Religion in the name of Religion?

This is going to be a hard one to both write, and read if you are one of my followers.
I watched 60 minutes last night and learned about the Yezidis in northern Irac who fled to the mountains and had one of their ancient cities destroyed by Isis.  I had understood them to be Kurdish people but now realize they are a separate religious group within the Kurdish people.They were assisted by other Kurds and allied fighting forces against Isis.  I was shocked and angered by the genocide being perpetuated against this group whom the terrorists have labeled devil worshipers.  After watching this program I was sick with anger and did some research on the beliefs of this ancient religion being persecuted.
I am not going into details; you can look them up yourself, but unfortunately was surprised to learn they are a closed religion who are monotheistic and practice endogamy.  Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific ethnic group, class, or social group, rejecting others on such a basis as being unsuitable for marriage or for other close personal relationships.

Endogamy can serve as a form of self-segregation; it helps a community Population genetics and inbreeding to resist integrating and completely merging with surrounding populations. It helps minorities to survive over a long time as distinct communities within societies with other practices and beliefs.

 the Yazidi are a Kurdish-speaking ethnoreligious group, which makes it complicated for scholars and historians to pin down the nuances of their religion.  They share a belief in Adam as the first man with Christians, Jews and Muslims but other beliefs seem to go back to the pagan era.

l also learned in my reading that some families within the Yazidi religion have participated in honor killings when their unmarried you have tried to run away and marry outsiders.

All of this leads me to my rant today. I really do hate religion and seriously believe, at times, that all religions should be destroyed.  I am a practicing United Methodist who attends Church most weeks and who participates in Communion and prayer for others; I love the old hymns of the church.  I attend Church because of the love and care and fellowship of the other participants. This  is what keeps me returning week after week.  I do not agree with the social position that Ministers of our religion cannot be practicing members of the LGBT community, not can they marry persons of the same birth sex.
What I cannot stand in any religion is what I feel is the hypocrisy in their professed beliefs and their treatment of their fellow man.  Particularly in my own Christian religion.  I do not like to even call myself a Christian anymore, but rather a follower of Jesus.  I have read the old and new testaments through and through several times.  I have attended college courses on religion and have participated in many Bible study groups as well as internal church courses.  I am a local lay leader and hold a weekly Bible study group in my home.
I believe What Jesus called the two most important commandments. I paraphrase:

1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ... ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. ...
2. These two commandments constitute my faith and beliefs.  Everything else is up for question in my mind.
3. I believe all of the great religions have these two core beliefs somewhere in their theology and if they do not they should.  
4. I love God, Creation, and all of the the fellow beings in the Universe.  I believe God or Being created everything. There is no beginning and no end.  There is eternal life and truth.  Being dwells within every thing and every creature or piece of vegetation.  I believe our task is to pass as gently as possible through our finite existence and to honor the being present within others.  We are to grow and learn and ultimately pass to whatever is beyond our own finite existence.  
5. People and religions who feel it is their right and duty to impose their belief systems on others and who interfere with another's right to an existence filled with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness .I consider people like this are just plain wrong and their arguments upset me.
6. Poobah has spoken again, alienating both friend and foe.  Woe is me.

PS Since this is a blog and not a formal piece I have not noted my sources.  I have plagiarized.  So sue me!

The week in highlights

This has been an interesting week for me.  I have found many new and unexpected thoughts have been crowding into my mind.
On Monday I started to write about my view of the current Primary season candidates but something told me to hold off.  Tuesday came and went and then Zodiac killer dropped out of the race with a final punch and elbow to wife's face and I felt nothing I could have written could top that.  Even my sense of humor could not have anticipated a punchline to beat that.
Moving along.  On Wednesday I planned on meeting a friend at the supermarket Starbucks and then doing my monthly Senior day 10% off shopping at the same supermarket.  The best laid plans........it turned out another friend needed transportation to and from a Dr's off ice to have a skin cancer removed from the rear of her driving foot knee.  I changed plans and found myself off to Youngtown to pickup my friend.  " Youngtown is the oldest retirement community in the US. In 1954, two developers bought 320 acres (1.3 km²) of farmland & built is notable as the first master-planned, adult community in the United States, dedicated exclusively to retirees, designed by Ben Schleifer.^[5] However, in 1996, the town denied extending the stay of a 16-year-old child to live in the community. In response, the Arizona Attorney General investigated and determined it was unenforceable. In response Youngtown repealed the age restrictions in 1999.^[6]"
Later Sun City was built and overshadowed the original retirement village.
" Sun City was opened January 1, 1960, with five home models, a shopping center, a recreation center, and a golf course. The opening weekend drew 100,000 people, ten times more than expected, and resulted in aTime magazine cover story.^[2] The future retirement community was built on the site of the former ghost town of Marinette.^[3] Developer Del E. Webb expanded Sun City over the years, and his company went on to build other retirement communities in the Sun Belt. Sun City West was built in the late 1970s, Sun City Grand in the late 1990s, Sun City Anthem in 1999, and Sun City Festival in July 2006.^[4] "
All of these retirement areas are affordable and welcomed by both older citizens and snowbirds.  The main dangers of living in these areas are being run over by an octogenarian in a golf cart, or dying of boredom or sunstroke.
I thoroughly enjoyed taking my friend to the medical center and returning her home little the worse for wear but very tired and feeling no pain,YET).

