I don’t know how often I’ve veered away from the main storyline of this blog to tell you about my beliefs, the beliefs of the author of this blog, who I’ve been told should take this type of blog entry and make it the “About Me” page.
I’m sure there’s enough about me in the characters who appear here, either as a simulated first-person “voice” or as Lee.
Basically, I only know what I know; that is, my upbringing has determined who I am, including family lore, Christian religious training, Western European-centred world history and U.S.-centred economic politics, supplemented by subcultures as “advertised” via the stories, news headlines and entertainment in mass media, with direct influence by the people I’ve met.
The core person who writes this blog stands firmly upon the foundation of his youth, comfortable in the fact that he can only be who he is at this moment, a perfect example of his subculture, embodied in 51 years of existence.
That means his parents, his extended family, his teachers, his pastors, his friends, his coworkers and other fellow members of society are/were perfect examples, too.
He is not going to evolve into a fish overnight.
He knows that the faith of people who raised him is based on a belief in the immortality of a Jewish carpenter commonly called Jesus, taught that Jesus is the son of the Creator of the Universe, a god, (THE God), supernatural, omniscient and omnipotent.
Their faith, their belief, resulted in actions that improved his singing and public speaking.
Regardless of his belief, his personality is mainly composed of people who follow the written teachings of Jesus and his disciples who were reported to be knowledgeable about the pre-Jesus “Old Testament” portion of a religious text known as the [Christian] Bible. Some of these people interpret the Bible based on their literal understanding of the context of the words. Some of them don’t even try to interpret the context at all.
So it does not matter to this writer what his belief is, his exemplifies the subcultural traits of a person raised in a Christian home.
One can further define the points of what it means to be a Christian and the lack of perfection involved, plus the variations called denominations with their unique rituals and dogma that differ from or share similarities with other denominations.
But this blog entry is not a debate on what being religious means.
Instead, the blog entry simply lets the reader know that this writer, not a first-person voiced writer behind the curtain of the Internet, is Christian by design.
His belief in or nonbelief of deity-based creation stories neither adds to nor takes away from his childhood when the Ten Commandments, marriage as a heterosexual union between a man and woman, and mass media that was censored to conform to Christian-based decency were considered the norm.
The stories of the Christian faith are thousands of years old, tens of thousands of years in the making.
This writer is not just going to toss the Christian faith out the window with the latest whims in subcultural practices.
He was raised in and has greatly benefited from the teachings within the Christian tradition.
The character in this blog who appears to be the writer of this blog (but not this blog entry) is an empty vessel. The real writer of this blog, typing this particular blog entry, is not an empty vessel and appreciates the readers who are concerned about his set of thoughts (i.e., his “soul”).
Do not confuse the writing with the writer who uses the medium of the written word to develop plots and storylines for his novel-in-progress written in the form of an online diary that seems to weave the past, the present and the future together, the seams clearly tattered, threads (“Irish pennants”) pointing this way and that on the uniform of a blog.
This writer enjoys the emotional highs and lows that come with feeling and empathizing with behaviours that seem to reveal the thoughts of people he meets who become models for characters in this online soap opera.
This writer knows who he is, he is generally happy, and wants to consume everything he encounters — the air, the sunshine, the food, the colours, the sounds, the touch and everything in-between of the people, places, things and ideas — he makes no apologies for being a bull in a china shop, barely concerned with the opinions of others, stated, implied or left unsaid.
He suppresses his personality for the sake of his art, using talents developed during his childhood to see, sense and write about levels of perception we humans use to make our lives last as long as we do.
He is a product of his times.
Just because he suppresses his personality does not diminish the importance of the influences in his life that formed his personality.
He may write about the benefits of an atheist’s life.
He may write about the scientific advances made during the reign of a corporate dictatorship.
We learn through observation but observing is not the same as becoming one with what one observed and reported.
Seeing who we are sometimes takes looking at what/who we are not.
The stronger our beliefs, the less we have to spend time shouting so loud about our beliefs we can’t hear ourselves think.
A solid set of beliefs allows us to explore the lives and thoughts of others who may enrich our lives without changing our core selves.
How strong are your beliefs? Do you feel like you have to keep repeating the tenets of your beliefs in order to keep convincing yourself that you believe and act upon them without thinking? What kind of faith is that?
I am pleased to be a set of states of energy right here and now. How and why they came to be and what will become of them has been explained to me by members of my subculture, including explanations in complete opposition to one another. The fact is that the set of states of energy exists regardless of explanation, allowing me to write about whatever I like because I know I am not going to change who I am, if I have one reader or a billion.
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
