Holy Moley

The latest ponderment at the Thinking Parents Wiki was to pick a religion, any religion, that you could conceivably follow, excluding any that may have been part of your past. No fair picking None of the Above either.

Lately I’ve been studying the teachings and trying to follow the practice of Buddhism, especially the mindfulness trainings of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, but since that’s not a religion in the sense of belief in or worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal god or gods, maybe that shouldn’t count.

Instead, I will offer for your consideration a new religion, new only in the sense that it is not a recognized tax-exempt charitable organization. Yet. I am a Golden Ruler. My god is the god of the unknown and the unknowable, the vastness of the universe from beyond the Milky Way to the universe within, the spark behind the Big Bang. Not yours? No problem! Your own personal god, gods, or lack thereof is welcome. There is no worship involved, only wonder and awe and thankfulness, at least for me. You are free to incorporate any or none of it as you see fit. There are no rigid rituals to follow, though members may create their own. The one immutable doctrine is the ethic of reciprocity: Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You.

Be a Golden Ruler! Join today! Please send your not quite tax deductible contributions to me (surely you wouldn’t mind someone doing that unto you.) Amen.

Hmmmm...

The clock is running. Thirty seconds to explain who I’m voting for.

To be honest, I don’t know yet. I’m one of those accused of throwing my vote away, voting my conscience rather than for the lesser of two evils, for the candidate I believe most likely to avert disaster politically, economically, socially, and ecologically; restore our freedoms; and protect our rights.

I don’t want a dream of change (that’s what concerns me about a certain candidate that sounds too good to be true), I want real change. Big change. Can you affect that from within the same old oligarchical system? I’m doubtful.

So here I sit, a No Party Affiliation libertarian-leaning voter, on the other side of the planet, away from the media saturation and drama, all sound bites and spin doctors, studying voting records, comparing stances on issues, analyzing the choices of respected peers...

...and while I can’t decide yet who will get my vote, it sure will not be this guy.