I then went for my senior day supermarket run and emerged two hours later with aching legs and hot(it almost reached 98' by the time I was putting $176.00 worth of groceries in the car)  I had saved almost $70.00 between sales, 10% off and my coupons.  Not a bad investment in my time.  I got home unpacked groceries and collapsed for the remainder of the day.
Thursday brought me to my Martha's Circle group, where we cut up, donated and canceled, postage stamps to borders of 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch on all four sides of each stamp.  These stamps are then further sorted by type and sent to a Christian organization in Florida which in turn sells them and uses the funds for education programs in Latin America.
Folks, this is the kind of tedious mission work little old ladies love to do.  So cut your envelopes completely in half and send the stamped end to me to continue this valuable program. If you do choose to participate please send the whole half envelope including the back.  Some put their stamp right at the top and side of the envelope not leaving any border.  So we use the back and side to cut the border.  I bet you never knew collecting stamps for charity is such an exacting science.
Later we watched a DVD from "Women of Faith" and listened to Lora Schwlinder speak. This lady is in her 70's and full of pep and vigor and has a lovely singing voice.  She spoke of inviting  God to accompany you throughout the day in all the Little Things.She said most of us are savie  or desperate enough to call on God in prayer for the large events in life like illness, sorrow, death, fires, disasters  and one could go on and on. Few of us keep in touch with or pray to God in all the little things which make up all of our lives.  She says she wakes up and gives thanks for all her blessings and then asks the Lord to be with her in all the little things she encounters each and every day which we seldom give over to him.  We think we should be able to direct and order our own lives.
I must say we ladies had a good discussion about this talk, but It has been on my mind ever since. For years I have tried to pray continuously and to ask the Lord to be beside me throughout my day, But I do too often get distracted and find myself seldom thinking of the Lord or Spirit while  standing in line at the grocery store or getting the mail.   Then too, we know terrible things happen to us when we least expect it.  We blurt out mean or sarcastic things to a friend or are involved in a robbery, out of the blue.
The things we worry about most never happen but something even more devastating sits around the corner waiting for us.  Now I do not want to say I want to go around scared all the time, but rather just the opposite.  I want to proceed through all occasions with God, or Spirit, or Christ or whatever names we call the Holy Presence.  I want that Presence to accompany and share with me all the occasions or events or people I encounter.  I want my thoughts to be deeply embedded in the Holy and Sanctified so whatever life throws at me I can proceed confidently, powerfully, and with love in my heart expressed through my actions.
Pretty powerful stuff isn't it.  I guess I should listen to others speak more often.
Well these are some of the exciting adventures which have made up my week.  Let us see what life has in store for me next week.  

