Day 14294

Psst! Guess what?
.........
Give up? I used to teach Sunday School to 2nd graders when I was in High School! Those of you who know me, must be scratching your heads. I am openly a non-Christian and have stated so more times than I'm sure my mother would ever want to know about. Anyway, I wish I could say that I whole-heartedly was a believer back in the day, but that would be a lie. I had learned which phrases seemed to please my parents and others at an early age and simply kept spewing out what I thought they wanted to hear. It certainly didn't hurt that I had learned them to admittedly lame melodies or rhymes. Still, it kept the memory sharp as I was saying things I wasn't sure I believed.

Over the next 10 years I was fortunate to do quite a bit of travelling. It brought me into contact with many different cultures, beliefs and customs. Here's what I learned, at least about religion...

Religion is useful for keeping mankind relatively well-behaved towards his or her neighbor. Also, religion seems to lessen some of the fear of dieing. All beliefs I came into contact with have those 2 things in common. After that, anything goes.

Now, I certainly don't want to sway anyone one way or the other, after all, religion is a personal spiritual matter. Therefore, it is none of my business what you believe or don't believe. In addition, your beliefs can't really have any effect on me (and vice-versa) either. I just want you to gain the benefit of meeting new people. (Ahh, anyone see the tie-in from yesterday's post?) Further, I don't wish that you meet others, especially of a different culture, so that they would change (or not) your religous views. I'm hoping you'll find value in the understanding of another's thoughts so as to gain a glimpse of their viewpoint on a multitude of subjects.

Unfortunately, sometimes one just can't travel for one reason or another. That's when it becomes really valuable to have access to someone who can convey information about those travels. Here is a source. The young man went backpacking through Europe after 9-11. He's also quite a interesting writer. On the left you will see links to other stories from the road by others. All interesting stuff. I hope you enjoy.

Good night.