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I want to design both a customized political party and a religion for myself. With politics, the nature of our government forces you to choose parties based on individual priorities. It is rare that anyone likes everything about one party, and yet she is forced to vote for the one that represents the issues that matter most to her in order to have her vote count.
We aren't mandated into those discrete areas with religion. While obvious to some, this realization was a long time coming for me. We have the right to choose whether to follow a particular religion and our choices will still have personal impact, even if we do not choose a popular party. If we so choose to follow, at least in Catholicism, we are asked to embrace all of the belief system. I will not disrespect the other members or myself by picking and choosing those elements that work for me and disregarding the rest.
I look back on my time in this religion with fondness. My childhood was built on this foundation and it was a great guide for me. I am grateful my niece will grow up with that moral structure. I marvel at her happiness and innocence and want a good place to keep that safe. Her baptism inspires me to explore my beliefs at a deeper level and start fresh and clean. I forgive myself for past mistakes and move forward, resolved to be a better person.
The bipartisanship of politics is so outdated. I have, for a long time, been against it. The parties were set up during a different time and era and to have them cling so tightly to the issues and platforms that they do is just frustrating. Think of how much more we/government could accomplish if not stuck in the name-calling and shit-slinging that occupies the majority of their time. It's utterly frustrating. That's why I'm an independent.
ReplyDeleteI also find you thoughts on religion resonating with me, too. My Dad was protestant and my mom "was very spiritual but did not follow an organized religion" (her words, not mine). I would go to church with my Dad on Sundays as a little girl...well, at least until my rhythmic season hit and I was in another state every weekend for some meet or another. Anyway, somewhere around 4th grade, I started to question why I had to be protestant -- this is the age where you start taking the classes to be confirmed, which I would also miss because of my national tour. My Dad, who has the same dry sarcasm I do, told it it was because he was the chauffeur so I had to go where he went. Well, being the precocious little know-it-all, I asked if I could try other religions if I found other chauffeurs. My parents said yes. So I went to the Baptist church with my best friend's family. I tried the Open Door church with another friend. I tried the Catholic church. So on and so on until i tried about every flavor of religion I could find in small-town Ohio. What did I learn? Well, after being "saved" about 4 times in the course of a summer (this is still a running joke in my family...as I came home from each experience telling my mom that they had asked for people who thought they needed to be found to come forward and I did, every time... although, I'm not sure what sorts of sins a 10 year old, straight-A kid had) I learned that I liked aspects of each but not one of them as a whole. And I've struggled with that ever since. Therefore, if you are looking for followers for your new "Ritaligion", I'm game to try it out. :)
Someone summed it up well the other day in saying: God obviously exists and religion is obviously a fabrication... I enjoy the community networks of a faith community and the environment of nurturing strangers that you rarely get anywhere else. I just try to soak in the things that feel good in my heart and leave the political stuff for another lifetime.
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