Faith

Every time I went home to Madison, I would got to church with my Mom. Partially because I know it makes Mom happy but also because I like her church. The congregation is small, and the people are warm and caring. I've never been a consistent attainder of church, in fact I have a few beefs with organized religion, but I respect what it does for people and communities. That is neither here nor there. Being a nar do well infrequent attendee allows me to hold onto the church, the "holiness", the memories of Christmas service, the promise of Easter, the feeling of community. I like that when I attend the sermon tends to speak to me, personally, intimately. Telling me to forgive a friend or to have faith.

Faith. One of the hardest things to do in this modern age is to keep faith. Just reading the papers makes one depressed and think what is the world coming to. Will things get better? Why do people have to die such senseless deaths? To suffer such horrible fates? And gnaw at yourself that you're not doing anything to change things. To make things better. But, then sometimes you feel powerless. Wrapped up in your own suffering you hope against reason(and sometimes against yourself) that everything happens for a reason, and in the end it will all work out. You hope. You have faith. Or you try to have faith.

Faith, sometimes seems like the adult way of holding on to dreams. A form of fantasy, for grown ups rebelling against the crushing pain and insensitivity of the modern world. You never ask adults, "What do you dream about?" We only ask children,"What do you dream of?" Dreams are for innocents. Faith is for people unwilling to accept reality. Belief against reason. Hope. our shield or our blanket, whatever need maybe. This is not to say faith and reason do not find themselves as allies. Sometimes you need to believe the reasonable choice is the right choice. In the end you hope. Hope is a religion unto itself.

*"The blog originated . . . as a catch basin for mental detritus, for the kind of stuff not good enough for print, but too good to waste on casual conversation." (Joel Achenbach, The Washington Post, August 21, 2005)