Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
It's the whole theory of the "God shaped hole".
I don't adhere to any faith so that exact iteration doesn't scan with me, but the theory does. The idea is that if you identify yourself by your faith and theoretically faith is built on love and forgiveness, then your anchor is something built on love and forgiveness and your overall countenance will be built accordingly.
So if your 'anchor' is your politics, politics is built on connivance and backbiting and on its BEST days compromise (and even compromise means choosing between things you believe it). And this isn't new - it always has been. Go all the way back to Washington's second term and the National Gazette. ****ing Jefferson installed Freneau to snipe at Washington...while a member of Washington's cabinet.
I don't expect everyone's anchor to be their faith (though I will concede that the people I know who do tend to be very happy people as a whole), but man - it can't be something as pernicious as politics.
It's why I loved WilliamtheIrish's post so much. I don't know if he's a man of faith but whether he is or isn't is not relevant, if he has a 'god shaped hole' he's filled it with volunteer work - something inherently good. For others its exercise. Others family.
It just cannot !@#$ing be politics. It can't be sloth or envy or avarice or lust (sadly). There needs to be something there and it needs to be built on a positive framework.
|
Glad I stopped in yesterday and opened this thread.
Really glad this is stickied. (Although I'm still in the Detox camp of "smoke more weed").
In my initial post, I was going to discuss this aspect, as I was a catholic raised boy. Although in various religion classes we called it "the void". Simply put, we were taught that from birth, every person, no matter how small were looking to fill that void (and it should be with god).
And while I, like you, have no adherence to any particular faith, we discussed this "void" at length in 8th grade religion class and in religious studies in high school as a junior and senior. The questions, concerns and answers then were as varied as in this thread today. Which I find amazing and rather joyous. People in this thread willing to help a stranger, not for any other reason than they show the human trait of caring.
To me, in my personal life, I look at it as an evolution. Filling "the void" with material objects of money just doesn't feel as good as seeing the eyes of your child or grandchild light up when you walk in the room. This evolution is a full time gig, I tell ya. Not a day goes by now that I don't think of something that helps my outlook on life.
For instance, I was walking by the TV last night and saw Jimmy Fallon was introducing something as he was holding an album. Turns out, it was Alanis Morissette, from a remote location singing a new song with her toddler child in her arms.
She sang and the kid interrupted her and smiled and giggled and played with her headphones. It made me smile to watch a person interact with their child while singing a song, promoting your new album, on national TV. I don't know
why. It just did.
As I reflected on it today, I thought
maybe it made smile to see a person who sang such angst filled songs in the 90's, evolved to be happy mother and wife. Because I smile like that when I see my own children these days.
I fell asleep with that thought and today, just thinking about that clip, has made me smile all day. It was really worth the 5 minutes to watch.