WWJD. Or something like that.

So, my regular readers know I’m not especially religious…and that I’m actually especially suspicious and cynical about organized religion…  And as I was laying in bed last night/this morning, busy with the business of not sleeping, I got to thinking about something that occupies my mind too often lately;

How much I hate most people on the internet.  

How rude and obnoxious the anonymity of online forums and social sites allow some people to be.

And how much I really need to start extricating myself from the internet’s devious grasp.  I spend too much time arguing with asshats I don’t even know…because, even though I know it’s not my job to school people, there are some displays of douchebaggery I have a hard time just passing by.

So I thought, I need to handle this stuff better.  I thought…

WWJD?

But I don’t believe in Jesus.  Besides, my real question would be “Would Jesus Slap the Shit Out of Someone For This?”  But WJStSOoSFT is just not as pithy as WWJD…so, who could I emulate in these types of situations that would better fit my ideology AND this sweet acronym???

Here’s a few of the solutions I came up with, inspired by some of the best “J’s” ever…

Q:  Someone is being dick on the internet and I can’t punch them in the face…  What do I do???

A:

Q: What would Johnny do?
A: Get High and Eat Cake

A:

Q: What Would Jack Do?
A: “The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem”
or…
“I wash my hands of this weirdness.”

A:

Q: What Would Johnny (Knoxville) Do?
A: Break something, or hit someone in the balls… and film it.

And if all else fails:

Q: What would John (Torrance) Do?
A: Start talking to the voices and smashing shit up…

This last one also begs the question, What Would Jack (Nicholson) Do?  The answer is probably the same.

Happy Tuesday!

Angel on my Shoulder

A combination of two things has lead me to this post.  1) Some of the silly things that people say to others who are grieving and 2) Conversations between my husband and I, brought on by — what else– the binge viewing of our latest series, Supernatural (yeah, I know, we’re a bit behind the times.)

Suffice it to say, I’ve had angels on the brain.  What they are.  The nature of angels.  Especially the paradox of an angel, who presumably has not been given the gift of free will that humans enjoy, yet nonetheless is able to choose to defy or oppose God, and thus, fall.  I don’t really have a full enough knowledge of the bible to be able to reconcile this.  Perhaps the answers are there, perhaps not.  But what really piqued my curiosity was something my husband said while we were watching our show.

Sometimes his wealth of knowledge still surprises me.  Don’t tell him, because we don’t want to swell his head all up.  But what he said was that one of the biblical descriptions of an angel alluded to a creature shaped like a wheel, and covered in eyes.  Something about that just really intrigued me.  My regular readers would probably be not at all surprised to learn I almost immediately thought of the Alex Grey art for the Tool albums.

Lateralus artwork- Alex Grey

Well, that, and in my mind’s eye, I also saw a more traditional “wheel”, the circumference of which was runged like a ladder and studded with stylized eyes. Something about the image was just so intriguing to me.

So I did what I always do in situations like these; I googled that shit.  First and foremost, I wanted to check the accuracy of hubby’s memory–  hey, he’s impressive, but his memory has been known to be, eh…selective…and I’m a natural skeptic.  But in this case, he didn’t let me down, and I found some basic information on the angels to which hubby was referring.  Wikipedia describes Ophanim as:

The ophanim or ofanim, refer to the wheels seen on Ezekiel’s vision of the chariot (Hebrew merkabah) in Ezekiel 1:15-21

“The Ophanim…are creatures that function as the actual chariots of God driven by the cherubs. They are characterized by peace and submission; God rests upon them. [They] reside in the area of the cosmos where material form begins to take shape.  They mete out divine justice and maintain the cosmic harmony of all universal laws.

I love this image of angels– the mystery of it, the otherworldliness and distinctly non-anthropomorphic visioning of one of God’s creations.  Something not based on a purely xenocentric imagining of some man, with a man’s motives.  

Granted, this description was likely written by the same person or persons who initially transcribed the rest of the bible, but it is a far cry from the Renaissance era imaginings of angels.

Anyway, I’m not religious by any stretch of the imagination, but I do consider myself spiritual, and this image speaks to me in a way that makes me almost wish I did have a dogma that included creatures as awesome as the Ophanim.

Why Do We Seek God?

In bed the other night, I was thinking (as usual) about my search for God, or answers anyway.  And I stumbled upon an idea that seemed like a mini epiphany.  Before I get into the meat of it, this is a call to my followers and all who might happen up this post to perhaps help me answer a couple of questions and thus move myself further to finding my god.

My question is addressed to people who were raised in a secular or non-religious environment.  However, if you feel you have something to add to the conversation that does not involve the usual rhetoric involved in discussing religion or random and lengthy bible quotes, by all means please comment.

The idea I had, and what I want to ask you gentle readers is sort of a two part question:

What is the source for the desire to search for God or a higher meaning?

and

If we are raised in a completely secular or atheistic environment where it is never suggested, inferred, or taught to us that we need or should have a god, do we still inherently feel a need to seek one?

Perhaps now you can see why I specified readers raised in secular environments.  If as children, we are in any way introduced to the idea that religion should be a part of our lives, especially if the introduction comes by way our our parents, who have a heavy influence on our thoughts and feelings during our formative years, then that idea may always be a part of us, even if our intellect bucks it (like mine does.)

This is specifically my problem, by the way.  My brain tells me there is no way there is someone “watching over” us;  if there were, our world would not suck so much.  Yet  there is a part of me that likes the idea of a gentle father-figure who loves us unconditionally and keeps a place for us by his side.

Although I don’t relish the idea of him watching me while hubs and I have the “sexy time.”

I suppose this question could work in reverse, but I know the story of  disillusionment and lack of faith on a more personal level.

I have long considered myself someone who is reverent of nature, and even dabbled in Wicca for a while, but in the end, even ideologically pleasing  religions like Wicca, Hinduism, and Buddhism still incorporate deity worship, in many cases multiple deities.  Moreover, embracing nature alone means embracing the idea that  everything is essentially form and function, part of the circle of life, and there really is no higher meaning, aside from survival and continuation of the species.

So, as I said before, though this post may be another one of my introspective and theological ramblings, it is also a call for interaction.  Please feel free to (respectfully) share your thoughts.

RELATED: http://ayearandadaywicca.wordpress.com/what-is-wicca/