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Eloquent Conversationalist
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 Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2018 12:53 am
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Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2018 7:07 pm
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2018 10:33 am
*passes through looking around*
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 9:21 am
Happy Easter! I know you're not traditionally religious, but doing anything fun/different today?
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 4:38 pm
Religion is a sore spot for me. Mostly because what I know in my heart to be true is vilified by most Society. People like yourself are quite accepting, and that gives me some reprieve. Nevertheless, I don't feel like I can express my beliefs without being ostracized. Therefore, I don't do much in the name of my religion. I keep it close to the vest. As for what I'm doing for the actual day, I went ahead and went over to the In-laws for a meal. My daughter's got a basket full of treats each. That is the mass majority of it. We had a nice big meal last night as a family, something that does not happen often enough. So, in essence, I had two Easter suppers and that is something that I can be happy about. Other than that, I'm just using restraint while on Facebook. I have friends who are religious enough to celebrate the Day in their way, and I don't see a need to tear them down because I have different beliefs.
And you? How did you enjoy your day?
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 8:10 pm
Good that you got to enjoy some nice meals.
I can definitely understand the aspect of cultural isolation since I live in a very non-religious area.
Had a good enough day with my in-state family.
My current client has Good Friday off, so I had a more relaxing Friday than usual.
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2018 4:34 pm
Whereas I seem to live in an area dominated by churches and Amish communities. Smack-dab in the middle of a Christian colony from the days of yore. I try not to be a jerk about it. Still, if I so much as show off a penta or say something to the wrong person it feels like a significant danger of being treated like an outcast instead of simply a stranger.
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2018 5:11 pm
The degree is misinformation (and legitimate misapplication/appropriation by some occult movements) about the pentagram symbol is big. Christianity is often too quick to jump on inverted crosses (cross of Peter in Catholicism) as well. Of course the satanic & baphomet imagery it brings to mind is cause for concern. It's a mess of Christianity & satanism (even leveyan for mostly dodging the questions). of course your adherence is not to satanism; satanism just co-opted historical images (crowley and his ilk).
I very much enjoy japanese culture's, and thus anime's, relative indifference with regard to geometric symbols and their association.
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 8:39 am
Therein lies part of the issue. It is not a pentagram I use- it is the pentacle. By and large, the single point up is the symbol of my faith. Just like the cross, inverting a symbol inverts the meaning of it. Holy becomes unholy, balance and good becomes chaos and darkness. The single point up is actually used quite often even within Christianity. The twin points up representing demonic energies (or so I understand). I am told that some use the twin points up as a "second level" in Paganism, but I do not support or follow that ideology. Regardless of the symbol, inverting is to reverse the meaning. For images of protection and holy, that is not a good thing.
At the risk of upsetting you (something I actively avoid doing), Christianity co-opted many things in its beginnings. It was a marketing decision. Perhaps it is best you are not on my FB page. I post a lot of this kind of thing there and worry that you might lose some interest in being a companion of mine if you were subjected to it. sweatdrop
The Japanese culture seems to be heavily steeped in tolerance, respect, and not prying into other's lives. That allows a lot of freedom of expression and something I deeply love about their portion of our world.
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Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2018 7:35 am
Ah, that was my misunderstanding from just "penta", and many conflate pentagram & pentacle (some say it's not about orientation but about whether is is circumscribed).
Most of the pageantry & symbolism co-opted by Christianity lies in Catholic tradition from my understanding. Of course I know Christmas was aligned with Saturnalia to make its adoption easier for the local peoples, but missionaries have a well-documented history of adapting to local cultures as necessary while still preserving the core doctrine (British missionaries to China being the easiest example).
I have a lot of respect for Taoism, the other Eastern traditions not so much (nothing against them, I just mean nothing beyond what I hold for any other religion in general). Given my love for anime and certain positive points in Japanese culture I also love, I have to keep my admiration for Japan in check internally to avoid idolizing them (weeaboo tendency); apart from their deadly work culture (both literally, from overwork, and socioculturally, via the falling birth rate) & too-strong emphasis on conformity, I would seriously consider living there in the future given my problems with the West nowadays.
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 12:33 pm
I was not clear enough, so I can understand the confusion. As an eclectic Wiccan, a lot of my faith is piecemeal. I am drawn to aspects of faith, and like legos assemble what makes sense to my soul. The bad news means that I don't subscribe to anything totally. The good news is that in most religions the differences are essentially minutiae. What not to eat on specific days or the proper name of the prophets in question. Each religion holds their methods as gospel and alternatives as heathen. Some are far more tolerant than others.
The religious and cultural appropriation done in the infancy of Christianity was a marketing decision. "Come join us, we do that stuff too." Then a while later, claiming that it is their tradition from the beginning and segues into the aforementioned aspect of tolerance. My issue is that because I have to be quiet about my faith, I tend to be quite jaded about the more popular faiths anymore. The ones that claim oppression while those of mine or a variant thereof were literally stoned, ostracized, and burned alive. It was centuries ago, but claiming oppression now is getting a splinter in a finger, and claiming to be impaled.
As for Japan, I was talking with the woman about that sort of overwork culture anymore. When a people actually make a word specifically to describe "working yourself to death," you know you have problems. I won't say that I idolize them, but I do greatly respect them. If nothing else, it is a society that is a duality. On one hand, you have intense tolerance for others. a willingness to accept the moment at least enough to walk away. On the same street at the same time, you have a woman in a traditional Kimono walking in wooden shoes, a middle-aged man in a full 3-piece suit, and a teen in the most outlandish and ornate cosplay/expression imaginable. The other side of that coin? The overwhelming aspect of fitting in, don't rock the boat, conform as if your life depended on it. You work 10 hours a day, then spend another 4 drinking with your coworkers, and add in 2 hours of commute. No time for living a life or having any sort of personal time. Such leads to the overwhelming stress of not looking for a relationship. Dating sims give people almost the same experience but geared toward success. Men and women no longer wanting to deal with the crap of another human being. Small wonder the birth rates are plummetting.
