For a long time, I have been an somewhat uneducated fan of Thomas Jefferson. I have been inspired by his trust of people, by his trust in The People. That’s not an easy thing: to trust people and particularly The People.
And before I get too distracted, how are you anyway?
It is not easy for me now, to trust others I mean, but I used to be much more trusting, perhaps to the point of it being a fault.
How is or was school for you? Many feel that school was a waste of their time, others that it was the happiest days of their life. For me school, a boarding school, was terrible. I distrusted almost everyone there; but they were the enemy: that was how they declared themselves to me, as my enemies. You don’t trust your enemies do you? So that never really affected how I trusted people in general. Then I went into business. Self-interest and lies were everyday coinage. These were good people in other respects but in their business dealings they were wretched.
Thomas Jefferson felt that way about priests and ministers. They hated and feared him and he said they were right to do that. He said he loved Jesus and his simple message and believed that it had been corrupted by those who wanted power. He felt that right from the start, the simple message had been deliberately (maybe?) distorted to make it so complicated that The People would need rituals and priests to interpret it for them. And, he he kept on saying so even when he was president. Can you imagine Dubyah or Obama doing that? Nope! So he, like me, feels that he had his “religion” stolen from him.
You feel like that? As if there’s a hole in you that you cannot fill? That hole was made in part by the wretched priests and ministers.
But don’t you fear, the mystery remains. It does. The deep unknowable, unimaginable mystery is still there just as it always was and always will be. When the disciples asked Jesus where was this mysterious kingdom that he was always talking about, he told them to stop looking for it, it was already spread out around them and they just didn’t see it. See! It’s there, now, right now. Always was. Always will be. Just relax and let it wrap its arms around you.
ADVICE: You can’t mess up cooking a loaf of bread. Try it!
who is hearing 