the first day of winter
I sat down today with one of the elders in the community to talk religion, sex and rap music.
no, but really. we had a good yarn about what is was like growing up in a mission, how the eight kids in his family shared one bike (you had to get up really early to grab it first) and how boys had to leave school once they hit puberty to protect the girls. oh and we talked about the kinds of music the local church needs to attract the kids back (let's not talk about why the organ is not popular, it's a touchy subject).
today had me questioning (and not just for this town), where churches have allowed or even perpetrated intolerable acts, how do people still have faith and how is it so important to them?
I don't ascribe to notions of fate, but I do like to think there is connectivity between moments in your life. and right now i'm wondering what role spirituality plays in my own - it keeps popping up in Canberra and here it's RIGHT IN MY FACE.
raised mostly in the catholic church, I like the ritual of catholic mass, though I never attend. i'm not sure I feel particularly good about organised religion for my own personal use.
and what even is spirituality? how do people just BELIEVE? (maybe that's what they call faith... well, fate and faith, I don't get down with these things). seriously, how do they keep believing when things get so bad and so hard? and do we even have a 'spirit' or a soul with which we should be concerned? can I possibly be connected to something bigger than my own little life?
there's so much today to believe in - that my menulog will arrive at the exact time the text says it will arrive, that I will likely make an excuse to avoid the gym and that I will buy a Cue coat even when I've admitted that I have too many clothes already - I kid.
We've been told of local stories here involving hairy, little men that live in the bush. And although I've met people who've seen these little people, I just doubt. I mean, it is so real and true for them, but I can't see how I can believe there are little people in the bush (also, it seriously freaks me out).
these unseen or mysterious ideas: strings being pulled behind the scenes, invisible guides, hidden meaning, and a spirit realm. I have a feeling that they are there, I guess I've just never trusted that they will get me to the right place at the right time. Do you?