What Do You Believe?

Hey everyone, I hope you wonderful people are doing absolutely incredible. As for me, well…it’s been busy since my last post. It’s been good though, no complaints.

I put my second post out, and started wondering what I was going to talk about for the next one. Ironically, as I was thinking about it, something pretty strange happened.

I was at a grocery store…there was a lady there, who was obviously sick. She was coughing, had a mask on…you could look at her and know she was under the weather. As I’m waiting for the next self checkout register to open up (because I’m ridiculously anti-social. Give me self checkout ANY day lol), the lady sneezed. It was a big one too. Like…you couldn’t see spit or anything come out of her mouth because of her mask, but it sounded like there should have been plenty of discharge with it. Another lady nearby said “God bless you”, to which the sick one replied “Save the God shit…”. That situation is what triggered my thoughts for this post.

Just to go ahead and get it out there, I don’t have any belief system. I did, at one point. I went to church as a kid all the time, whenever the doors were opened. I sang hymns, got baptized, took communion, all of it. However, I’ve seen the hypocrisy of Faith. I have seen cheating, I have seen pain and abuse, I have seen cliques and “Holier Than Thou” Christians who go to church with the biggest bibles and have the highest positions, only to turn around on Monday and be the biggest monsters I’ve ever seen in my life. No thanks. If God wants those people, he definitely does not need me. I’ll pass. It’s like having the freedom to be a shitty human being because you know that no matter what, you still have a big payoff when you die. A crown of jewels? Please.

With all of that out there, I know that not all people of belief are the same. I know there’s a lot of good people, who do right, take care of their families, feed the homeless, and profess their Faith to whomever, because they are called to spread the Message. They don’t gossip, they don’t speak down to anyone, and they are people you genuinely want to be around.

Even though I feel the way I do about Religion now, here’s the simple truth-I do not care what you believe. I don’t mean that I don’t care, so don’t talk to me about it. On the contrary, I love having deep conversations about it with people. What I mean is, believe what you want. As long as it is moral and ethical, it’s not my place to tell you what to believe or what to feel. I’m not the ultimate arbiter, I’m not here to judge anyone. I tried to rationalize what bothered this sick lady to be so triggered by a “God bless you”, and she has her right to feel however she wants, I just didn’t understand it. If I sneezed and I heard a “God bless you”, I’d probably just say thank you and move on. She could have acted like I had leprosy, or hit me with a frozen lasagna or something, but instead she used her breath to speak kindness to me. I don’t have to believe what she believes for it to matter, I just have to recognize the kindness behind it.

I’m not trying to preach to anyone (no pun intended), and people are entitled to feel exactly like they want. Again, not for me to judge whether it’s right or wrong, feel the way you want to feel. I just know when I turn on the news or I’m around people in a Wal-Mart, something I see tremendously lacking is just basic human kindness. I feel like there’s a general loss of empathy, because a lot of people just want to take a side. Discussions or just talking about things has become something less frequent, which is what is necessary for us to understand each other and HAVE that empathy. I’m one to talk, as empathy is something I struggle with, but I do want the best for people, and even though I can’t emotionally understand what someone is dealing with, I certainly can COGNITIVELY. Right is right and wrong is wrong, no matter the circumstances. I don’t give a shit what your race is, gender is, sexuality is, religion is, or political belief is. I don’t give a shit what your job title is, how much you make, or how many cars or houses you have. When we get cut, we all bleed the same. I’d much rather society be able to come together as one than to be so divided.

For me the bottom line is that I would much rather you tell me, a non believer, “God bless you”, than for you to treat me like a piece of shit for sneezing. Thanks for caring about me.

Kindness is contagious. Pass it around.

Take care of yourselves, I’ll catch ya next time.