Beginning with an understanding

Something I cannot do in this blog is pull my thoughts away from the context. I believe things. Because I believe these things (my context) I live my life a certain way and pursue certain goals.

I also don't believe some things. I'll start with that. I don't believe that what we see is all there is. I don't believe that a religious life means you go to heaven when you die and that's it. I don't believe that everyone subscribes to a common understanding of what's right and wrong purely because of 'societal norms.'

So what do I believe then, what is the context for this blog?

I have observed that all people (every single one) has a sense of what is right and what is wrong. It is not learned. From infancy, we know it is right for you to feed me but not to hurt me, and our sense of this 'morality' can grow and sophisticate as we get older (I say 'can' because not everyone lets that happen). But even though everyone innately understands at least a sense of right and wrong, we notice that:
1) the world often seems out of balance with what's right and what's wrong; and
2) each of us often fails to live up to what we actually know is right

It is therefore as though we live in a world that has been placed askew - out of whack. It's as though the 23-degree angle at which the poles spin our little globe has also impacted how we live our daily lives, and everything is off balance, so many things are wrong. Disease, war, lying, pollution, health care disasters, natural disasters - all speak to a reality that things are not as they should be.

And yet, some good still comes out of it. We find ourselves better off for the struggles we went through. We gather together, we help each other, we donate money to causes, we offer aid. People get better from illnesses, live to 90 despite smoking like a chimney, and forgive their daughter's abuser. This doesn't speak to things wrong; it speaks to something, somewhere, being right. And it's right because it's in line with what we think of as 'right.' It coincides with our innate understanding of right and wrong.

It is as though there is this world and another world, living concurrently, at odds with each other. And it is this I believe. Of course, this leads tme to conslusions you can probably jump to as well. And we will get to those. But I felt it was important to establish some kind of baseline so that you knew where I was coming from.

Hopefully, you can accept these ideas as valid perspectives, and continue to visit this resource, and we can continue the conversation.