Sidetracked Charley

If no one rejoices will the wildflower bloom again. In college and after, in the age of Vietnam, I had friends who were drafted. I fought against the policy of the draft. It was unequal. I fought against inequality in all its forms. One of my friends who was drafted wound up in the department which made dog tags, and he made me a set. Where religion was suppose to be he put reciprocitist. But that is not a religion, I protested in the thank you note. It should be, he wrote in return . And it is the one you are looking for. I was at that time, and perhaps still am, a student of religions. And I personally worshiped knowledge. I saw the nine floors of the university library as my church. I browsed the dictionary as a form of recreation so I looked up reciprocity. In psychology it is the theory that in social situations we pay back what we receive from others. Religions translate that as do unto others what they do unto you. New-agers say pay it forward. But a...

My mother was First Christian. Dad had been raised Catholic and then, as he would put it when the conversation came around to religion, went to war. In my formative years I went to base chapels and then turned to philosophy. I believe. I just refuse to limit that belief. In college I discovered Reciprocity as a construct of social psychology .  And if I have a belief system which guides my life that is it. That has had a major impact on my life because I fail to understand those that condemn or restrict or declare without latitude. I have continued to study the history of  religions because it is within religions you most often see a rigid condemnation of others. Religionists are your zealots, your fundamentalists,  your condemners of all who do not believe as they do. Religionists have nothing to do with faith or spirituality and often are counter to good moral practice. I find them very scary whether base of worship is Islam or Christianity. I find them scary be...