Believe It, It's True

If any of you have been unfortunate enough to have subjected yourselves to my rumblings of the past several months, you have really read a lot of interesting (if not confusing, disturbing, offensive, illogical, etc.) posts.

What is the purpose of it? Have I proved myself right? Have I determined where I stand? Other than on the irrelevance of John McCain's skin grafts to the state of our nation, not hardly. Have I established that I am irreverent? Insane? Lacking proper brain functions? Likely.

As usual, I belabor getting to the point. I believe I have found the object of all of my ridiculous and variable political rants. I have not really come to a conclusion on many subjects, but I have come to see the wisdom and truth of the following statement: If you believe it, it's true.

All our lives, it seems, we spend time either finding out what we believe, or walking around in utter disbelief, uncertain why others tend to differ in their beliefs, when ours are so flawless. I would offer that in many, if not most cases, both sides are right.

In the world today, you can literally pick any belief you want. If you want to believe banks will all fail tomorrow, that a presidential candidate can destroy our nation single-handedly, that Christianity is evil, that God is a Spirit, that cats are better than dogs, odds are, you may be right. The fact is, you can find information to back up just about any belief you can imagine. If there is one thing I'm certain of, it is this truism.

Then begs the question: just because you believe it, and can find evidence to prove your position true, does that mean you know you are right? I'll let you think about that one yourself.

Am I good father? Yes. Am I a bad father? Indeed. But how can both of them be true at the same time? While so simple to explain, it seems to me to be a great discovery - we are what we believe. We are good. We are evil. It doesn't matter who we are. Unless you believe there are perfect humans out there, then there is no disputing this basic truism either. Are there really absolute rights and wrongs? I think there are. But sometimes it is much more complex than a simple right and wrong decision or act in life.

It really does come down to what you want to believe. And no matter what that happens to be, you will probably always find contradictions. Does that mean you are wrong? Much harder to answer, this question is.

This is what I know. I cannot explain in simple language exactly why I believe what I believe. How do I suppose I will be able to understand others' beliefs? People I do not know, people who have not experienced what I have, nor have I partaken in their experiences.

I don't expect this will change anytime soon, so it would seem the most logical course of action to accept the world for what it is: one great paradox. Once you reach this realization, you actually start to appreciate the world's beauty and diversity even more. It is wondrous. We have a soul. We have a body. We live on this incredible planet, in this great nation, and most people are good people.

And we can believe whatever we want to believe.

***As for me, it has been a great journey. Some of the things I wrote six months ago sound ludicrous to me today. And that is just fine. We are always refining our beliefs and understandings. We are right, and we are wrong simultaneously. It is magnificent, in my mind.***