It’s a Metaphor

If literary devices have been traced back to literature as ancient as the Iliad, I don’t know why people assume that the religious texts are the direct word of god unless it is labeled within the text as a parable.  Doesn’t it stand to reason that allegory and metaphor were used just as often and for the same reasons as we use them today?  The ideas of rebirth and reincarnation are nice ones, but I’m not sure we can take it literally.  Is it possible that these ideas are metaphors for the philosophical rebirth that occurs when we enter a new phase in life or learn something that completely changes the way we think about the world?  Why do we continually close our minds off to the possibilities that what we’ve always been taught may not be the only answers out there?

Fines or Fuel?

While everyone’s focusing on the current situation with the airlines, few people are asking why it’s so important for them to make the safety changes now, especially when it’s already been proved that we’ve been flying in unsafe planes for years.  Maybe it has more to do with the rising cost of fuel and the fact that airlines are breaking even or losing money on fuel every time they put a plane in the air.  Of course, no one wants to fault the oil companies for anything, and we pretend they’re above reproach, so the major airlines can’t come out and say, “We can’t afford to fly because fuel prices are so high.”  That would allow for a lot of criticism that the government can’t answer.

Without a massive protest, without airlines shutting down and giving us the real reason, without truckers staying off the road for more than a few hours, without people refusing to drive to work because they can’t afford gas, there will never be a change.  DRIVE LESS, FLY LESS, BUY LOCAL GOODS!!!

Here’s a really good reason to conserve fuel: 4,032 US Soldiers killed in Iraq; 29,676 US soldiers wounded in Iraq.

Ignoring China

Even though my blog is banned in China, I hardly ever write anything about them at all.  With the summer Olympics coming up, though, I thought I might mention it.  We will not be watching the Olympics in my house.  We like the Olympics, but I don’t feel that advertisers should be giving their money to aid in the broadcast from a country that does not allow its citizens to be free.  Besides the political turmoil in Tibet, we cannot forget the severe avalanches and mudslides that happened this winter.  How many Chinese citizens were allowed to die because the government was too proud to ask for help?  How many children starved to death because the bureaucracy of China is so inept and the technology is so backward that the roads could not be cleared to deliver food to remote villages?  The world sees of China only what China wants us to see, and as we have learned in our own country, when there is no transparency, government corruption runs rampant.  So, this summer, my family will be ignoring China, because they are not worth our attention.

Lapsed Catholics

The Pope is requesting that those of us who have walked away from the Catholic Church simply listen to him while he is in the States and take a moment to consider what he’s saying.  Now, I have to admit, I have little interest in this Pope.  Pope John Paul was so many things to so many Catholics around the world that I really wonder if it’s possible for Benedict to measure up.  Even as a lapsed Catholic myself, I just don’t see myself returning to a church that preaches hate (anti-homosexual rhetoric), sexism (not allowing women to become preists), and overpopulation and the spread of disease (not allowing the use of condomns or birth control).  The education provided at Catholic Schools is excellent, partially due to the strict nature of the religion and it’s followers, but intolerance breeds intolerance.  None of my lapsed Catholic friends see anything in this Pope that calls them to return to worship.  The world has changed.  Religion has changed.  The Catholic church has remained largely the same for quite some time.