Not a Miracle

I debated whether to post this or not.  But then, I realized that hiding the truth even to spare someone is a kind of lie.  And letting them believe a lie is not doing them any favors.  At the same time, I don't want to damage anyone's faith or reputation unduly, so I am going to stay very anonymous and use pronoun swapping to further shield the person's identity.  Chances are he will never read this, but someone who knows her (see how that works) might.  If you decide to share it with the person, that's up to you.  I ask any reader to be sensitive.

The other day I met someone who walked into this place and very quickly introduced himself to me with a good deal of flourish and formality about who had invited her and why he was there, etc.  I don't know why she introduced herself to me, perhaps he thought I was someone important.  But being the kind of person I am, I am instantly turned off by any pretense at someone being special because of who they know or what they do.  So in an effort to politely express that, I returned the introduction, "Hi, I'm Cav.  I'm nobody."

As soon as I said it, his eyes softened and she began to concernedly explain that I truly was somebody in a mealy voice that further turned me off.  "Here, we go," I thought.  "I should have seen this coming."  But I just politely excused myself from the whole thing and went about my business.  Soon, though he was back asking me if I was an artist.  No?  Maybe a musician?  No, huh.  Finally trying to end this unnecessary bolstering of my self-esteem, I said, "I organize.  That's what I do."  Which I was actually doing at the moment; trying to set something up for her, which she was too involved in my bolstering to help me with. "I set stuff up for ____." I said indicating what I was doing and inserting his self-proclaimed title in the blank.

"See, there's something!" was the sappy reply.

So chalk it up to different strokes, it takes all kinds, whatever.  I went on with my evening.  But later as we were about to leave this person finds me again and has to, "give me a Word."

OK, sidebar.  If you aren't familiar with the term, "give a Word", it's used in certain sects of Christianity to indicate a special message from God.  If you do know the term, please understand that those from other traditions (like me) find it, at best, an excuse to tell us whatever emotional sentiment happened to occur to you at the moment.  And opinions on it range down from there through insipid, presumptuous, and even heretical.  So if you want to get along with someone from a different sect, hold off on this phrase until you know where they stand.  End sidebar.

So, now I'm totally completely uninterested in anything he has to say.  But in the interest of polite brotherhood, I opted to simply listen politely rather than start an argument or offend someone who might be legitimately thinking she's doing good.

The "word" was that I was a craftsman and artist, even though I don't thinkso and when I expressed it by dancing as she had seen me do a few minutes before it had "changed the atmosphere."  Then he capped it with some vague Bible references that I knew but didn't see the relevance of.  But I thanked her and I could tell he was looking for more of a response.  So I turned the conversation to other more general topics and ended with as genuine of a 'nice to meet you' as I could manage.

So, you might be thinking, what a jerk I am for discounting this sensitive soul's attempt to help me.  But if someone is thinking a duck is a flamingo and publicly declaring it, am I not cruel to leave them uncorrected?  Or to be more realistic, if someone is repeatedly calling a new acquaintance by the wrong name, am I not right to point that out, even if it results in momentary embarassment?

So here is what I want to say to this person.  Please read it with as much love and tenderness as you can:  You were wrong.  You weren't hearing anything special from God about me.  You misinterpreted just about everything I said.  And you were very nearly offensive to my brand of faith.  I won't go so far as to say there is never anything true in the way you practice your faith, but in this case, you were totally off.

I know who I am, good and bad.  At least as much as any human can, and probably a good deal more than most, as evidenced by this blog.  I know where my true value lies.  I give God the glory for that.  But culturally, I find it offensive and morally wrong to place any human above another.  So I wasn't going to brag about myself to a total stranger. 

I can't honestly say, I've never dropped a name or asked for a special introduction. But I view these times as failings and ask God to help me become more like the servant Jesus was, who wouldn't even answer the false accusations against him.  In fact, like I said, I wouldn't even be saying this if I didn't think it wrong to withhold the truth when I have the power to potentially open someone's eyes.

Secondly, I come from a tradition where what you do is not considered to be from God.  We read the same verses and arrive at different conclusions and styles.  Neither of us can categorically prove the other wrong.  God will reveal the truth to us as we grow.  So until that time, I'm willing to respect your beliefs and ways.  I ask that you also respect mine. 

So reader, if you find this sounding uncannily like you (whether it was you or not) please know I don't hate you.  I think you were trying to do good.  But please recognize that not everyone understands or even approves of what you do.  If you would call those of us brothers, then maybe you should tone it back a little, especially if this is the first time you meet someone.

Imagine how much damage you could do to someone's faith if they believed you were hearing from God but were totally wrong.  Does that mean God is wrong?  Or are you a liar?  Or maybe just a lunatic?  I'm not saying this is what I think of you, because I understand what you were attempting.  But this is what you might look like to someone who doesn't know better.  So don't bruise a reed.

I speak for the trees.

Assimilation

This blog is about Truth.  With a capital T because I mean it in the big sense, not the baser sense of "true story" or true/false.  Science is also about Truth...at least it is at the heart, before media and corpocracy and fame have tainted it.  The only reason science and religion conflict is because practitioners of one or both confuse the roll of each.  See science can only tell us about observable reproducable things.  As such, it can't talk at all about things that fall outside of the ability to observe and test.  Conversely, religion isn't about empirical, observable, testable reality.  Reality, yes, but not the physical world in the way science is interested.  Anyway, I digress.  My point is that I try to understand my world as a whole.  And science informs things quite well.  So it shouldn't be a surprise that this blog may also cover scientific matters from time to time as they engage in my brain.

