PoM 274
For Stephanie:
When people object the idea of God, and they start talking about all the unrequited injustice in the world, or how when they pray nobody talks to them, or how alcoholically rageful, vengeful and capriciously irrational God can appear in some of the old stories about God, I always say the same thing:
Yes, 22,000 children die every day from starvation and disease…and yes, there was a Holocaust.
Yes, there are stories in the Old Testament that command people to kill homosexuals.
And yes, unless you are a psychopath or a saint, you may only hear God speak to you, out loud, once or twice in your entire life…and that is if you are incredibly, incredibly lucky.
But the very best beginning, the Intro to God 101 comes from Gandhi who used to simply and beautifully say: “God is Truth”.
Begin with that. Just start with telling the Truth…
And if you are fearless and searching in your pursuit of Truth…everything else will follow.
PoM 275
For Stephanie,
We met at the University of Virginia. I left my second year, because, as Mark Twain would say, “I try not to let education get in the way of my learning”.
Since then I’ve learned some beautiful things about teaching, like the classic “Carrot and the stick”.
The last office was the carrot…here’s the stick.
Three of the most useful, practical and responsible things I’ve ever heard about approaching God are :
- “All you’ve got to know about God…is you ain’t him”.
- “Who are you to say there is no God?”
- “Why don’t you choose your own conception of God?”
These three divine thoughts come from the unscholarly, uneducated, unwashed masses of forgotten, disenfranchised and marginalized people…just plain old drunks.
Before we go any farther, sit down and ask yourself how you feel when you hear these three things.
My response to these two questions and one statement speak to me volumes about myself and it will determine whether or not further inquiry is useful…or I should just throw up my hands and say “Forget it”.
PoM 276
If I am doing something that I feel afraid I will get caught at, or that I feel ashamed of what I am doing…that’s a pretty good indicator that something rather unspiritual may be transpiring inside of me.
PoM 277
Gandhi says that “Religion and art have the identical aims...moral and spiritual elevation.”
But, if I am practicing creating amateur art, feeling frustrated and angry, and I am spitting invectives out into space, it ain’t art…it’s being an ACA.
I can misuse amateur art the same way I do food or sex.
I don’t want to live without any of those three things: amateur art, sex or food.
Lord, ya might have to help me out with this stuff, too.
PoM 278
I was half way through a half marathon when I passed an old man in front of the VA hospital.
I turned around and went up and talked to him.
He was in a wheel chair, drinking a large Diet Coke and smoking an American cigarette.
I asked him how old he was and he said 82….but I have known two guys that were 100 that looked way better.
I don’t want that to be me 15 years from now sucking on nicotine and caffeine, in a wheelchair, by myself…
God, Please help keep me on an abstinent path.