Humanist stuff:
My aunt believes the Rapture will happen in the next three years, and reports that she's always looking up.
There are many who mock such beliefs, but we all have the same basic biochem. We just put different words to our habituated convictions.
So when my aunt tells me she thinks the world is about to end? I can't help but reflect on my own sinking feelings for the world at war, in climate change: all of it.
Instead of judging others, the task is to curb defeatism in oneself.
@MLClark Indeed that was the Millerite Movement, part of the second great awakening. I am surrounded by seventh day Adventists here
When we moved into this house 7 years ago, I carried a candle around the edges of the Land to greet the land spirits. One of our neighbors stopped to ask what we were doing, I walked up to her car, introduced myself as her new neighbor and she gripped her cross when I did so, then smiled weakly said good bye and drove on
We haven't really heard from them since
@MLClark Growing up, it was always a favorite game to tell stories about the witch house int he neighborhood.
I realized one day, that we are the witch house in our small rural neighborhood. ^_^
🤣 That is a most splendid thing to be!
@MLClark We know one neighbor, kind of, "The Tractor Man" he helps us maintain the road, and all he asks for is beer. He's very quiet like us and doesn't seek company, but we always have a case for him, and he seems to appreciate that as he keeps coming back.
Oh, that is lovely. You know better than most that elaborate forms of human communication are often wasted even on other humans. There are so many other ways to be present and show care. :)
@MLClark He is a very quiet and reserved human. He moved here after us. I suppose that almost goes without saying as he's lived here the better part of 5 years and we've yet to know his name.
Here in Colombia a lot of folks use nicknames most emphatically. I'm currently doing the crossword with "El Mocho" - a word for a person missing a leg, or someone who isn't very good at football (it's like "Stumpy"). He insists on this name with all, who would use it anyway & who also affectionately call him "Mochito". It's just a descriptor, not an insult, in this culture, but I still like that I know his real name.
So many strange ways of bonding. But they just have to work. :)
@MLClark I have a plehtora of nicknames. My partner Waggs refers to me as "the Bun," and moot often just calls me Hare. Pretty much everything is a variation of my name, Snowy, Snow, Hare, Bunny etc.
As I write this I realize Waggs and Moot are also nicknames. (Alan and Jesse)
😍 Looooooove them!
I just call you "Ray of sunshine in a field of summer greens" in my head when I see your ID pop up here, but maybe that's more mood than name. 🤔😅
@MLClark Aww buddy. You are always kind. Thank you for being a light.
@NiveusLepus
Oh, she's been waiting on Rapture most of her life. They'll reset the date. They always do. She's a laying-of-healing-hands, tongues-speaking YEC.
Meanwhile, you've got groups like the Seventh-Day Adventists in the US, which started with two *very* dramatic end-times prophecies that failed in the 1800s... & the group's still going strong!
The benefit for such believers truly is the strength of their convictions. A tougher route to walk is one that celebrates the value of doubt.