all about context and personal interpretation. Lets say you take a verse out of the 5th chapter of Exodus, for example. It's still about context. You should, at least, read the entire chapter. You still might be wrong so better to read the entire book of Exodus. There's also other issues.


The bible was translated by fallible humans. You aren't reading the verses in the language that they were written in. It was compiled and arranged by equally non perfect humans. Mistakes were made. There are books that weren't included and there are bible verses that reference those missing books by name. There are, at least 15 missing books mentioned in the old testament alone.


So, in short, you're quoting a book, that by it's own admission, is not complete, has been translated multiple times and you're employing severe tunnel vision when you do it. Bravo. Is it any wonder that I don't trust churches.


Speaking of churches, many of you quote your pastor when you really shouldn't. Your pastor was not called by God. No one stepped down and said, “I want you to tell those people that they're going to hell. I'm kind of busy right now.” Your pastor is a human and therefore fallible. That person was trained by other humans in the same condition. Even if you could trace all of the human teachers back to Christ, that's 2000 plus years. Mistakes were made. Personal interpretation has skewed things.


Language has changed a lot in that time. For example, try reading The Canterbury Tales. That was written in Middle English in 1387-1400AD. That's less than 650 years ago. I've read it. It was difficult and it took quite a while for me to read Middle English as easily as I read Modern English. Christ was three times that far back and it was a completely different language. Trust me. Mistakes were made.


Reality

I live in reality. It's the only place I can live in. It's a scary and it is uncompromising. More people have been killed in the name of religion than all the other wars combined and it's still continuing today.


I don't care what you believe. As long as your belief in God is making you a better person, is telling you to help others and is not telling you to kill non-believers, I could care less if you believed that your god is your kitchen table.


If you're going to commit an atrocity, at least have the guts to own it. Don't blame it on an invisible deity. Don't justify it by misquoting a book that you did not bother to read fully but is also, obviously, incomplete and full of errors. Stand up and admit that it was your idea. I'd still think you were evil, but, at least I'd have a smidgen of respect for you.


I've read the bible three times. Yes, I can provide the verses quoting missing books if you push me too far. I've also gone beyond the bible. Anyone who thinks that the bible is the sum total of God's words is, at least, woefully misinformed. God is supposed to be eternal. What made any of us think that an eternal being's words and teachings are finite?


You can't prove that God exists and I can't prove that God does not exist. We should just live and believe what we believe. Everyone can't be right or wrong. Personally, I'll go to heaven or hell or there's nothing after this. I might be reborn and be forced to go through life again. I won't know until I die and I'm not interested in finding the answer to that any time soon.


All any of us should be doing is living and helping those around who are less fortunate. This life is all we have, at the moment. We should be living it to the best of our ability. That is reality.

Anyone who knows me knows I don't write about politics anymore. It's obvious why I stopped and why I deleted everything I had written. I do, however, have something to say about Charlie Kirk.


His death was senseless. It shouldn't have happened. There was no reason for it. I didn't agree with most of what he said but he should still be alive. Instead he was killed in front of his family. Thanks to the wonder of the internet and moronic twits, his family will never stop seeing it.


We also have all sorts of opinions spewing forth online. Just because you have an opinion does not mean that it is fact nor does it mean that it should be blasted over the internet.


Many are also talking about what Jesus would do or think and what the bible says about what happened. As if any of us knows what Jesus would think or do. Did he appear to you? Did you get his opinions from your pastor? Did you get it from your bible, which is a collection of books that were translated by fallible humans? Are you beginning to see the light?


The most that any of us can or should say is that a man was killed in front of his family. You should either be helping his family or you should be helping others. If you can't or refuse to do either one then you should shut the fuck up.


What prompted this? Someone I love has been talked down to about all of this and they're mentioning religion while they do it. Instead of going after him specifically, I'll just make it more general. What can I say? I'm an equal opportunity offender.


Isn't it about time that humanity grew the fuck up? It's either that or we admit that we're a failed experiment that the earth should reabsorb. Two to five million years from now there could be a new race on this planet and nothing left from us. Who knows? Maybe the dinosaurs can start again. They certainly couldn't do any worse.

The Holy Coffee Urn is my shepherd; I shall not want.

It maketh me the Elixir of Life: It leadeth me from the stumbling of the sleep-deprived.

It restoreth my cognitive functions: It leadeth me in the paths of the Caffeinated for It's name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of the stupid, I will fear no contamination: for It art with me: It's stimulation and It's effects they imbue me.

It preparest a mug before me in the presence of the uninitiated: It anointest my facilities with Ambrosia: My coffee mug runneth over.

Surely Kenya and Colombian will follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Caffeine Enhanced forever.


