Many, if not most, people believe what they see, can prove its actuality. The imaginative ideas of childhood fade away, chalked off due to grown up seriousness, even as we realize that imagination is the frontline of creativity and enrichment of lives. However, and quite unfortunately, people have begun to swallow whole, fabrications. and nonsense tailored to meet emotional needs. The idea of 'proof of the pudding' is consigned to the trash heap.
Why has it seemingly become easier for people to swallow words of blatant lies and hostility without challenge. Perhaps because we are living in extremely tense, pressurized times and looming, not so distant, is the threat or the possibility of a World War III, manifested in a global declared war even as the reality of the day is that the world is pocked with wars and conflicts, large and small, major and minor, though how it is possible to declare a war as 'minor' beats me. We look for a staff to lean on. For a path to make it through life without losing totally one's sanity.
Living in highly difficult times throughout history has meant a turning to something, anything, providing a staff to lean on, a word of hope. Dropping heavily into that field of concern and need is Religion. It provides a structure. It speaks of a time somewhere in the future where this Religion will enable a better world and a better life for all, particularly for believers and practitioners. Nowhere to be found is Faith, an internal deeply enmeshed in the mental and moral makeup of society and individuals of that society. Merely faith, assumed to be synonymous with their religion.
Public observance of the rites and rituals, of the demands made of practitioners of that religion, in number and complexity, passing from top to bottom, became a growth industry. It became a path to worldly success, visible in public display and consumption, the higher the rank, the higher the social and economic status. Those so blessed, public and prominent consumers and practitioners of the approved religion, were deemed and thought of as messengers and representatives of the god(s) or G-d of that religion.
Religion and government became closely aligned, barely a sliver of light between them. Religion, the proper approved religion, became state policy. Complaints and doubts and the reformists, the doubters, who saw a need for improvement and adjustment, spoke up. Loudly. Openly. More followers. The discontent became a threat to the state and supporters of challenge of the official religion faced punishment all the way unto death.
Fear, discontent and dissatisfaction, louder demands for change, public riots and demonstrations, led to the historical period of religious reformation and the proliferation and eventual separation of one religion from another. Consequential inevitable wars between them leading to rivers of blood grew in number and intensity and often involved the slaughter of innocents, non-partakers of the religions in conflict nor their goals but nevertheless died in its bloody maw. The Crusades, considered a Holy Quest, gave rise to the slaughter of the Jewish population of Europe and the Holy Land.
No one was immune nor unaware of the bloody state of Europe and the conflicts between religions and their practices. That included people of the Jewish faith. Crushed even more by governments who needed them to deflect the dissatisfaction and unrest among the population, the growing disregard and contempt for established state religions. These states became ever fiercer and more determined to keep rebellion down and imposed ever more stultifying rules and severe punishment for the slightest infractions.
And here we are back at the ranch. The Jewish community, while separate, was no different. Unrest. More dissatisfaction. Public hearings demanded. People chaffed at the ever-stricter rules and against the ever more constricted world of their community. Interpretations of practice of Judaism, of what was allowed and what not, the growing power of religious leaders, the fierce determination to keep figurative walls of stone and steel around the community, led to more dissatisfaction and opposition, a cycle ever repeating, growing wider, faster, more powerful in its effects and grew apace as the reactions of the ruling class chose the eminently wrong and doomed to failure path of grossly wrong minded thinking and actions.
However, no matter the anger of the people at the religious leaders and their downward pressure, their viewed as incorrect interpretations by man of the words of the Lord, as seen via the eyes and minds of the day and ours as well, there is an eternal need for structure and a comforting of soul and body. That comes via the acceptance and belief, a Faith, in some Power, a Being, a reassurance in the knowing that we are not alone. They are willing to worship and serve, but not to be diminished. The religion, the Faith, is to enhance and upraise humanity and the individuals within.
Within these changing and demanding times people desperate for succor look anywhere for it. False prophets, damaging rules and regulations. Words conveying the opposite of what they truly mean. Well, here we are today. So many, too many of us are living in a void, unsure of what is real and what is not. What makes sense and what not.
We twist and turn along this way and that seeking, discarding and seeking again. We are enmeshed in confusion and grasp on to the next seemingly appropriate answer only to find we were wrong. It was inappropriate. Perhaps we misinterpreted. As we did throughout history, as we sought answers and hope, we delved deeply into our foundations. That led to some answers, but it also segued directly to more questions. More explanations, satisfying ones, are demanded, yet too often the response is not satisfying, something is missing. We need more. We crave more.
In our journey we seek what makes sense. What tugs in our hearts and minds and souls? What will make us a better person? What will bring us closer to that Power? Is your answer my answer? The same for others? Can we mesh them together, diminishing the effects of the different and stressing the commonalities. Always leaving room, keeping the door open for those who are seeking still or have just begun their journey. How will we know when we have reached our destination, and our journey complete, at least for us? Is that destination immutable or can it, must it, change through the years and the conditions of life. I am sharing my journey and my reasons for it. What about your journey? Where are you?
On the morrow.
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