A Cautionary Tale....

A discussion on one of my lists triggered this bit of “Mental Masturbation”< G >…..

Once Upon A Time…
Less than a century ago, a man felt a Hunger, a Hunger Shared by Others of his People. He took the Ways of a number of Cultures, Philosophies, etc (none of which were actually Historically OF His Culture...)and “cobbled together” a Faith he felt filled his Need and Hoped would do so for Others. He drew followers to his New Faith, though he called it an “Old” One…One that had little to with what his Ancestors actually Believed. It was not so long after that One, not happy with the Exclusivity of the New Faith (it required study just to be allowed to Study for Initiation…) and rejected for Advancement BY it stole part of It’s Sacred Text...Creating Precident for the Future Taking of Other People’s Ways to Use as They Saw Fit…
Those Two, after Decades began a “Truce”, considering each a “denomination” of the Same Faith….
Decades Passed, and Those who did not Wish to Work for the Right began to create “Traditions” based on what They thought was Part of That Faith but they did not catch on because, well,they had little Substance. Then came The Oathbreakers, those who either for Money or for Personal Reasons published the Rites of one “Tradition” of that Faith. Of course, there was no one to EXPLAIN the INNER MEANING to those who bought the Books and no one who KNEW would Touch an Oathbreaker’s ANYTHING. These two Experiences combined to create People who wrote books (“Cookbooks”) combining the material from Oathbreakers and their own Agendas. Those who bought them now considered themselves as Equals to those Who had gone through the Traditional study and Initiation into the Faiths and used the same Name to Identify Themselves. For almost a Decade Those Who Followed the Traditional Way battled with the Newcomers, even accommodating Them with Adjectives attached to the Original term. The Newcomers wanted All or Nothing. Finally the Traditionalists slowly parted Ways with the Newcomers, giving the impression that they were “Dying Out”. Nothing of the Sort was happening. In fact, they were growing Faster than they did before as Folk, tired of the Shallowness of the Newcomer Ways came to Learn as well as those who found the Behavior of the Newcomers Uncomfortable but were still Drawn to Their Way….
Now, there are Two Realms, One Which Believes “they Won the War” and One that basically Ignores the Former…
Troth,
Pat

On feeling Guilty about feeling Good about Others feeling Bad...

In the last Decade, I've had to Deal with a strange combination of Emotions as the AIDS Epidemic spread. You see, my 1st Partner Passed away in 1984 of PC pneumonia after two yrs together and I've had to DEAL with IT since. Oddly enough, it's not the illnesses, the side-effects of the meds or the chronic damage that the virus did to other systems before the meds and that the meds do that bothers me the most. It's my feelings toward many of those who are now infected...esp communities that gleefully called it "God's Will" and did EVERYTHING they could to make our Live's miserable. It's hard to look at a face that only a couple yrs before Spat in yours and not feel ambivalent at best...and I'm NOT usually at my "Best"< G >. It's also hard to be told that even though no one would help YOU, and YOUR KIND had to create orgs from scratch and collect resources to help those Ill now is told it has to work even harder because now the Folks that had once stood in the Way are now demanding more of your resources...
We ARE TIRED. If it hadn't been for my husband, I probably wouldn't fight so hard and would have Passed to Hella's Hall yrs ago...
Troth,
Pat (in the mood for a Wallow...)