Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

if you could say two things about religious faith, what would they be? i'll go first.

it is not political

God is an individual concern (not institutional)

granted, these are two negative things. sorry for that. but i was reminded of them after reading my journal notes from the fall of 2001, on the road in the desert.

in my lifetime i had never seen, and perhaps never will see, the american people whipped into such a hateful, politicized frenzy. if i'd been around for the pearl harbor attacks, maybe. but in my lifetime, no ....

it was just staggering to me.

.

if you could say two things about religious faith, what would they be? i'll go first.

1) I often wish I had it.

2) It takes a lot of faith to have faith. "Faith is believing when there's not a shred of supporting evidence." - Lightning Rod

doreen, good quote by l-rod. of course the believers don't always perceive it that way--- they often come to believe that articles of faith are themselves evidence. the bible thus becomes "evidence" of god's existence and program, etc.

obviously, my two items were heavily prompted by events unfolding around me in the aftermath of 9/11/01. the general rage, paranoia and "god wars" mentality at that time. maybe it seemed more pronounced to me since i had more time on my hands--- i was jobless and on the road .....

I should have separated them. My 2nd statement was " It takes a lot of faith to have faith."

Lrod's quote was from his poem & song "Funky Alien".

Takes a lot of faith to believe that any document is "the word of God." It's not scientific to call it evidence, therefore it's faith-based. But you're right, those who believe it, believe it's evidence.

........

I've noticed lately that you're against Capitalism. (You don't capitalize anything when you write. )

you're right ! ... no caps !

i think i picked up that habit from dino ....

Speaking of Faith... capitalism requires a great amount of faith that the believer will become materially enriched if they play by the rules. But it's becoming more and more problematic that the game of capitalism is not something most are equipped to play and even become close to winning, thus the problem that surrounds our Government and the chasm between the Congressional parties - what system is fair for the majority of citizens..?

i think capitalism will be the dominant system for quite some time; the debate will always be to what degree it is balanced against (and augmented by) socialism, and how much it should be regulated by the public sector.

if we posit that the american electorate is "smart enough to know what they're voting for" (kind of a big "if," admittedly), then it would seem, with obama's re-election, that the all-out privatization push is going to be a lot tougher sell for the g.o.p. corporatists than perhaps they anticipated.

either that, or romney was a clueless jerk ... maybe both ...

Clay had lots of faith. He even had faith in America Sometimes I did not know whether to laugh or cry at some of the things he believed about America. For instance he believed we were the good guys always willing to come to the aid of peeps everywhere to defend freedom.
I would get so mad at him sometimes I would get the adrenalin shakes.

I don't know jack shit about Marx, but I know this much, capitalism has something to do with money, yes?

IF so it says right on our money, "In God we trust." I guess that says something about our messianic democracy. Pardon my sarcasm but sometimes you guys sound like you just discovered America.

more about me and clay
then one day he posted something about one of his grandfathers being a Jew, and I started thinking about him as a Jew. Not just another peckerhead white boy.

Nothing latent about my racism, jimboloco once called me a latent racist, ha !

I got religious faith, I got no shame for it. Religious faith is what kept/keeps me from reaching in my pocket for a knife when I am/was angry at another human being and felt/feel that murderous rage in my heart. >key in the music

Flying Burritos brothers Jesus broke the wild horse in my heart.

I don't mind talking about religious faith, I guess it is part of my witness.

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.

As angry as I felt at Clay and Jimboloco I never once had a violent thought to them. To feel that I have to be face to face with someone. Got to get a whif of their pheromones I guess.
I got to feel threatened, I suppose that is an instinct for self preservation. Only a saint can rise above that.

You know I used to think I was a genuis, nobody else with a brain like mine, then I discovered that I was just crazy vain.

Political Hell, that is a theological construct I can relate too.

May the farce be with us.

I was around for Pearl Harbor. We been going this way long before the events of September 11.2001. Somebody wrote a nice piece on the poetry board called
It All Ended in 1962

Maybe we started down this path before that. But is has been a long descent into this political hell we are in. Maybe it started back in the stone ages. Maybe it is all a woman's fault, maybe we should have never have come down from the trees, or even stayed in the ocean.

Political Hell, now there is a theological construct to try and wrap your head around.
















"...and in my mind's darkness a sloth of the underworld, reluctant, shy of brightness, shifting her dragon scaly folds..."

well jack, since much of the christian religion by way of america has become such a "manifest-destiny-militarized-mindset," sometimes i feel i should "speak softly," as they say (with a childlike irony?) ....

faith was more humble before empire. like jesus in the desert. in the 3rd century the desert fathers lived as monks in the egyptian desert. christianity was persecuted by rome, until it became rome.

or something like that ....

What do I know about despair? I come to my heretical faith through Nietzsche and LSD.
Speaking of the early church:
There were some weird sects during those first couple of centuries. What was the one about the material world being evil and we are all in hell here. I know i am in hell, political hell, yes in deed.

In the meantime life has been good to me so far.
How ya doin Mark?
I still think about Clay a lot, I had a lot of respect for him, as much as for any combat veteran I had the chance to truck with. He was no one I would ever want to fuck with, I always considered him a dangerous friend, that is why I am so sorry I never got to meet him. I know the things that he said that pissed me off so much I probably would have laughed about if we had spoken face to face. I feel the same about you my internet Friend.

yeah jack, i wish i had met clay too. or at least thought to call him on the phone, before doreen lost track of his phone # (he moved, or something). just a month or two earlier and i could have probably gotten through. and then after awhile he was "reachable" again, but by the time i thought i might try again, he had the voice box problems. wasn't meant to be, i suppose.

maybe i'll drive east one of these days. i had planned on doing that in 2001-- had quit work and everything. i left on the big adventure on 9/10/01, and the next day .... wasn't meant to be, i suppose ....

i'm grateful i got to meet cecil and soozen, and abcrystcats, and hester and glorious amok, and even zlatko (i hope he's okay-- kind of just disappeared from here).

yeah, maybe i'll drive east one of these days ....