I'm fucking starved for love.
a lot of people have been questioning Mike Doughty about his personal faith because of a song he included on his newest album. In response, he's finally made a statement about it, and in it, I found almost exactly the way I feel about God. It's really almost bizarre. Maybe not.
anyhow, I've cut and pasted the key points I agree with. if you would like to read the whole thing, you can go here.
to read what hit me, click
"My beliefs about God shift constantly--my view is that a rigid idea of God is impossible, that the nature of God is unknowable--sometimes God is music, or the spirit of humanity--even sometimes, often in troubled or scary times, God is that personified paternal Christian God that I was taught as a child--and oftentimes God is love.
I wanted to say that God can be a huge part of your life without being a fanatic. What fanatic, Christian, Muslim, or otherwise, is really compassionate? The God I struggle to have faith in is all about compassion. The repression, rigidity, and backwards moralism of fanatic Christians is disheartening to me, and ugly a lot of the time. Spirituality adds tremendous meaning to my life. It waxes and wanes--I need both reverence and irreverence in my faith."
I guess it's not really amazing that I'd agree with that, considering my experiences and nature to understand more than my culture. It's just funny to stop and think about the way I view life, what I love about it, and the things I hold close to me for comfort, beauty, and so on. Since I've been a conscious being, I've always been fascinated with drug culture, and the romance between a junkie and their drug of choice. the way it interferes with their life and relationships. what makes them make the decisions they do, and the way they describe the drug. maybe, it's more about artists and drug culture, actually. I like the way it directly influences them, and the things that come out of those intense, fucked up occurances. I especially enjoy people who go through all of that, and still have some sort of internal thought process about the way the world works, and spirituality...at least spirituality that differs from the stereotypical varieties that come directly from drug culture.
I know where this all stems from. it comes from my father, and his personal choices about life, and constant struggle to find something more. I've always kind of had that hunger. I've always romanticized drug abuse in my head, and amazingly, without becoming any sort of drug addict. I've been very cautious to love the culture from afar. I have also always searched out something I once experienced so vividly, that I know I can't ever doubt there is something out there...or in me, or something. it's probably just that I'm searching for something bigger than myself, bigger than the world because when the going gets tough, it's so much easier to deal with things by accepting them, and then telling yourself it's okay because there's got to be something so much bigger than this just waiting out there for you. no matter what there's another answer, and there are no absolutes.
anyhow, for the most part, my faith is very personal, and I don't go around telling people all about it. it's not anyone else's business, and it's not my business to tell other people how to feel. that just creates false faith, I think. people jumping on a bandwagon. personally, I think the best thing you can do is live compassionately, and love other people. do the best you can to be a good person, and help people out in the ways they actually need it. that's what makes god smile. that's the bulk of what jesus said...in my stupid, infantile perception. so that's what I try to do. for now, that's what I think.
anyhow, I've cut and pasted the key points I agree with. if you would like to read the whole thing, you can go here.
to read what hit me, click
"My beliefs about God shift constantly--my view is that a rigid idea of God is impossible, that the nature of God is unknowable--sometimes God is music, or the spirit of humanity--even sometimes, often in troubled or scary times, God is that personified paternal Christian God that I was taught as a child--and oftentimes God is love.
I wanted to say that God can be a huge part of your life without being a fanatic. What fanatic, Christian, Muslim, or otherwise, is really compassionate? The God I struggle to have faith in is all about compassion. The repression, rigidity, and backwards moralism of fanatic Christians is disheartening to me, and ugly a lot of the time. Spirituality adds tremendous meaning to my life. It waxes and wanes--I need both reverence and irreverence in my faith."
I guess it's not really amazing that I'd agree with that, considering my experiences and nature to understand more than my culture. It's just funny to stop and think about the way I view life, what I love about it, and the things I hold close to me for comfort, beauty, and so on. Since I've been a conscious being, I've always been fascinated with drug culture, and the romance between a junkie and their drug of choice. the way it interferes with their life and relationships. what makes them make the decisions they do, and the way they describe the drug. maybe, it's more about artists and drug culture, actually. I like the way it directly influences them, and the things that come out of those intense, fucked up occurances. I especially enjoy people who go through all of that, and still have some sort of internal thought process about the way the world works, and spirituality...at least spirituality that differs from the stereotypical varieties that come directly from drug culture.
I know where this all stems from. it comes from my father, and his personal choices about life, and constant struggle to find something more. I've always kind of had that hunger. I've always romanticized drug abuse in my head, and amazingly, without becoming any sort of drug addict. I've been very cautious to love the culture from afar. I have also always searched out something I once experienced so vividly, that I know I can't ever doubt there is something out there...or in me, or something. it's probably just that I'm searching for something bigger than myself, bigger than the world because when the going gets tough, it's so much easier to deal with things by accepting them, and then telling yourself it's okay because there's got to be something so much bigger than this just waiting out there for you. no matter what there's another answer, and there are no absolutes.
anyhow, for the most part, my faith is very personal, and I don't go around telling people all about it. it's not anyone else's business, and it's not my business to tell other people how to feel. that just creates false faith, I think. people jumping on a bandwagon. personally, I think the best thing you can do is live compassionately, and love other people. do the best you can to be a good person, and help people out in the ways they actually need it. that's what makes god smile. that's the bulk of what jesus said...in my stupid, infantile perception. so that's what I try to do. for now, that's what I think.