Our impact on this earth of ours together with our impact on the creatures which inhabit it alongside us appears, so much of the time, to have a negative outcome.
I simply do not believe that we were all born ‘bad' and have to atone for the rest of our lives in order to rehabilitate ourselves so we end up flying heavenwards as opposed to the hell fires of eternity. I am a humanist. I believe that our heaven or hell is here with us every day of our lives.
Don't get me wrong, I have great faith in an inexplicable and most wonderful power which surrounds us, unseen but often felt in the little things of life. I need to take this one step further and wonder aloud at the unbelievably cruel actions carried out in the name of this wondrous Being. It is irrelevant what you call our creator - God / Hashem / Allah / Buddha and so many more. The name is only attached to these deities by groups of people so they can claim full ownership of a power for good which could never fit into their rigid little boxes.
I refuse to believe this great redeemer of ours could begin to countenance any type of gathering which is formed with the sole purpose of shutting out everyone who doesn't follow their man made dictates. I also find it incomprehensible that any of these supposed leaders here on earth, no matter how sanctified and holy the heights to which their brethren may have exalted them, could forget their humility when surrounded by all the beauty and savagery carried out in their or others' names.
How could and why should the love of human beings, of our earth and its creatures be divided up and annexed as the property of these supposedly spiritual people. I am far from perfect, but the awesome cruelty we see people deal out to each other, to our precious animals and to the earth itself must come from somewhere and that, I believe, is an innate self-hatred. Fostered from the day of our birth.
How can we love anything else if we find ourselves less that worthy? So, jump up off your office chairs when you read this, give yourself or someone else a really meaningful hug that says we too are beautiful precious beings no matter what path we choose to follow up the mountain.!! (Of course, you may need to be a little circumspect about this and may even have to hold it inside until you see that special mate of yours, your kids, your cats, your husbands……..anyone who will return the love.)