Why what you believe is the problem.
A friend recently brought up this idea of Humanism. He was reading a book about it. (The idea that humans are basically good and in charge of their destiny versus any Divine Being. They believe in rational and critical thinking over anything else.) Of course, the red hot sensation of “Well that’s just wrong,” welled up inside me.
It was defensiveness based on my beliefs (aka story). He wasn’t even saying he believed Humanism. He was just talking about it. That’s when I realized that man, Laura, you are really stuck on needing to be right.
For ONCE, though, I listened without speaking or thinking how to respond. I tamped down that voice inside wanting to argue with my friend.
That night, I tossed and turned running our conversation through my filters. I tried to make the case for my belief in a higher power. Or that there is a higher power. Or angels. Spirit guides as in Shamanism. Or multiple Gods as in Hinduism. Or any other story about how we got here and why.
I COULD NOT DO IT. And so it hit me. Why do I even care?
Because if I’m right it means I’m safe and in control of what happens to me now and after I slip out of this skin. I NEED my story to be right because it’s the one that makes me feel safest.
And that’s fine. We all get to have our story. Whatever we need to get by. The key is to let me have my story. And you have yours.
If I’m a good person, a kind person, a human who has goodwill toward all, then what is the problem? If my story doesn’t mean I feel the need to kill or harm you or take stuff away from you or look down on you, and vice versa, then it’s all moot.
EQUATION:
Happy, loving person = more happy, loving persons = a more chill and peaceful world.
Let’s all leave others alone with this stuff. We don’t have to judge people who believe differently. We simply do not know the truth. We just don’t. And guess what? I don’t have to be right and someone else doesn’t have to be wrong.
It seems to me that is the problem in our world. WE ALL THINK OUR STORY IS RIGHT. PERIOD. That’s why wars are fought. That’s why someone uses their belief to plow a car through a group of people and think it’s ok.
Here it is:
It’s ok if your truth comes from a book. The Book.
If you meditated and saw “God.”
If you have the ability to talk to dead people.
If your church told you it was fact.
If your science teacher made a case for it in 6th grade.
If you went up in a spaceship to the Pleiades or the Big Dipper.
All that matters is that we each live with love in our hearts and that we use compassion as our compass. Period.
(For all we know, one of these scenarios is actually truth. It’s just a belief and need to be right that keeps someone from being able to accept it.)
As for me, I’m just happier knowing and feeling in my core that I don’t have to worry about being right. That I don’t have to defend my position. That it’s ok for me not to know if my story or anyone else’s is true. That we can all have different beliefs and still be on the same side.
EQUATION:
Religious/Spiritual Belief ≠ fact. No matter how hard we want it to.
The next time any subject comes up in conversation and you believe you’re right and someone else is wrong. STOP. BREATHE. LISTEN. AND LET GO OF THE NEED TO DEFEND YOUR STORY. Because chances are, your story is just that…a story. And imagine, if you can, a world in which we could all live this way. Yeah, wow. Of course you don’t have to believe that just because I do. :-)
