Please Read These Words

If you’re upset, there’s probably a good reason for it.  If you’re disgusted with yourself, there’s something behind it.  Chemicals in that hunk of cheese in your skull are likely firing into the wrong sockets, creating unpleasant, jagged pulses of electricity.  The symphony in your head has become full of violins with rusty strings.  When things are better, those pulses take on a smooth silky rhythm.  Our facial muscles relax, and we walk on the springy lightness of brand new running shoes.

Is it chemicals?  Are some souls born to bear the hassle of a vessel with lousy wiring?  This seems like an important question–especially considering certain Republican musings about God. Some would call me a liberal, secular humanist, commie, etc.  What I aspire to do is understand what people say when they invoke the creator.  Even an atheist might acknowledge we come from somewhere mysterious.  Calling the mystery God seems pretty harmless…  Or is it?  Anyway, let the pondering continue.

On the “You Tube” debate, Republican participants were asked whether they believed in every word of The Bible.  Without getting too muddled in theology, the overall Christian message is to believe in One God.  One who is all-powerful, and benevolent as long as you believe in Him. The candidates all asserted that to a great degree, they believed in this book—it did in fact represent God’s Word. Each seemed to be in a sparing match to profess ever deeper levels of faith—certainly attempting to shout their Amens and Hallelujahs loud enough so their voting base could hear them.

The reason I bring up brain chemicals and Republicans, is to ask whether all of us are really created equally under the power of this God guy?  I would agree that we all deserve equal respect and reverence, simply for being walking miracles of life; however, to say we are created equally is false.  The playing field is not level.  Some people need help to get back on their feet, and I’m happy to pay taxes to help them get there.

When cowboy Ronald Reagan—that odd pillar of conservative worship—closed down all those mental heath facilities, I guess he didn’t understand that chemicals can indeed fire in very depressing directions.  People hear voices that they attribute to  (ironically) God’s—and He tells them all kinds of things, but forgets to tell them to shower and not drink so much.

People can change—and it’s always a combination of things that bring about change.  Chemicals—perhaps with the help of other chemicals—can begin firing in more pleasant pathways.  Maybe this God guy, and some faith in a benevolent force can help, too.  There are indeed great words of wisdom in The Bible…  as there are in The Torah and The Koran.  People need faith to wake up.  Even atheists have faith that doing this or that will bring greater peace to their sense of self.  They wouldn’t call it faith; but this sense of self is often clouded in a mystery that some choose to call God.

When our sense of self is fogged, when our identity is in crisis—we often lash out at the world around us.  Our soul puts the chemicals on red alert and we sometimes step on the toes of others.  The stomping is always empowering.  We feel like we matter because we’re “better than” for a fleeting moment.  Later, we realize we’re all in the same boat.  We realize that our chemicals can misfire.  We realize life is fragile.  Our minds are fragile.  In these moments, it is possible for gratitude to enter our hearts and we feel connected to that mysterious source, and more important, to one another.  Our minds become strong.  Our life and sense of self feels true and steadfast.  We get back into the ebb and flow.  The chemicals of the soul flow in and out the power outlets of the Great Spirit, in those big hunks of cheese, floating precariously above our shoulders.