choose your own religion

I'm sure in that long line of folks waiting to see a very important person who doesn't speak until late this afternoon but they've been here since before sunrise in a show of devotion and loyalty and wanting to be close to power. It's depressing the hell out of me, not just for party lines, but for the sheer absurdity of expecting so much life fulfillment out of any mere mortal.

There would be some who'd have some choice words for my superstitions and herd mentality, and they'll quote Dawkins and Hitchens or Degrasse Tyson and lump me in with those folks who cling to guns and religion even though I don't trust myself enough to own a gun. And yes I know there's nuttery in my worldview that's a hard thing to reconcile with. If anyone's honest with themselves, they'll see it in their own too.

But hell we're all a bunch of herds and sheep aren't we? We humans are hardwired to follow something or other, and that translates into organized religion, or devotion to a musical subculture or otherwise, or going to every game of your favorite team, wearing the colors and chanting, and politics is totally a religion too. Suspension of disbelief, denial of inconvenient facts, tribalism of us against them that rarely holds water when picked apart. Simplistic readings of history that fail to stand up under scrutiny. It's hard to operate on a binary anymore. I'm agnostic in all things except God, I guess. Somehow trying to follow these principles of loving one's God and neighbor have left me far afield of any political party and into territory closer to this than anything else. . 

Loving one's God means it's hard to put my hope in any candidate or party or particular cultural way of life, with one's heart, soul, mind and strength involved, it's constant and constantly fighting the mindlessness that comes from parroting platitudes without real thought. Loving one's neighbor means trying to not be a jerk to the people I deal with on a daily basis, and attempting to be conscientious as much as possible with daily life decisions, remembering that it's not just me and my comforts that are paramount. I would venture to say that mindlessly droning the hell out of the third world is not very loving. To seek justice, love mercy, walk humbly is simple enough on paper, hard as hell in real life. I guess it never ends.