A Rose by Any Other Name

Spirituality... That's an entirely different thing. I believe that many Christians and Muslims and Hindus, Native Americans, agnostics, wiccans, etc. are all striving toward the same thing. We're just using different names and different focal points. Some people are more external, others are more internal.

I'd be a terrible lawyer. I believe the journey matters. I feel very strongly that the acts of wondering and puzzling and doubting and finding faith and love, and the rhythms of our lives that influence all of these things are important to our development. We're always changing and thinking and even a single extra sentence read and understood has the potential affect our views for the rest of our lives.

A lawyer might claim that it's the results of our actions that matter. But there's something that jars me about imagining a case in which a corrupt, hate-filled individual donates a large sum of money to a children's cancer hospital in the name of a horribly misconstrued version of Islam (or Christianity, or Judaism, etc.). What matters more, the motivation or the result?

Our motivations are the fuels of our journey, our foods, and our scenery. Sometimes they're the mountains in our paths, or the turbochargers of our engines. We can pick them apart atom by atom, or we can simplify them into blotches of black and white. We're all wired to approach our thoughts about our own thoughts very differently.

If religion is the fuel or the path that leads you to seek enlightenment, so be it. If it's psychology, so be it. If it's the study of logic, or a love for music, or a desire to learn and grow and help others, so be it! If a single person's motivations, in their purest, least cognitive forms were colors, and God mixed all of these hues together for each person who truly seeks enlightenment, the resulting color for each of these people will be the same.

I find it puzzling that I've encountered Christians who condemn wiccans, when I understand that wicca is founded upon peace and benevolence! Maybe I should berate myself for losing faith in many religions, because I know a vast number of their devotees who are just as curious, understanding and loving as it's possible to be. This example illustrates a certain harmful disconnect that I feel is made more likely by the adherence of an individual to a standardized religious belief system. Individuals who are limited in what they accept and believe are more likely to lose vital concepts in translation, as well as more likely to feel threatened or offended when information that they receive violates their expectations.

One pillar of the foundation of my beliefs is that no matter who we are, what we believe in, through whichever god (and the relationship we have with God is unique to each of us!) or experience or concept we focus our energies --- If the result is understanding, love, compassion, acceptance, and welcome --- definitions, names and words are completely irrelevant. Because the difference is just that - a name, a word. Signification implies that the sender of the message not only successfully conveys the gist of a concept, but also that the receiver of the message has the ability to accurately decode the message. Names are inane until you assign them signification. Words are empty until you give them meaning, and the only places they have any meaning is in our heads.