The Devil is in the Details and God is in Everything.
On togetherness and secularization.
I’m Jewish. I always have been, and I guess I always will be. Whatever. It’s just something I am, not something I am, so it’s not something I do. Though there are some things I did that being Jewish had a hand in.
I fell in love for the first time in Hebrew school. Her name was Brooke, she was 13 going on 18, and she was very, very attractive. Maybe it was lust, not love, but at that age I certainly didn’t know the difference.
I also experienced the lavishness of a bar mitzvah. I absolutely hated every second of reading alien scribble literally backwards, but the party that marked my entry into manhood was pretty awesome. I and I alone chose the cacophonous hodgepodge of a menu. There was a chinese food buffet and a pasta bar and absolutely no salad. And lots and lots of candy.
2 days before my bar mitzvah I was playing basketball at recess when Arron Fludd’s talons somehow gouged an entire chunk out of the left side of my nose. I knew immediately it wasn’t going to heal in time for the party. I was royally pissed off. Brooke (from Hebrew school) was going to be there and there was a chunk missing from the left side of my nose! My parents were very reassuring and told me I still looked handsome, but I know they were being generous. Every time I look back at that photo album I cringe and shake my fist at Arron Fludd. We’re cool now though.
Truth be told, I’ve retained none of what I was taught in Hebrew school, despite having learned something about courtship because of it. And I sure as hell (pun intended?) didn’t come to any divine revelations by way of the philosophical discussions that took place at services. It recently got me wondering, as I all too frequently wonder, what’s the point? So I asked my mom just that…“why did you go to temple?” I didn’t exactly know what I was expecting, but her very instinctive answer felt unexpected. “The community,” she said.
Community. After food and water, togetherness is arguably the most basic human necessity. You say “what about shelter!?” I say there’s no way one of our ancestors would abandon the pack just to find a cave. After all, science shows that social connection literally keeps us alive.I agree that our belief in religion can be explained by our intrinsic desire to find reason behind circumstance. But it seems the practice of religion may be a byproduct of our desire to find community and find ourselves within them.
Let’s rewind 15-20 years before the days of complete technological interconnectedness. For our parents, and their parents before them, all they had to do was show up to the local temple or church or mosque and voila! Friendship! For them, God manifested in the “the community” and all of the moments they share(d) with the other members of it. And that community was borne of what was once, and some may argue still is, a rare type of fellowship: one that transcends socioeconomic status.
Now back to that technological interconnectedness I just mentioned. What a blessing. And not just because of how divinely easy it’s made many aspects of our lives. I can now press a button and a car with a cheery pink mustache will come to pick me up right where I stand!? While convenience is certainly one of its triumphs, technology has also given us an unprecedented ability to find communities of anything with anyone, regardless of socioeconomic status. Which means we can all find God. Our own very unique and personal God(s). Just by going out and doing the things we love to do, which leads us to people who are like we are.
God is in Meetups and Maker Faires. In Kickstarter and Kiva. I recently added a new God to my collection at a wonderful place called The Design Gym. So call me what you want, whether it’s a polytheist or a serial hobbyist. All I know is the more I’ve invested in finding new passions and sharing them with communities of other passionate people, the happier I’ve become. After all, isn’t happiness the ideal truth of both community and religion?
Keep your eyes peeled. Who knows where you might find God tomorrow.