Do the best and leave the rest to God

This morning I have a lot on my mind but I am not sure of what to share.  I am very troubled lately. There are a number of things on my mind which occupy my dreams and keep me from sleeping well.  I know the best thing to do is to thank God for each and every worry and trouble.  When we thank God, even in misery, we are acknowledging that the solution for these problems are out of our control.  By Thanking God and letting go of any action on our part, we leave the resolution to a higher Being with much broader vision and resources to effect the problems.
I, with my finite and limited thoughts and wisdom, only guess at solutions I might like to see but cannot grasp the repercussions these actions might cause.
Let me try to give an example of what I am trying to articulate.
A neighbor is a hoarder and keeps a number of cats.  The number is currently unknown but it is most likely closer to 10 than 5.  The neighbor is ill but keeps up the exterior of her home.  She pays a gardener once a month to care for grass and flowers and she goes out every day when weather permits with her large white cat whom she calls snowball  Bent over lady and cat patrol the grounds and lady picks up twigs and leaves and plastic bags and cans thrown from the road while cat explores, sniffs the bushes and flowers and rolls in the grass.  Lady and cat have an empathy and rhythm which is a joy to behold.  Cat likes to sneak under bushes and parked cars to hide and lady chases calling until cat meanders out to wind around her legs and rub against her.  Now we know the lady has some serious health issues which need to be addressed and she does go to Dr's and takes their advice.  She is bent over and skinny with her clothes falling off her.  She mostly smells but does get cleaned up to go to Church every week and to her Dr visits.   She eats poorly, mostly frozen food from the Schwaan man that she nukes. She keeps in touch by phone with her brother back East and her niece and nephews and she worries about them constantly.  She sends money to her niece and is very generous with the Church.
All in all the lady in question lives her life close to her cats, nature and God, with a few of us neighbors, thrown in for good measure.  The problem is, and the lady recognizes it, is what to do when she can no longer care for herself.  Her main worry is her beloved cats and what will happen to them if she becomes too ill or dies.  She says she will drag herself into the driveway as she is dying and if we see her there: please go and take care of the cats.  She would surrender them to a no kill shelter but doesn't know of one which would take the cats.  Most of them came as kittens and only know the inside of the house.
So here is the quandary.  What to do?   Should I call the city health services to help the lady and damn her wishes and her kitties? Should I try to locate a no kill shelter to take the cats?  (at the last minute she might not give them up anyway),
A friend goes to her Church with her on occasion.  Should the friend talk privately with the minister to see if he wants to get involved?  Should we try to get her cell phone and call her brother, and try to get him involved?
So at this point I do nothing.  I thank God for letting me see the problem and tell him I will spring into action if he shows me the way, but I mind my own business.  I am happy that I can love and care enough to want to get involved, but really fear that the consequences of any action I would take without God's direction, and the lady's permission could be a disaster.
The lady could be put in a home with her money and independence taken away from her, the cats could be rounded up and put to sleep, and poor snowball (the alpha kitty) would be devastated without his friend.  The brother could come and take over and not listen to her wishes and she could die any way with grief and humiliation(they were estranged for 19 years after her parents died, over property and money)  It is only the past few years they have been in touch.
God's vision is so much better than mine that I must leave the action to him and accept the result.  It is not in my authority to intervene unasked in another independent person's life.  But it is so hard to surrender my actions

As promised.....

Just siting waiting for my muse..... it does occur to me that while I am most happy when writing it does take a lot of concentrated effort when so many things call for my attention.  Like making out my grocery list, preparing my oatmeal and almond milk for my evening meal of grule, petting the dog, going to the loo, getting more coffee, etc.  Anything to put off putting thoughts and words to digital format.
I lose a lot of time to FB as well as reading the newspaper, and watching the news at noon and 7:00.  I like Brooke Baldwin for lunch and Rachel Maddow for dinner.  For those who watch Fox only these gals are on CNN and MSNBC respectively.  I enjoy these women because they are compassionate, love music, have great insight and an amusing persona. With Rachael I also get historical background which helps me put things in context.
I know we are all supposed to get the same 24 hours every day, but for me they are not enough.   I must have an afternoon nap and I try to get 7-8 hours of sleep each night as they say it is healthier .  I am doing my best to stay as healthy as I can because I do not want the world to lose me too soon. If you have not noticed my style is tongue in cheek you have not checked me out in a photo lately.  That cheek extends out quite a bit most times.
Anyway, back to my time wasters.  I consider making lunch( our main meal of the day), a real pain.  I am sure if it were not for Srini I would exist on various breads and coffee.  I love french baguettes, croissants, bran muffins, you name it....if it is real bread I like to eat it.  On the other hand I eat mainly whole wheat bread because it is healthier and not as addicting.  I do buy good healthy bread though. I would rather skip eating rather than eating something I do not really love.  I have learned to drink my coffee black again and this makes me feel very virtuous.
So lunch is a definite time waster as are my hobbies like shopping for stuff I do not need and watching QVC and HSN.  These mostly to get me to sleep by turning my mind off.  I have other hobbies like reading 10-15 magazines a month, books, and of course my daily devotions.  I like to think I do prayer beads, scrap-booking, and photo organizing but these worthy tasks are mostly on the back burner 'cause I get too caught up with trivia.
An eclectic mind is a terrible thing to waste but waste it I do.. Oh and I also attempt to pray continuously but You can guess how successful that is.tr
If I am not going to waste any more of my day on these trivial thoughts I had better get busy.  I thought It might be nice for you to get to know me a bit before I put more of myself out there for the world to see.

I am starting again......

