I am a frustrated writer and poet waiting to be discovered. A stand-up philosopher performing on a street corner near you. A Christian with questions but I don’t want to hear your answers. A Buddhist with a bumper sticker on my truck to prove it. A collector of quotes. A grower of lettuce. The Patron Saint of earthworms who name their children after me. A cyclist whose big ass strains the seams of his Lycra bibs. I am American by birth, Southern by the grace of God. My goal in life is to leave an imprint on the lives of the people I love not a footprint on the earth. I am a son, a husband, a father composed of 65%-Oxygen, 18%-Carbon, 10%-Hydrogen, 3%-Nitrogen, 3%-Diet Coke and 1%-Oreo.
I encourage comments, opinions, thoughts and writing critiques. I like hearing what you have to say, agree or disagree (if you are civil not righteous), but please keep it simple. If you want to discuss the Pāli Canon or why the Trinity is still monotheistic, I am not your guy, show-off on someone else’s blog. I firmly believe ideology has sucked the life out of all faiths or as Dave Berry puts it “People who want to share their religious views with you, almost never want you to share yours with them.”
“If it’s true that our species is alone in the universe, then I’d have to say the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.” – George Carlin
“Every day, people are straying away from the church and going back to God.” – Lenny Bruce
“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.” – Groucho Marx
“Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect.” – Steven Wright
“When a man’s best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem.” – Edward Abbey
“Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.” – Mark Twain
“The universe is wider than our views of it.” – Henry David Thoreau
“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.”- John Lennon
Ends and Beginnings 
I like your ‘about’ section. I will ‘follow’ you for sure. Not literally of course, that sort of thing will get you locked up. Cheers.
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Thank you! Cheers 2 u.
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Welcome, mate. 😉
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I love your blog and I will follow your journey. 🙂
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Thank you for the follow! Blessings!
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No, thank you for the great writing and expressing your thoughts and opinions.
I’m in the process of producing a campaign piece asking the blogging community to post positive posting of peace and use comments to discourage hate.
We should take every opportunity to combat hate with words and expose hate wherever it is witnessed. 🙂
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I am happy to join that campaign, as long as I can still rail from time to time about Donald Trump 🙂
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Great author profile! I wish I could write something that witty! Intriguing too, made me want to check out your work.
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Thank you!
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Dearest, tell me more about you and your family.
I moved here (upstate SC) from Asheville a year ago. I live on a ‘cove’ (currently a mudflat/grassy meadow) of Lake Hartwell about 15 minutes from the center of today’s universe: Clemson University. A born and raised Clemson football fan (maternal grandfather graduated when Clemson was a military college), I am learning how to accessorize so I can wear orange…not a good color for me. My brother graduated in 1981…a very auspicious Clemson year…and has been an IPTAY member ever since.
The way I moved here was providential: I had lost my job and consequently my home. My brother said, “You know I have that empty trailer near Clemson. We’ll need to chase the snakes and spiders out, but you’re welcome to use it.” I am now happy as a clam in my snug little home with my elderly dog and cat and 17 bird feeders.
My former blog TheViewFrom5022.wordpress.com chronicles more of my last year but my views and awareness of God has morphed a bit here recently. And, as I have less to lose than I did then, I pretty much put out there what I believe at the moment. My beliefs will, hopefully, continue to shift closer to truth as my openness to truth improves.
I really like several of the quotes you have included here. I have a favorite, of George Carlin’s: “The definition of a ‘split second’…the time between when the light turns green and the ass-hole behind you lays on his horn.” Don’t ya love SC drivers?
Blessings,
Catherine Stratton
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Catherine, thank you for your comments and for reading what I have written. I am one of maybe three Socialist, Buddhist, Merlot drinking, bicycle pedaling, Democrats living in the blood red state of South Carolina. I write anonymously and keep my head down in this conservative, bible thumping community I call home. I am a son, a husband, a father and a man that believes there is a greater spirit than ourselves. Some may call it God, I believe it is too big to have name. I love the landscape and the beauty of our state, I am not a fan of some of its people, politics or ideologies. That is my cross to bear and I use this blog to share it. I write for me, it just so happens a lot of other people read and connect with what I write. Go Tigers!
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Go Tigers, indeed!
Dearest, try being the only ‘blue blood’ (liberal) in the family. (“Why can’t you be like the rest of us?”) What’s worse is I subsist (sort of) on Social Security Disability…1st cousin to welfare. Half of our family has (the same) mental illness; the other half doesn’t believe in such things. Mental illness, to them, is just an excuse for being lazy and a mooch.
Family…you gotta love them. Shirley MacLain once said she had life all figured out…her life and everyone else’s, too. Then she went home for Thanksgiving…
Speaking of the landscape of upstate SC…one of God’s best kept secrets. See my post “Road Trip”
Speaking of belief in a greater spirit, “some may call it God,” I am learning that I have been on what some call the Wisdom path all of my life…only I did not know there was such a thing. The Wisdom traditions include/cross-connect with Buddhism, Sufiism, ancient Hebrew mysticism, etc. I’m fascinated and ‘see’ more evidence of it the more I look back on my life.
If you are interested, Cynthia Bourgeault wrote a piece after the election that puts some of the Wisdom-type perspective of current goings on in an interesting light. See http://www.contemplative.org/deep-3/
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There is much to learn from all the world’s faiths and wisdoms. You need to have a little open space between your ears and your heart to discover the lessons and hear the message. Sadly, it has been my experience that “Christians” just don’t have any space left. They think they got it right and wonder why the rest of us don’t.
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Those are “those Christians.” I still claim to be ‘Christian,’ because it was through Jesus that I got where I am.
By the way, Jesus spoke to the people like a Wisdom way follower would. In fact, there were Wisdom schools in Babylon and likely long before.
Having been a spiritual Nomad, myself, (and a resident of Asheville) I am comfortable holding on to the parts of belief systems that continue to ring true for me. Having been a trained and practicing scientist and data analysis programmer (climate science, 22 years), I much prefer thinking in terms of ‘theories,’ rather than religions.
Like I said earlier, my ‘truth’ is my ‘truth’ today and will keep or alter it as experience, awareness, and obtained knowledge warrant.
I’m enjoying this. I do hope you will take a gander at Bourgeault’s essay; it helped me think on things Trump without nausea and cold sweats.
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I tell people that if their faith makes them a kinder, more compassionate and loving person to anything and everyone in creation then go in peace. But if their religion makes them a judgemental piece of shit, if they are only willing to help those that believe what they believe, and think as they think then good luck. They will find out if they got it right after they take their last breath because today they may think they are right, they can yell and scream that they are right but in reality they have no clue, none. “People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.” -Dalai Lama XIV
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thanks for visiting my blog – especially as its led me to your lovely one 🙂
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Thank you!
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Thank you so much for liking my blog post! 🙂 Your blog is amazing ! love it!!
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Thank you
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I once was a Christian, but never a Buddhist.
I have become what you might call a truth-ist.
But I’ve found seeking nothing but the truth is a frustrating task.
All I’ve learned in the end: finding said truth is too much to ask.
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