salishan
freesoul
exquisite creature
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it is gray & drizzly
early-afternoon in early June , this year (2011)
in Corvallis , OR
my friends from work wave their final congratulations & head for the parking-lot &
their hour-plus drive back to the coast
i'm talking with my friend Harold
he's a Tidewater Ecologist for the State of Oregon &
i came to his PhD ceremony (Marine Biology) here 2 years earlier
& Harold is repaying by attending my ceremony , though mine
is for a measly Master's Degree (MBA)
Harold is all giggles & smiles
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has been a good spring
finish my thesis & class-work in April (all , but final project presentations)
then in May , the parent-company for the coastal resort where i work
sends me to a couple NW cities to interview prospective employees
& i start writing a blog (but not posting) at a Rationalism discussion board
nice , after 3 years
to not have to write in academia-ese
had been posting in 2007-08 at Artdish's "My Dish" forum
(Artdish is a Seattle-based online visual-art magazine , where
its once-lively posting-board has now dried up & been closed/archived)
but i stop posting there when i start driving to Corvallis 2-days/week , for school
(though i still "do the galleries" most months in Portland
yet rarely get to Seattle's superior gallery-scene anymore)
i miss expressing my thoughts (publicly , planetwide
it provides a nice ego-rush , though is not why i do it)
however , these days my thoughts mostly hinge not upon art
but upon religious issues (why ? who knows)
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this football stadium in late spring is emptying out &
i kiss Harold full on the lips & send him back to the park-lot , too
& , what do u know ?
standing in the shadows is my old-friend Stevi
sparkle in his eye , watching
i walk over to him
Stevi flies out from Chicago to Portland
busses from Portland to Corvallis , to surprise me
it's been 5 years since the first summer Stevi & i spent together
(flurries of emails & months of silence , in-between)
he's one of the dozen people who have actually read my (May 2011) Rationalism-board blog
like me , Stevi no longer practices the faith of his youth
(his Eastern Orthodox , mine Society of Friends) &
will not countenance most of the nonsense surrounding religion , but
(also like me) Stevi has an almost-sentimental affection for "religion"
reach deep , beneath all the nonsense
Stevi realizes , there is still something powerfully real here
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it is one of the coldest NW summers in years
but this past summer is as busy as any on the Oregon coast
& i've been promoted to (temporary) Assistant Manager
so i'm busy
but Stevi brings a whole library with him (on his Kindle reader)
& the nights are full of talk (& other things)
& i actually have "days off" for the first time in 3 years
a good summer
& (like the summer 5 years ago) i keep a pen & notebook handy , around Stevi
always things Stevi says which i know i'll want to think about , at some point later
turns out , we talk mostly about religion
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if "religion" is where my "head is at" in May
my head is right here even more-so , now
why post ?
i write , to figure-out what i know
to give context
but also to connect
i'm a seeker
not a proselytizer
but (from time to time) i will get in u'r face
(think of it like a kiss , from someone who loves u but
who is momentarily pissed-off at u)
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Stevi is now back in Chicago
but my head is still buzzing from his time here
(he's working on his 2nd PhD , this one in the Social Sciences)
yet Stevi & i do not see eye-to-eye on everything
Stevi , like virtually everyone i know
(& like virtually everyone on the 4 posting-boards i sporadically read)
is (consciously or unconsciously)
a humanist
i'm not
("man is the measure of all things"
"man was made in Gyd's image"
these i do not believe)
like my Ecologist friend Harold
i see myself as a creature of this planet
no better or worse than any other creature which has evolved here
(& no i am not a Jainist , not even a vegetarian
the question is perception , not idealization)
unlike Harold , i see myself (also) as
a creature of the galaxies
i doubt intelligent creatures from this galaxy will ever visit Earth
(the distances are just too daunting)
but if they should visit , i would greet them as equals (as friends)
as
neither hostile to , nor superior to
myself
a creature ?
this attitude is , i believe
one which a "humanist" (if self-honest) cannot genuinely harbor
to allot humans the prestige place upon this planet ?
& to privilege the "human" (above all other creatures) across the vast gallaxies ?
this (to me) is the pinnacle of arrogance & bigotry , jointly shared by most humans
(secularists & religious people , alike)
this is humanity's "common ground"
(or original sin)
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i'm looking for a different common-ground
like i say , i'm a seeker
but i want to let u know my fundamental bias , up front
why i choose Interfaith.org (for now) to post at
& why not at the 3 other Religion boards where i am currently registered
i don't actually know
(i think what clinched it is Radarmark's "Science of the Web" thread
which i am rather intimidated by , but wish to address at some point)
at 10 posts up , i am still just beginning to feel-out this site
(i have not a lot of free time)
3 additional posts by me have been swallowed-up by (i suspect) an over-zealous spam-filter
(one lost-post cost me the better part of my day-off , composing it
some issues i wish to think-thru , carefully
before i post what i have written , online)
i think "understanding" (in the interfaith context & generally) is important
(& i applaud this site for promoting intelligent discussion)
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i am not a theist , but
i take Gyd as a given
i am ecumenical , & a
freesoul
is there anything else u need
for me
to divulge ?