©2005 Robert Andrade

Sans Politico and Narcissism

Some people just don't get it. I was fairly clear on both. I suppose it's verbal 2x4 time.


Politics

I'm not being specific anymore because it's too dangerous. We did not elect a politician and he didn't put a decent person in charge of finding government waste. All you have to do is watch or read actual news sources to see that.

The election is over. This is not the time to cry about it. You either didn't get the candidate you voted for or you did and now you're one of the targeted. We tried to warn you.

Now is the time to protect anyone being targeted and preparing for the mid-term and special elections. If all you're going to do is complain, you'll accomplish nothing except drawing attention to yourself.


Narcissism

If you know someone in a relationship with a narcissist, keep your opinions to yourself. In short, shut the fuck up. You can love them, support them and be there for them. That is all. You aren't the savior of the world. If it's not happening to you, keep your mouth closed. Learn from my fuck up. You don't want to be me.

I wouldn't keep my mouth shut. My opinions were always out there. The warning signs were there. There's no way I could have not known what would happen. I lost two people. One of them, K, I lost permanently. The other, M, is someone I'll love past my dying day. We still talk, however, it's restricted to the rare Facebook comment.

Do I like it? No. Does it hurt? The words don't exist to describe it. Can I do anything about it? Other than what I'm doing, no. Both of them can come to me, at any time, and I'll be here. In short, I'm doing what I should have done from the start. While it might be too late, it's all I have left.

In closing, leave these two subjects alone. I'm not interested and it hurts like hell to type. If there's a next time, I'll find a way to bill you for my time and my medical expenses.

To start off, this is an apology as well as a discussion. Humans aren't infallible. We make mistakes. Too many of us refuse to admit our mistakes. Those refusals contribute to most of the tensions we see in our politics. That's a subject for a later essay though.

Narcissism and Yes vs No

Over the last few years, what I've talked about most is Narcissism and Yes vs No. I've written several essays on both and my viewpoint has changed a bit during that time. We have to combine the two. Most of all, we have to keep our mouths shut. I know many people in narcissistic relationships and I know one who has broken free of one.

Some things never change. A narcissist, by their very nature, is a manipulator. They will do whatever they have to do to remain in control. If the relationship ends, they insure that everyone knows that they are innocence personified. Their ex is the crazy one and caused all of the problems in their relationship and they work hard to turn everyone against them. The narcissist also has a new partner in two to four weeks, on average, while their ex is left trying to rebuild a shattered life.

The friend that broke away is going through this now. The pattern rarely changes because it can't. Narcissists don't deal with Yes vs No because they are never responsible for anything. We can't change them so we have to change how we respond to them.

Start by supporting your family and friends that are with a narcissist. By that I mean honestly support them and shut the fuck up (STFU). Your opinions do not matter here. They are in the relationship, not you. The rule here is that if it isn't happening to you specifically, STFU. Your loved one has been indoctrinated. They've been abused and damaged. Forcing your opinions on them will only hurt them more. If they want your opinion, they'll ask. Unless they do, all you can do is love and support them. Words mean nothing. Let them know that you're there for them through your actions.

You should be doing that regardless. Most of the time you'll never know that your coworker, family member or friend is in a narcissistic relationship unless it breaks apart or they tell you. It's the same as when a sick tree finally falls over. On the outside. The tree is strong, the bark beautiful. On the inside, the rot is plainly visible and fouls the air it's exposed to.

Narcissism is part of our culture, sadly. Many narcissists are in positions of power and it's hard to remove them. Concentrate on your loved ones. That you can do something about, provided that you STFU.

Why?

I'm writing this because I was wrong. I thought you had to fight against narcissism and be rabidly vocal about it. All I managed to do with those tactics is to drive two people away from me. One I'll, likely, never talk to again. The other is communicating again after a long silence, a silence I deserved. I'd forgotten that Yes vs No applies, no matter what subject you're talking about. She chose this relationship, knowing who and what he is. That choice has to be respected.

Now I do what I always should have done. I support from a distance. She's in another state so there's no other way. I don't mention her partner. He won't come up in conversation unless she brings him up. If she needs help, she'll ask.

In Closing

Today's diatribe has been on narcissism. Yes vs No applies to everyone and everything, my Padawans. If you have trouble with that concept, simply remember. If it is not happening to you specifically, STFU and simply support the person it is happening to. Rocket science this is not.

Intro

I constantly hear people bitch about being lonely. I hear a lot of other things because I'm the one most people vent to yet the one I hear the most often is complaints about loneliness. What most people forget, what I forgot for the longest time, is that everyone is lonely.

Yes vs No, Dernière Partie

Emotions are involuntary. What we do about them is not. We all feel, whether we want to or not. What we do about our emotions is a choice. Yes vs No. We're back to my old original essay. Some things stand the test of time.

