Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Company Of Friends And Strangers

I don’t know if there’s a god or not. I’m full of questions and doubts. But I’ve noticed that for me personally, my worries, doubts, fears seem far less important when I’m in the company of someone I care about. This person doesn’t have to be someone who will be in my life for very long. I can enjoy that feeling of togetherness for an hour or a day or a week. If it lasts a lifetime, then that’s great, but I don’t undervalue the chance conversations I sometimes have with strangers. When I was younger, the chance encounters sometimes included some hanky panky. I remember some of the people I’ve met and shared experiences with fondly. And I remember the feeling of peace and joy I had when I was with certain people. The encounters gave me hope and strength that sustains me even now.

I can’t help but feel that if there is a spiritual dimension to life that these feelings of connection help us see it, feel it, even if we don’t articulate a specific dogma or creed. That state where we stop asking all those pesky questions for which there is no answer that seems to satisfy everyone… To talk to someone, to laugh, to share a meal, to play a game with them, to watch a movie together, to hold them, to touch, and to have sex sometimes… These seem like good things to me.

It really bothers me, this idea of telling someone that they love in the wrong way, or that they connect to others in the wrong way, or that they shouldn’t want to be with certain people, or that they should embrace an abstraction, a dogma, a set of beliefs and shun a real and positive experience that doesn’t demand explanations while it is being experienced.

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