My father didn’t want my brother and I raised a particular religion. He wanted us to make up our own minds on what we believed. Although, he did set me straight on Santa around six. “How do you think a fat man gets down a little chimney? Have you ever seen a deer fly? It’s just a show. We’re broke so you’re not getting that, now go play.” Or something like that.
I still remember sitting on the couch, feeling small. The stairway in front of me looked completely different, although I’d seen that stairway for the past couple years. I guess a veil of cynicism, or some other burden I’m supposed to dispose of dropped in front of my eyes.
I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood. I went to my fair share of Bat Mitzvahs, Bar Mitzvahs…and is it Bas Mitzvahs? I forget the third. I couldn’t tell you much about the Jewish religion when I lived with them, since they spoke in another language at the services. But later in life in some community college in some town in some world religions class, perhaps, I’d learned their big thing is questioning. Keep questioning.
And I do kind of roll that way. Always have. Maybe I picked it up from my Jewish friends and their incessant questioning or my father. His response when I asked him something? “I don’t know. Go look it up.” And so I would drag out some dusty encyclopedia and figure it out.
I was doing some dapper work the other day and the question was “Name something you’d like to learn more about.” I was stumped. If I wanted to learn about something, wouldn’t I just do that? But then I stepped back and thought , ok, on a more mastery level, what would you like to know about? Hands down, sustainability.
Something like 80% of our energy waste is from buildings. We design because it looks nice, not because it works with the earth. Check out www.earthships.com Amazing stuff and I so want to get down with it. Minimize the impact. We all can do something. Every little thing helps, it all adds up, like drops filling a bucket. Be the example. Set the bar. Reduce, reuse, recycle, re-it all up.
Sustainability is kind of like a religion. They have a code, ways you should do things, leaders and gurus of their passion. But I guess it’s different from most religions in that all of its devotees know it will change. It will evolve. It is the only way to survive and flourish and to let new insights and perspectives gain light for scrutiny and possible inclusion into the way of sustainability.doooowwwwwwwww.
I’ve always been drawn to Buddhism. The simplicity, the crispness, the resonance was profound for me. Being raised without any introduction to classic religions, I’ve always shied away. I didn’t know the discussions. I didn’t know the story. Never felt drawn to read about a religion that killed people.
And to think that now, in 2013, people are still dying over religion. If we could all just pause, breath, link up; we’d see we are all the same thing…seriously. On a cellular level, we’re all the same. All Religions aim for a similar omega.
Can’t we just travel with who we want, believe in what resonates with us and meet you there at the Omega? If there is an omega, which there’s not, but we’ll just trick them and tell the naysayers that. Since they’d reply,
“Yeah! Yeah, see you then! See you at the Omega, man, and then we’ll see who’s got it right!”
Or something like that.
Be Dapper,
B. Wright
My Experiments with Sanity 