As We Believe

Pool

I didn't go again this morning. I thought maybe I needed more than 1 day of rest. I had thought I might go later today but the only available slot is 50 Plus and I went to that before and it is full of mature ladies who the SS considered too mean.

Knitting

Although I cast on more socks, I am going to try and finish a cashmere sweater on the machine today. I also want to do some swatching for the machine. I have loads of really nice 4ply pure wool and I want to make something with it on the standard gauge machine. I am already knitting an Aran by hand with it, using the yarn two fold.

Death And Dying

My comments on this subject were not related to the fact I was having a crap day. I wasn't thinking that if this pain gets worse I shall top myself. Obviously I have thought about what may happen in the future but mostly I live in the day I have.

I have known several people die of pancreatic cancer. One of the worst. There was also a case recently of a young man, paralysed form the neck down, who went to Dignitas in Switzerland where he chose to end his life. His family could have been prosecuted for taking him as they 'assisted' his suicide which is illegal.

The fact that it is illegal makes me very angry. When I hear the people who object to suicide speaking I want to give them a good slap. How dare they bring their personal religious beliefs to bear on the subject? Who do they think they are? How dare they demand that another human being suffer just so they can be more at ease with their God? Because that is what it boils down to. They do not give a toss about the suffering person, only about their own salvation which their ridiculous belief teaches them is dependent upon them always showing how much they are on God's side, no matter the pain and suffering it causes others.

What we believe matters immensely. It dictates not just our lives but the lives of others. And I don't just mean what we believe as regards God and the Universe etc. No. I also mean what we believe about ourselves and about others.

If we believe children are born bad, 'in sin', then we are going to treat them differently to the way we would treat them if we believed they are born good. If we believe that we are different to others and have more control and talent, we can happily use a mobile phone whilst driving a huge lorry without fear of killing anyone. If we believe that people of a different race are not as worthy as us, we can stand by and watch the slaughter and do nothing. If we believe that people of a different sexuality to us are deviant, we can treat them as sub human, as lacking the same feelings of love and tenderness that we have. If we believe we are bad, we spend a lifetime wasting energy on the never ending effort to be good, all the while never feeling good enough. And if we feel like this, we are likely to form a religious conviction based upon this self hate and try to force this belief on others because we cannot tolerate others who think differently to us because it threatens our very being.

If we believe that by killing the children of those who hate us, we will end hatred, we will live and die with the consequences of that belief.

If we believe we are special, or chosen, and others are less than, we will reap the consequences.

If we believe that those who think differently from us are less worthy of life, are evil, then we live and die with the consequences of such a belief.

If we believe we are good in essence, if we have love and compassion and understanding for ourselves, we will have the same for others. We would not treat others the way we do. We would not be afraid of otherness. We would not create a God in our image and give him human attributes and be afraid of him. We would recognize that if we are children of a God then we are in the image of God. We are like God. We are the made of the same stuff as God. In the same way that a horse gives birth to horses, so we are made of the same stuff as God. Spirit. As such we cannot be bad. We cannot be separate, we cannot be other, we cannot be apart, or abandoned or destroyed. Spirit is eternal, indestructible. It is God. And we come from Spirit. God can no more cut us off than we can cut ourselves off.

We are responsible. The world we live in is our responsibility. Look around. WE created this world. Each of us. Each of us inhabits our own world. No two people inhabit the same world. We create it, each of us, our own version of the world. So we can change the world. We change it by changing ourselves, by changing our beliefs. It is our beliefs about the world, the meanings we have created around ourselves, our experience and what we see, that creates the world.

We do not see the world as it is, but as we are. This is not fanciful pseudo spirituality but scientific fact. We see the world as our brain interprets it, not as it is. We cannot see the world objectively. Ever. Everything, absolutely everything, is subjective. Objectivity is impossible.

It really is true that if we want to change the world we have to change ourselves.

This is not yet another reason to beat oneself up for not being good enough! Change is slow and can be painful. It is necessary though. For me . For you. For us all.