Over the past 2 decades, I've often been asked about my nonbeliever status. I've heard the same questions repeatedly, "Saf, you don't believe in god?" "Saf, do you think Jesus was a Jew?" "Well Saf, then who created the universe and set everything in motion?" On and on it goes. All the same questions. All posed with the similar tinge of incredulity. As if I have a different take on the same questions that have plagued mankind. Yes, plagued. While these questions might offer humans a sense of hope, they're also the questions that bring about the worst qualities in man. It's an intriguing balance. A televangelist can take the comfort of old womans prayer and use if for sinister gain. A third world tyrant, or one right here in the USA, can use religion as a weapon of terror, mobilizing the janjaweed to storm through villages, raping and killing, or even worse, subtly using the notion of "good vs. evil" to milk hundreds of billions to alter the geoploitical landscape of the planet.
As would be expected, I find all this as disturbing as the next guy. Well Saf, at least you can take comfort in the idea of a greater power or some omnipotent force that guides mankind. Yeah, right! Talk about the audacity of hope!
But the truth is I DO believe. Not in Jesus Christ dying for my sins, or they came to the ark in twosies twosies, or the notion of papal infallibility, or a burning bush, or the garden of eden, or Ezekial begat so and so, or any of that line of mundane jibberish. I believe there's balance in the universe. You see it all around you, everyday in just about every conceivable way. Everything is striving toward some form of common ground, or center. Some refer to it as yin/yang or maybe a branch of Taoism. I don't know what it's called, but you see it in every aspect of life - politics, economics, spirituality, war. And there's balance in simpler things; landscaping, golf, online gambling.
I've always had a desire to put these thoughts on paper, or nowadays, screen. So I'm bidding farewell to the acrimonious restaurant reviews and the mildly amusing rock concert anecdotes. For the forseeable future, I'll just be writing about one concept - BALANCE IN THE UNIVERSE. I wonder if it will be fulfilling. Some will like it, some won't. Some posts will leave you contemplative, others will be like "things that make you hmmmm (Arsenio Hall style)." Some posts will dwelve into the stark realities of mankind, other posts will deal with the misuse of ranch dressing. In any event, they'll all be dealing with the notion of balance and how everything strives toward some common ground. Hopefully, this goes over better than that double comedy cd. Maybe it will, maybe it won't.