We all will have feelings for those around us. We have no more choice in that than we had in being born. Life was thrown at us, without our consent. That fact doesn't make our lives any less valid. You'll have feelings for someone when they don't see you the same way. They have no more control over their feelings than you do over yours. The inability to deal with that situation is what gave rise to the idiotic concept of the friend zone.

We all have to choose what we do in response to those feelings, except for sociopaths. They only have feelings for themselves. Most of the time, others will feel the same way about you as you do about them and they will choose to do nothing about it. Just because you love or want someone does not mean that you'll be their choice. Love them, be the best friend you can possibly be and move the fuck on. Life continues. That's a hard lesson that few ever learn properly.

Summation

I'm 58 years old and I live with my feline overlord, Pumpkin. I'm likely to die alone and that's OK. If that happens then it's a result of my choices, good and bad. I do care about someone local to me and she doesn't see me that way. Refer back to the previous paragraph and continue on. Life is always worthwhile and it beats the hell out of the alternatives.

This essay is more to help me than anything else. If some find some value in it then I have treated my Padawans properly. Still though, I recommend not twirling your lightsabers like that. Your fingers won't grow back.

INTRO

The piece you're about to read is a rewrite of something I did nine years ago. The original was too emotionally charged and had other serious flaws. It couldn't be published in today's climate so it no longer exists. You'll understand why as you read on.


My sister, Vicki, would have loved this and I wish she was here. She loved the written word more than anyone I've known. This piece is dedicated to her and her memory.


THE ROAD TO HELL

"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." - Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain


Around ten years ago, some well meaning individuals decided that it was a good idea to censor the novels, “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn”. Alan Gribben, a senior Twain scholar, was primarily responsible for this. He wanted to bring the two books back into the classroom, without the racial slurs that were in them. While I can respect his desire, he failed as a Twain scholar. He missed the point so completely that he might as well go back to school and start over. The road to hell, while paved with the best of intentions, always leads to the same place.


Samuel Clemens was not a racist. He was, in fact, anti-racist, as his proven by his history. A simple Google search proves how anti-racist he was. He chose his words deliberately and with great care. He was using the medium available to him to protest the treatment of certain people in society. Back then, these people were not viewed as humans and were treated with the utmost contempt. Most treated their dogs better than they treated these people. Clemens was against this at a time when it was extremely dangerous to be so he used the written word to connect with as many people as possible.


In “Tom Sawyer”, one word was changed to “slave”. The word it replaced meant many derogatory things that the word “slave” does not. Replacing that word completely changes the point of the book and renders it almost meaningless. “Huckleberry Finn” was also destroyed this way.


By now, most of you know what words I'm referring to. If you don't then go look it up. Google is your friend. I danced around the words because they're reprehensible and I refuse to use them in any medium or any manner. Those words have no place in our society and should remain in the past as lessons for the present. That is, exactly, where Mr Gribben and many others made their mistake. They forgot that their job is to teach, not isolate.

I believe that these books should be uncensored and reserved for the college curriculum. If you're in college, then you are, hopefully, mature enough to understand that these novels are also history books. They were written 150+ years ago and contain concepts that should not be taught in grade school or high school. We're forming our language patterns up through high school. I wouldn't my son exposed to those words until he's mature enough to know not to use them.

In college, they should be taught as literature and as a lesson to underscore both how far we've come and how far we have yet to go. If we refuse to learn from history then we'll only continue destructive behavior.


HISTORY REPEATS

I went back to this now because we haven't learned our lessons. History is continuing to repeat itself. Racism still exists, it's simply better hidden. It's still part of our society and will take decades, possibly centuries, to fully eradicate, if it happens at all. We would have to deal with our issues for that to happen.


Instead of directly dealing with our problems, we distract ourselves. We censor books, we ignore what's uncomfortable, we lie to ourselves or we latch on to the most recent fad. There was a fad, in the prior presidency, that you might remember. “Alternate Facts” That was the catchphrase for 3+ years. There is no such thing as an alternate fact. A fact is a fact because it's been proven multiple times and under multiple conditions. Most of us know this yet many of us jumped on the bandwagon anyway. That's just one example out of hundreds.


When it's safe, take a walk and pay attention to your thoughts. If you're honest with yourself, you'll see that your thoughts change, however minutely, as you look at each person outside. If you're brutally honest, you'll see that your thoughts change based on the skin color of the person you're looking at. If that isn't true of you then you're extremely fortunate in your upbringing.


We need to teach our children instead of whitewashing history. The only way that they will be better than we are is to learn what predated us. All of history is connected. We can't have our present without the past that led up to it.