So the concept of assimilation.  This is the process of taking something in and making it a part of the entity, whether that is biological, social, spiritual, etc.  Essentially, an assimilated thing ceases to be separate from the thing that assimilates it.  We assimilate nutrients.  Nations assimilate people.  The US is known as the "melting pot", which refers to the quality of assimilating people from many backgrounds.  We are not a nation based on genetic isolation or ancient tribal divides.  Assimilation is a natural process that absolutely pervades every aspect of the function of the world.  But I don't think many people understand it at all.

I was thinking of assimilation around the Christmas season for a couple reasons.  First, because people get wound up about the various elements of the holiday.  Regardless of what angle of that argument you might sit in, I think the concept of assimilation should help unwind that tension some.

No culture exists in a vacuum.  Even the oldest cultures are influenced by those around them and evolve through time.  The culture of a tribe 1000 years ago would not be the same now, even if that tribe were totally untouched by the outside, which none are.  So there are going to be things that move from one to the other in both directions.

When Christianity first began to spread, it was spreading through existing cultures.  Some of those celebrated Saturnalia, some celebrated Yule, and many other winter festivities.  So when a few people began to see that this new faith had Truth, they didn't cease to live in the culture they were in.  Others around them still celebrated the things they always did.  Christianity, being a very assimilative type of faith, does not proscribe or prohibit much outright.  The Apostle Paul (Saint Paul, depending on your tradition) who wrote most of the New Testament says all things are permissible, but not everything is beneficial.  The individual has to determine what is good for themselves and their own.  So many found what was good and true in the culture they occupied and kept those elements.

Where there were conflicts of conscience, people sometimes adapted the holiday to something that fit their new beliefs.  Ok, so we aren't celebrating Thor any more, but as all powers and principalities are subject to the One God, then Father Christmas must also be subject to him...It's not a conscious happening, it's a slow and imperceptible shifting.  Father Christmas, sounds much like the traditions of Saint Nicholas from southern Europe, so those gradually get merged as well.

Now if you are seriously conflicted by any pagan elements in your holiday, by all means, do what your conscience demands.  Paul also says to bear with those who have weaker faith, so I for one won't be in your face about what gives you trouble, just like I won't drink alcohol around an alcoholic or a Baptist.  But for your part, recognize the freedom of those of us who do not feel conflicted about it.  We're not apostate because we let our kids enjoy a gift given in the name of a mythical character or a Saint.  WE aren't worshipping a pagan God when we do it, despite the origin.

And if you're on the other side where you feel your holiday was stolen and perverted by us tyrannical Christians, please remember that you are still free to celebrate whatever you like.  As I described above, most of the assimilation was a natural cultural process and not a decision to abolish or persecute your religion.  I don't doubt that there were times where a state religion prohibited practices in an attempt to mandate what it felt was good.  But that's not what's happening in the West right now.  In fact, in today's world, you're more likely to live in a nation that mandates against Christianity, if it speaks to national religion at all.  So it goes both ways.  Individuals are not nations and nations are not individuals.  Celebrate what you like in the way you like and allow others the same respect, even if you disagree.  This is the definition of political and religious freedom.

Now on to the second topic of assimilation.  Food.  When you eat, your body assimilates the chemicals in that food: proteins, lipids, nutrients, synthetics, etc.  Those things become a part of your body.  Your body knows how to use a lot of those things.  A good deal of them, your body can't use.  Some of them actively break down the processes in your body as it tries to figure out what to do with them.  But since assimilation is a great principle of life on Earth, a natural law, your body has an amazing capacity to take damage.  It will assimilate and assimilate until it is overloaded.  Even useful things can become a problem when there are too many of them. 

Unfortunately, our bodies are so good at assimilating stuff we often don't take notice.  The impacts, are virtually undetectable.  But they are occurring.  We only notice it once it's so far damaged that something actually breaks.  It's the same process all over the natural world.  I'm a water scientist and I see people seep junk into lakes and rivers for decades and then get utterly bewildered when the lake turns green and icky "all of a sudden".  Truthfully, there are usually warning signs if you know what to look for, but people don't pay attention to them in their body or the world around them.

Even the government is not good at watching this.  You see, most of the government employees want to do good, that's why we choose a lower paying career that comes with ample abuse from ignorant people.  But a good deal of the job is about keeping the wheels turning.  In the US especially, it's hard to just say, "whoa, change everything because this isn't working."  So we operate by determining exactly how much we can mess something up before the impacts are too noticeable.  I'm dead serious about this.  It's how the laws are written and how the policies are structured.  It's not a mindset of keeping things healthy, solvent, or sustainable.  It's how much abuse can we take from all the pressures and not fall apart.

The same goes with individual health.  Many people try to sneak just under the line where they crash rather than aim for the healthiest they can be.  Fortunately for someone with a condition like me, my body reacts far more instantly to a bad element than most.  So people say it's a problem with my body and those things don't affect them.  But they DO affect you.  They affect everyone.  I'm like the canary in the coal mine.  My reaction is the magnified and instant representation of what it's doing to you over the decades.

So why play with fire?  If you, unlike me, have a good margin of safety, you won't fall out from a little bad stuff, but it's still bad!  Imagine how healthy you could be if you didn't keep taking in that stuff that's pulling you apart at the cellular level.

Anyway, these have been my thoughts through this Christmas season as I've watched and listened to the world around me.  As we start into a new year, I'd encourage you to take advantage of this marker in time to begin consciously assimilating these ideas about assimilation.  Once you understand the concept, it explains so much of the world around you.  You'll be more insightful, happier, and healthier for it.