see what happens when I drink whiskey & mead liquour at lunch time?
Someone said a couple of months back that while they didn't like or agree with many aspects of a particular religious organisation what they did like was the support network that it provided for it's members. When one of their number was in need people were there, helping, supporting and doing whatever that individual needed them to do. There was no hesitation, no question and no lack of support. For all it's faults the people belonging to that organisation are part of a community that cares for its own. No-one is left floundering, alone, wondering what to do next because there is always someone there to support them.
The person who said this is a pagan of more than 20 years. Someone with a great deal of experience in almost every branch of paganism you can think of. This person, I believe, looks at the past with a not un-reasonable warmth. In the past the pagan community was secretive, quiet and hidden away. Yet back then it was just that; a community. Although I was very young myself at the time I do remember what it was like. It seemed like every pagan within a locality knew each other and while not everyone agreed, we knew that those within the community would by and large support and help each other. After all, we didn't exactly advertise out paganism back then and all we had was those we'd made contact with in our pre-internet local communities.
It would be wonderful to have that again, but sadly I don't think things can ever go back. Maybe we can build something new, but with paganism so 'out there' in the public forum now it seems to attract an ever increasing number of power-hungry desperados. There's an ever increasing number of people who, new to paganism, a short while later think they know everything there is to know. They start shouting from the roof tops about how much more they know than their contemporaries, about how much better they are, their faith is, how their way is the 'proper' way to do things. True, people clash. Not all of us agree (and gods wouldn't it be a boring world if we did??) but does that mean it's right to start publicly slagging someone off within a community they've belonged to for many years? Is it right to drag someone's name through the mud because you don't get along?
For paganism's sake people! There are enough people out there desperate to twist the knife because they don't agree with our beliefs without us in-fighting. Surely we should be trying to re-capture something of that early community spirit? Supporting people when they need it, standing strong and protecting those who need that. My ideal dream would be of a supportive, friendly and above all INCLUSIVE community that enhances people's lives rather than one that dictates and excludes.
A few people have had me thinking recently about the way things are now - you know who you are *grin*. What's really prompted me to babble away on this blog about this particular subject is the fact that while surfing the net the other day I came across an online message forum that I found really quite distasteful. It was public access messages (obviously) discussing a personal incident that had taken place between two or more pagans, although only one party (or possibly one 'side') knew about the messages so the other person(s) had no opportunity to put their side of events down. *shrug* this happens on the internet, I accept that, but the comments that followed were, to me, particularly distasteful. There was lots of cruel mickey-taking and nastiness; it took me straight back to the playground, those times when the 'in crowd' would gang up and start picking on the strange kid. I was always the other strange kid, the one that stood up and stopped the bullying because I just couldn't stand to see someone tormented like that regardless of whether I liked the victim or not. The people on this forum that had had the problem started off reasonably enough but quickly descended into name calling and personal comments. This was followed by the pathetic individuals I would class as 'hangers on' taking personal jabs at the absent individual, publicly slagging them off and belittling them, seemingly without ever actually having met the individual let alone hearing their version of events.
What kind of people get their kicks this way
The person who said this is a pagan of more than 20 years. Someone with a great deal of experience in almost every branch of paganism you can think of. This person, I believe, looks at the past with a not un-reasonable warmth. In the past the pagan community was secretive, quiet and hidden away. Yet back then it was just that; a community. Although I was very young myself at the time I do remember what it was like. It seemed like every pagan within a locality knew each other and while not everyone agreed, we knew that those within the community would by and large support and help each other. After all, we didn't exactly advertise out paganism back then and all we had was those we'd made contact with in our pre-internet local communities.
It would be wonderful to have that again, but sadly I don't think things can ever go back. Maybe we can build something new, but with paganism so 'out there' in the public forum now it seems to attract an ever increasing number of power-hungry desperados. There's an ever increasing number of people who, new to paganism, a short while later think they know everything there is to know. They start shouting from the roof tops about how much more they know than their contemporaries, about how much better they are, their faith is, how their way is the 'proper' way to do things. True, people clash. Not all of us agree (and gods wouldn't it be a boring world if we did??) but does that mean it's right to start publicly slagging someone off within a community they've belonged to for many years? Is it right to drag someone's name through the mud because you don't get along?
For paganism's sake people! There are enough people out there desperate to twist the knife because they don't agree with our beliefs without us in-fighting. Surely we should be trying to re-capture something of that early community spirit? Supporting people when they need it, standing strong and protecting those who need that. My ideal dream would be of a supportive, friendly and above all INCLUSIVE community that enhances people's lives rather than one that dictates and excludes.
A few people have had me thinking recently about the way things are now - you know who you are *grin*. What's really prompted me to babble away on this blog about this particular subject is the fact that while surfing the net the other day I came across an online message forum that I found really quite distasteful. It was public access messages (obviously) discussing a personal incident that had taken place between two or more pagans, although only one party (or possibly one 'side') knew about the messages so the other person(s) had no opportunity to put their side of events down. *shrug* this happens on the internet, I accept that, but the comments that followed were, to me, particularly distasteful. There was lots of cruel mickey-taking and nastiness; it took me straight back to the playground, those times when the 'in crowd' would gang up and start picking on the strange kid. I was always the other strange kid, the one that stood up and stopped the bullying because I just couldn't stand to see someone tormented like that regardless of whether I liked the victim or not. The people on this forum that had had the problem started off reasonably enough but quickly descended into name calling and personal comments. This was followed by the pathetic individuals I would class as 'hangers on' taking personal jabs at the absent individual, publicly slagging them off and belittling them, seemingly without ever actually having met the individual let alone hearing their version of events.
What kind of people get their kicks this way