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2018 7:17 pm
gosh, time flies...
And many can't/won't understand a religion as personal as that.
There are definitely commonalities among the world's major religions, but East/West are pretty distinct IMO.
There is still oppression of Christianity, just not so much in the West; you have to look at China or the Middle East for that. I agree that Western Christians co-opting that while not doing much of anything to support the persecuted is definitely hypocritical.
The Japanese have a whole litany of terms for various means of dying, drawn from classifying different forms of suicide originally.
The grass is always greener, but it's definitely a place I'd like to visit some time in my life.
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 5:18 pm
And perhaps that is the joke of it all . . . thousands of religions across history and the globe. Thousands of ways to revere a deity or several. All of them convinced that theirs is the only valid one, and unaccepting of another way of thinking. How convenient- of all the names of God, only the subjective one is right. for me, it is about being true to the nature of my very soul. What speaks to me, what name is on my lips when good things happen. What naturally comes to me as a guide to how I should act. From Yaweh to Vishnu to Buddha to The Goddess and The God. Perhaps who you worship doesn't matter as much as the fact you do it and try to be a good person.
As for West vs East Mythos . . . Christianity has a hideous habit that is born of one of their earliest methods of spreading the word of their brand of faith. Not only is it the primary/only way to acend into heaven, but if you don't reach out and make others turn to the faith you are doing them a disservice. A built-in tenet to convert as many as possible. That will clash with any faith that is not immediately compatible. The East has vastly different beliefs, so conflict is very much a given. That said, I do not approve of any form of suppression or oppression of faith. Even ones that are not mine own. I don't have to believe in your God in order to respect your faith in them. It's when any faith seeks to convert or oppress another that I take exception.
I often think of death. I don't actively want to die, but if I am being honest . . . I don't think I'd mind all that much. Dying will suck heartily and is something I actively avoid. However, once dead there are so many questions about myself that can be answered. Ones that cannot be actively answered with certainty as long as I am breathing.
I'd like to visit there someday, but refuse to do so until I can either have a reliable and dependable translator or speak the language. Going to a world without knowing how to at least understand the local language just seems wrong to me on so many levels.
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Posted: Tue May 01, 2018 12:58 pm
Perhaps, but that gets down to the unknowable level of "acting as if there was a supreme being dictating morality justifies itself" vs "there actually is one".
I disagree slightly, in that it matters how forcefully or overbearing one is in their witnessing (which to me is different in degree from full-on proselytizing). Context/situation is also paramount, as people who never shut up will always backfire in their everflowing attempts. On the whole, I witness more by the way I conduct myself than anything else, and if somebody wants to have a religious discussion, I'm more than happy to oblige.
Regarding death, I can't claim to be objective in the slightest, though I want to believe in the idea of rational suicide. I've been such a morose person for so long, but I can't afford to think of such things while I have familial responsibilities. After then however...
Do you mean actually fluent? I have a slight grasp of the spoken language, but the written language does not jive with my brain (I'm not dyslexic, but I feel that way when trying to distinguish katakana, let alone kanji). Though I do believe multilingualism is positive, it's hard to not take advantage of English being the worldwide language, so long as you can at least get by with the basic traveler phrases. I don't know how I feel about it, ultimately; I'd have to think more about it when such a trip was even the faintest reality.
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat May 12, 2018 7:37 pm
I have a friend, she is transgender, and she spoke to me of ending her life the other day. I told her the truth- I couldn’t stop her. However, she was important to me, and will not be forgotten. I also don’t mind the idea of suicide with dignity. It is My life. I should have the right to end it as I see fit, should that be my choice. No judgement, no fighting, no demonization. Just understand that it was my final option, and it was one I deemed acceptable. Suicide is the only crime that you can be punished for attempting, but not completing. That said . . . the same is true for you. You are one of my oldest and dearest friends. Obligations aside, you will not ever be forgotten by me, sir. I don’t want to lose you for any reason. But, if you decide you have to go- you will be sorely missed.
I just posted something about Robin Williams the other day. George Takei posted an article talking about how Robin’s mental state was deteriorating at a speed that was both dizzying and terrifying. It makes his suicide that much more understandable . . . but: Quote: It is very telling that he is been gone for so long, and yet I still cry when I hear about him. Often is referred to as my best friend that I never got to meet. The light of his life spread like wildfire. He was beyond being termed a good man. Perhaps I am romanticizing his life. Regardless, in a way I am glad he went on his own terms. The degeneration of his disease stole who he was from himself. It was unavoidable, tragic, and most of all terrifying to the person who had it. Robin deserved better. He gave light and laughter and so much more to everyone he knew. The most crippling of all is the fact that there was nothing that could be done. The disease has no treatment, there was no hope. If there is any justice left in this world, or the next, he is at peace and happy. I don't care what anyone's beliefs are. He deserves to be happy. I miss him, but after reading this I can honestly say I'm glad he's gone and not falling apart. This sickness would have destroyed him in inches as it had for a while. He went out without having to wait until every Last Vestige of him is gone. I still find it hard to say goodbye. But I am glad he did it while he could.
Fluent, yes. Thanks to tech, that is becoming closer and closer to a conversational possibility. I have no doubt that translators (while not 100% accurate) will make people who think like me far more willing to travel soon.
On a side note, we seem to be taking more and more time in responses- both of us. Please don’t think it is a lack of interest in your words, good sir.
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