If the wind is right you can sail away and find tranquility

As I mentioned in the comments from my previous post, I wanted to talk about the sanctuary I found when I started sailing with my dad.

I’ve always loved the water. I think part of it is due to growing up so close to Lake Erie, part of it because I am drawn to its peacefulness and part of it just inherit in me because of I’m a Pisces. The serenity I feel when I’m on the boat is indescribable. All of my thoughts and worries disappear. However, it did not start out this way. When I was younger, whenever I was on the boat, I would get seasick. When I started racing, because I had responsibilities, my mind did not have time to worry about getting sick and I found that I rarely had that nauseous feeling.

Anyway, back to finding peace on the water. Every Wednesday, from the May through mid-September, we would race for about 2 hours, but it was the 30-45 minutes prior to the race when I would completely lose myself. During that time, while heading away from the dock, I would begin to set up the sails. We would head up the channel and slip by the people hanging out on the waterfront on a hot summer night. Once the sails were set and we only had time to kill, I would sit with my back against the mast, facing the bow, away from everyone else on the boat. It was there that I could lose everything in my head.

Staring out over the water, watching the other boats sail by, listening to the seagulls overhead and watching the people on the shore enjoy the summer night, I could let myself go. The troubles of the day, the troubles of life slipped overboard into the water.

It’s very difficult to describe how I would feel for that 30 minutes, other than it was very spiritual for me. These moments were the few times when I was at peace with myself and to tie this together with my comments, I found that my sanctuary was on the bow of that boat, leaning against the mast and soaking in the atmosphere.

Do you believe in God? Cos that's what I'm sellin

I've been meaning to pose this question for a week or so, but this article I read the other day finally reminded me to do so.

What if religion and all the belief that goes with it was proven a hoax; or even some of what we thought we knew was proven as false? What would happen to society - to the human race? For the millions of people who had put their faith in something that isn't real, they would be lost without their beliefs.

Or are we confusing religion with spirituality? Obviously, there are some hardcore religious people out there, who swear they "speak with God" or "know God", but I would be willing to bet that most people are more affected by the spirituality of religion, the feeling of belonging to something bigger than themselves, than the hardcore beliefs that most religious people claim to hold.

I know I have very spiritual moments. However, I don't attribute those moments to a "God" or anything else other than me being in a certain place and time in my life and that it feels special at that moment. Do I attribute this to religion, in the sense that we generally think of? Of course not, however, I do attribute it to a spirituality that I have inside me that keeps me at peace and gives me strength and hope. The difference is that I don’t base it on a far-fetched tale that was told 2,000 years ago to keep people in line.

Consequently, if we’re affected by spirituality more so than “religion”, I’m not sure anything would happen in the long term. The short term might be somewhat chaotic and people would be searching for answers that nobody would have, but I think eventually people could become at peace with who they are, what they believe in. The control that others had on people’s lives would be returned to the individual. Essentially, everyone would be free.

Unfortunately, some many people need guidance and I suppose the downside to this is that those people would be truly lost. What I think would happen to them, is the beginnings of the next, new cult. New leaders would emerge, with new philosophies and for the next however-many-years, people would begin to buy into these beliefs and all of a sudden, poof, we have “religion” again.

So the sad truth is this: despite my dislike for religion, it will not be going anywhere, anytime soon.

We live in a political world...We’re living in times where men commit crimes

Apparently, the Republican Party, the party that wants to display the Ten Commandments in front of courthouses and have any phrase with the word “God” in it put into our daily vocabulary, whether it’s through the Pledge of Allegiance, or on a quarter, is forgetting how to represent certain commandments and whatever God they seem to acknowledge. I’m pretty sure this story takes care of commandment #’s 5, 8 & 9. In case you you’re a little rusty on what those commandments say, here’s a refresher course:

5. You shall not dishonor your parents.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not commit perjury.

I suppose if you want to get technical, you could include #6 in there as well (You shall not murder). Because he was taking bribes from defense contractors, he was indirectly murdering people. Or maybe I’m just stretching this a little far? Nonetheless, way to go GOP! It’s a good thing the Democrats have absolutely nobody to run against you in 2008.

Losing my religion

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that bothered me, but I couldn't explain how it bothered me. It read:

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich"

I just couldn't help thinking that, yes, it may do that, but I don't think it's keeping the rich from murdering the poor, or the oppressed.

Let's take the issue of the Iraq war. President Bush has led our fairly wealthy country into a poor and formerly oppressed country and we are killing their people, our brave soldiers and other country's military personnel so that our fairly wealthy country can sleep better at night - to be blunt about it.

So maybe what bothers me the most is that our President, who is deeply, ridiculously religious, feels it's ok to kill the poor, the oppressed or even the innocent, so long as it makes us feel ok. But does he not see that we aren't ok with it? There are millions of people who believe that what we are doing in Iraq is wrong and our children are the cost of his rationalization.

I have so many thoughts running through me about this that I cannot put into words right now, so I think I'll come back to this topic over the next few days and weeks.