I'd better lay down some of the preconditions to this experiment / journey / revelation / ?. Some of the history that I carry into this trek into the unknown. I'll edit this post from time to time, as I recall or perhaps even better understand my past.
The rule - nothing in this post can pertain to or be influenced by anything that happens after Jan 01 2009. It is an arbitrary date, but one that I am sure represents history from a Christian spiritual awakening perspective.
Some points in my history that might be important.
- Grandpa - devout and restrictive Presbyterian. Real big on authority, and on hellfire and damnation. I never knew him, but his approach to things sure influenced my Dad, which in turn had a big influence on me.
- I went to Catholic sunday school once. I was about 6 or seven I think. All I recall is being extremely distraught at the thought of Christ on the cross, unable to bear weight on his wrists and relieve the pain in his feet, or on his feet to relieve the pain in his wrists. Apparently I cried all through Sunday school, and all the way home.
- I used to help an old girl-friend when she went to teach Sunday school. She used to refer to me as "her heathen".
- My Mom died when I was in 11th grade. That event convinced me that there was good in even the most painful thing, largely due to the positive manner in which Mom bore her multi-year battle with cancer. Out of that event I ended up convinced that being and doing good was important (a trivialization, but this is a short intro). My best friend's mom died a month later, of a similar cancer, in an experience that seemed to me to be filled with pain and denial. I became an informal humanist, he became a Mormon.
- more and deeper later.
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