Star Bellied Christians

Over the years I have grown to detest the exclusionary phrase “brothers and sisters *in Christ*”. It seems to me that if the religion you practice doesn’t lead you to feel a special bond with all of life, all of humanity, the universe entire, or at least the desire to feel a special bond with all those things, then it’s really more of a snobby social club, like one of those restricted country clubs with members who think they’re classy and privileged and deserving of privilege, while those who don’t belong because they don’t want to belong or because they’re not allowed to join might be inclined to think of the members as assholes. I’ve known many Christians, and most of them aren’t this way, but there are quite a few who divide people into two classes, those who are saved--according to their dogma--and those who are not. Of course they would claim that they love everyone and they are not being exclusionary. But it’s obvious from the way they talk that they see those who are “not saved” as outsiders and those who are saved as “special” and more worthy of their concern and friendship. And the only way to become “special” in their eyes is to accept their beliefs. These are the Star Bellied Christians.

Life is a mystery.

In the series Cosmos, which originally aired on PBS in 1980, Carl Sagan explained that the universe is expanding, and he said that one of two things might happen. Matter could become so dispersed that all the magical chemical processes that produce and sustain stars and life would cease and the cosmos could become cold and dark. Or at some point the expansion could reverse itself and all the matter in the universe could revert to that pre Big Bang singular point.

If the latter should happen, there could be another Big Bang, and a new universe could come into existence. This process could have happened an infinite number of times already.

There could be other dimensions to reality so that all possible outcomes are given their due course. And black holes might instantly take us to the other side of the galaxy or even the universe, or they might lead to other universes. Our entire universe might work as a single atom in another universe.

It’s amazing and more than a little scary. We’re so small, so vulnerable, and we blink in and out so quickly. Life is a mystery.

I am thankful for peanut butter and the genius who first combined peanut butter and chocolate. I am thankful for tall pretty boys with long legs. And when they wear boots and short shorts….I am especially grateful for that.

A few thoughts on the history of our species.

A number of years ago, I heard an anthropologist claim that people in primary cultures or hunter/gatherer societies probably worked only about twenty hours a week. Then the other night I watched an episode of the History Channel’s Mankind: The Story Of All Of Us and the claim was made that the transition to an agrarian way of life had a negative impact on our general health and standard of living. A less varied diet made us shorter, and living so close to domestic livestock exposed us to disease, and since we adopted permanent homes that needed to be defended, we became more prone to war and violence.

All of this made me wonder if civilization is actually a good thing. Maybe we took a wrong turn. It also made me think that perhaps the Garden of Eden myth comes from our collective memory of our hunter/gatherer past. Maybe we instinctively desire to live closer to nature as we once did for thousands of years.

I’ve read that primary cultures tend to emphasize the feminine. Rather than male angry, violent sky gods, they worship nurturing earth goddesses. Imagine the dramatic difference in mentality. Rather than existing in a world where you have to fight to survive, you live in a world of abundance, a world that embraces you and provides for you, and all you have to do is roll yourself out of bed in the morning and go find something to eat.

I suspect that Christianity was an attempt to reclaim some of that feminine energy. Jesus was a pacifist, not a warrior, and he urged his followers to stop worrying about their possessions and about survival and simply live.

In any event, I don’t think the message really sank in with most Christians. Most of Christian history is full of war, violence and lust for political power and material possessions. And the whole ugly mess has been hidden behind the facade of neighborly love.

Maternal Love

The love was sweet, soothing, quiet
And I always knew it was there
It was there under the strange cackles
The popping of her gum
The popping of her rocking chair

The maniacal popping
Obsessive, excessive, insane
The chatter, the crazy, crazy chatter
Even more incessant
But at the core was a quiet and gentle love

It wore you down, that popping and chatter
There was no end to it
There was always more and more and more
No matter how many times you begged for mercy
Still there was always that quiet and gentle love, too

When the popping and chatter exploded into drama
When the monotony of unfathomable absurdities parted
When the fear frothed into threats of violence
And her voice trembled with hatred for her “enemies”
I knew the core was still there, somewhere

She shattered like glass every day
She chattered and popped and laughed
Ah, those crazy, mean laughs, derisive and cruel
But then in a quiet moment she would settle
She would relax and smile, warmly and show that which was not broken.

A work in progress.

I’m in the process of outlining a novel I want to write next year set in a house like this, except I imagine the old place as more dilapidated. It’s about two boys in their last year in high school. They fall in love, and this house which belongs to the mother of one of the boys--she travels a lot, so they usually have the place to themselves--becomes their sanctuary. It takes place in mid 1980s West Virginia, and since the world around them won’t allow them to be open about their feelings for one another, they create their own world. They have their own prom on the porch. They are still together, and they have since inherited the house and turned it into a B&B. I first wanted to write this story back when I was in high school, but I just couldn’t make a go of it back then, and that’s because I didn’t have a boyfriend, didn’t know any gay couples, didn’t see any gay couples on TV. I couldn’t imagine the details or figure out how my characters would maintain a relationship in such a hostile environment. So I think it’s time for me to write that story. And even though things have changed, I don’t think there’s nearly enough simple, romantic boy meets boy stories out there, especially ones with a happily ever after ending.

 

Photographer and subjects unknown.

 

Huygens and His 17th Century Space Aliens

Christiaan Huygens 1629-1695 was a Dutch astronomer who made great strides in understanding the rings of Saturn.  His father Constantijn Huygens was a patron and friend of artists, poets, writers, philosophers and scientists.  And Holland at the time was a liberal center for the arts and scholarly pursuits.  It was in this nurturing environment that Huygens imagined life was possible on other planets in our solar system, and he imagined that it was possible that planets orbited far away stars.  He wrote and published a book about his speculations in the 1690s shortly before his death.  He did so without fear of persecution.  That’s astonishing when you consider women were being hanged as witches here in this country at about the same time Huygens’ book was published and that Galileo was found guilty of heresy for claiming the Sun was at the center of the universe when Huygens was a child.