Sunday, September 11, 2011

I'm Still Here



I was 3 months pregnant with my first child when the towers came down. I had lost about 5kg due to "morning" sickness (this should be re-named "every minute of every freaking day" sickness) and was feeling pretty rancid but relatively happy as we were visiting friends for the evening. Our host got a call from his brother who told him to turn the TV on,  NOW! We tuned in before the second plane hit and I remember such a mixture of feelings as we watched it happen. Nothing else existed. The same scenes played over and over for hours.

I thought about the little bean growing in my belly and wondered what kind of a world would be waiting for them. I felt scared. I felt vulnerable. I thought this was the beginning of the 'end of days' and I was going to be the pregnant woman left behind in the muck; or the depleted new mother with a fledgling human to protect. How would I be able to run? to hide? to survive? and protect a baby?!

10 years on and I have a healthy and happy 9 year old girl and 7 year old boy. Life continues to assert itself all around me. The world did change after 9/11 but not in the devastating way I thought it would. And 2 years ago I woke up and saw the world and life in a very new light. The only 'end of days' I now worry about is one that we, the human race, might bring upon ourselves. Through neglecting and ravaging our environment or maybe thermo-nuclear war as a result of unrestrained greed and power. There will be no 'second coming' but there are plenty of religious extremists willing and eager to bring our world a very real  Armageddon. They will it on, they want it to happen soon! Because they don't care about this life; they want the next life ... paradise ... but there is none. There are people in this world, from all kinds of religions, who are willing the 'end of days' upon us. This MUST change.

The social nicety of respecting Religion needs to end. If something cannot withstand investigation then it ought not to be blindly revered and funded with our tax dollars and fed to our kids. It is a poison. Humankind has the capacity to love and to live harmoniously WITHOUT religion.


Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one 




-- John Lennon Imagine


I have just come back from a women's full-moon celebration with my daughter. There were about 20 of us at a friends house. We sat around a fire and shared our thoughts and feelings. We danced. We sang. We ate. We laughed. We hugged. We connected.

I feel renewed by the love of these women.

Thank you to the amazing woman who organised this night for us. We need these sorts of gatherings and opportunities to love and to share.  Let's heal our own hearts so that we can reach out in love. I send my LOVE out to all of you tonight.

2 comments:

  1. Its about time someone said it! I am SO sick of being told "It's ok for you to not have a religion, but you MUST respect others" NO I MUSTN'T!

    If I REALLY believed in the Flying Spaghetti Monster or the Invisible Pink Unicorn, really believed, I shouldn't expect you to respect that (I might tell you should, because clearly I have a mental disorder of some sort), but it's not my place to demand respect from others, least of all demand respect for my imaginary friend.
    Respect is earned, not demanded.
    My favourite argument lately is "So god gives humankind the ability of logical thinking and reasoning, and then demands we don't use it? Demands faith? Not a god I want to respect."

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  2. More people need to say it.

    I respect people who DESERVE respect; it should be the same for religions, as you say, they ought to be under the same obligation as any individual person is to behave in a manner that qualifies them for respect. As we are shown time and time again organised religion fails to behave in such a manner. Religious people may do some good in the world but so do non-religious people. There are no amount of 'good deeds' that will undo the damage done by and through religion.

    It really is a poison in our society. IF people could acknowledge that all faith and all religion is a guess and is subjective and that NO-ONE has 'the truth' then we could end so much bloodshed. Wars over holy land and holy books and holy rocks need to end.

    I am tired of conservative religious people protecting fundamentalists and extremists by their demands for respect. In it's very essence respect can never be demanded, how have religions managed to hold onto this insulting immunity for so long. The delusion runs so deep and keeps humankind in a state of infancy.... a dangerous state of infancy that drives people to do awful things. Check out the link I added to the post TGIAA, in the third paragraph.

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