“I mean a christian don’t go around a village cuttin’ off heads and shit!”

That simple quote from a soldier in the movie Platoon seems pretty straight forward, no? Is it the truth? No. Would a christian push a button that remotely fires a missile, tearing apart and charring hundreds of bodies in a mere second? How about a buddhist, or an atheist, a child, a woman, a human-being? It seems they would… we do… most every day. Why? Is it to protect ourselves from some perceived threat? Well, isn’t self-protection the nature of violent interactions… war on a small or large scale? We see the evidence of the large scale wars on the news every day… oh wait… nope, disregard that. Tune into another country’s news if you want large scale war news. We mostly see small scale wars on the news in this country.

Allow me to bring it down to a more local, tangible, seemingly superficial, small-scale since most of us enjoy our soap operas more than other’s situations that are far more desperate.

Why would a Christian disown a friend because that friend did something “unforgivable,” only to commit the same wrong, to a potentially heightened degree, only a few months later and justify it as being OK… “Well, I was unhappy; we are all broken; I am only human. I can’t be perfect.” Would you not feel compelled to make amends to the old friend after walking in their shoes?

Would a man fixate on converting others to his chosen religion, that of Christianity, to such a degree that he forgets to actually spend silent time listening to God and experiencing time seeing into himself?

Would a girl be content to be a perpetual liar, manipulating, steering and wrangling others and abandoning the long-term, meaningful friendships of those that could no longer be fooled but still truly cared for her, as evidenced by their daily actions and words?

Would the “head of a household” spend their life judging and lecturing others, all the while turning a blind eye to the faults that they wrestle with, pretending they are not there. Would they be content to contribute 10% of their six-figure income to charity and believe that is all they need to do… perhaps buying a seat next to God in Heaven. Would this same person be willing to abandon a meaningful relationship, because “this does not need to involve” him, only to turn around a month later and demand a relation?

i have no expertise on religion. i am no authority on spirituality. i have no mastery of life. i am simply complex and complexly simple.

Here i am.

Label me as you please. Label all of the world. Make everyone and everything fit into some perfectly defined box so you don’t actually have to dedicate any energy into relationships, learning and growing. Analyze, label, debate, tear-down and move on to the next possible conversion, mission, goal, teaching opportunity… whatever it is you are trying to do in this lifetime. You may have to push thousands away before you get one “really tough one” but it will happen; you will convert one. Pat yourself on the back after dropping one drop onto a dry field after diverting millions of gallons to your personal oasis. Have fun with that.

Wait, does that really sound appealing? Maybe we could try this, drop some of our labels… stop clinging…. take a chance just being human…. quit labeling fellow humanity as good, bad, christian, buddhist, black, white, asshole, nice guy, friend, enemy, lost, found, right, wrong… Quit fucking-up creations that are so great with all of our deplorable labels. Just be a part of everything rather than the better or best part of something. Quit labeling ourselves.

Here we are.

~ by oneopenbook on August 14, 2008.