I have decided there is no cure for it.  I have to keep writing.  I have to figure out how to get everything I have written on paper into my blog, and keep it for perpetuity.  Why?  Because the Lord must have given me this desire for some reason and I have been avoiding the reality of it for too long. I have always played around with the "gift" but never dared to take it seriously.  Now I don't have a heck of a lot of time left but I must do what I can.
I always thought writing for me would be the GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL, or a biography but I realize it just ain't going to happen that way.  I write in spurts and in short papers on any variety of topics. I guess this is the way it is supposed to be 'cause this is what I do, and enjoy doing.  I am too damned prolific on Facebook, where nobody really cares and I waste my time iso doing something useful with my thoughts.  I am neither original or profound in my thoughts or my writings. This is why I have always been afraid of putting my thoughts down.  All the greats have done it all before me and the crumbs I leave at the table after digesting their wonderful works leave me ashamed .  So be it. I am what I am and 72 years ain't agonna change it.  I deliberately use eclectic grammar and word usage so do not try to correct me.  No red ink, please.
I will try to always tell the truth about what I am feeling or thinking, but I will also try to be kind. Just do not get me angry.  It upsets my little dog and interrupts my thought train
The things I care about most are in random order after:

God
Srini

I care about family and other people,Truth, Justice and the American way, All living creatures, our beautiful little blue planet, friends near and far(both silver and gold), animals I have loved personally and whom I like to believe are waiting for me at the Rainbow Bridge.  I have no prejudice against any group of people or nationality, religion, color, sexual orientation, political party,etc. as long as they too accept others just as they are with no assumptions.  If, however, one rants and hates against others, guess what????I cannot help ranting and hating against them.
I try to tamp myself down and even ignore those whom I feel express hatred or disrespect but it is really one of my worst challenges. I am working on it because judge not lest you be judged, but of all things this is most likely the challenge I will carry to my death.
I am interested in physics and metaphysics, philosophy, science, fiction, mystery novels, coloring, beading, religions.  I am a bit of a political wonk and cannot tear myself away from current events. This is why I never turn on the TV before noon.  I rest after lunch so can waste the time then.
This is just about enough for now.
I will try to blog at least 2-3 times a week.  If you enjoy reading my blog please let me know through FB, an Email, or comment on Blogger.  I believe you have to have a G+ account to do this.

OOPs, I did it again.

O.K. I have to get this off my chest.  I have done it again.  Hurt someone who is vulnerable and never deserves to be hurt.  Especially by a opinionated, acid tongued, gadfly like me.
Not only did I hurt this person but she pointed out , quite pointedly, several others I have hurt recently with my humorous ( I think I am so damn funny), sarcastic, criticism.  I have always known I used humor to supposedly soften the blow of criticism. It has recently come home to me in a very powerful way, that I use this trick to say anything I want to criticize and blame others.  I can then say "don't take me seriously, no one else does). This way I can get out of being called out for my nasty remarks and if someone does remark I can say " They have no sense of humor".
Oh, my Lord, I just feel so bad inside.  I love to say how I follow Christ but there is nothing Christlike in what is my most common method of dealing with behavior I am angry or hurt  or upset about.  I hide my disappointment, rejection, criticism, and other less than honorable feelings, behind what I call humor.  I talk freely about being the big mouth in the group who will say anything to get a point across and try always to tell it like it is.  Unfortunately,it isn't, like it is.  It is only my observation or perception of how it is.
I am always so confident that the way I see it is the right way, that I will self-justify almost anything to get my point of view out there.  I cannot just quietly disagree or hide my displeasure about something or someone.  In the interest of Truth I have to let it all out there. I am very judgmental but I constantly try to hide it. Even if I, rarely, should not say anything, my facial expressions give me away all the time.  The longest running argument I have with my (long suffering) husband, is about my face. Of course I never can see myself when I put on the expression but an old colleague used to say he would hate to see my eyes above dueling pistols, and my niece used to say " Stop sucking your teeth and glaring at me ".  My husband calls it " the look" I always plead I am not thinking anything bad and it is only their perception, but of course it is my look.
I really do not even know how to change.  Recognizing the problem is only 20% of the battle. Incorporating real change in behavior is the other 80 %.  I know what I am discussing here is no secret to any of you, my friends, colleagues and family.  I am not looking for your acceptance or generosity in any comments you might want to make.
My purpose here is mainly to say that if I have done this ( and I know I have ) to any one of you, I am genuinely sorry.  I will try to be more mindful in the future.  If I say something out of line, please call me on it.
  I am unable to change or rectify the past and all I can really do is try to recognize and change my behavior, and the internal mechanisms and insecurities which generate my behavior.  I do not know how successful I will be as I am 71 years old and this has been with me since my childhood.I do not have a lot of time left, Hope, however, does spring eternal and Easter is a time for forgiveness and new beginnings. The first step will be if I can ever forgive myself for hurting gentle creatures who seldom hurt others.