I have always known that Religion is a touchy subject, and that many people can get really worked up about it. After all more Blood has been spilled in the name of Religion then for any other cause. No w outside of the complete and silly irony of this, I have always found the idea of killing someone because of their Religious beliefs to be quite laughable!
Most religions have the a basic precepts, ie..Do not Kill, Treat your neighbor as you would yourself, Don’t Steal, take care of those who cannot take care of themselves, and so on and so on. But one of the many kickers for me is that people continue to fight and kill in the name of religion, yet they still claim to be pious. And ironically even the word pious has a few different definitions, so maybe I should say that they still claim to be devout to their chosen Religion.
What brings this up today you ask? Well, I have always been somewhat of a “searcher” or someone who is open to learning various religions and religious views, often with the hope of maybe finding something that I could find elements that I felt were worth adhering to? Well, I am currently reading one of many books I own on the subject of Kabbalah. I say many because I have the tendency to dive into a subject and buy what ever looks as if it may possess information on the subject. So I usually end up buying a number of books and hope that a few of them will offer counter view points as this helps me in a number of ways, some of them being it allows me to see some of the ideology brought about in some different viewpoints, but it also reminds me that just because one person view it as the all and everything, others may look at it as “guidelines & ideas” rather then Dogmatic structure.
So I am at my parents house and I have one of the books with me and I am about to take off for the afternoon, but I know I will be back in a little while. So I ask if I can just leave that book on the breakfast table and grab it when I get back? My Mother without knowing what the book is, says yes and that is the end of that. Or so one would suspect?
About two – three hours later, my Father comes to the room I am and I am replying to e-mails and the such and he says “Is this your book?” and I say “yes, I must have forgotten it upstairs, thanks.” He looks ta the cover and says that he “never wants to see these kind of books left upstairs again” as this one was sitting in front of my mother. (I have no idea what this meant, but chose to leave it at that!). So I say ok, no worries and he hands me the book. He then says, “I know you’re searching, but I don’t want stuff like that upstairs.” Once again I say “ok, no problem”. But he has this look in his eye that he wants to say something else? He says, “look it is just that I don’t like these kind of books upstairs where anyone can see them and that you, (Meaning me), should keep them downstairs, because “he knows I am searching and that it should just stay with me.”
Now, he is my thoughts? I have never said anything to anyone in my family about these books or the subject of Kabbalah, nor have I ever left one of these books upstairs before? But, what is it that could have made him feel so strong about this subject? Let me state this hear and now, My Family is by no means a Religious Family, I honestly cannot remember the last time any of them have ever stepped into a Church of any kind? I do know that my Father or Step Father as the case may be was raised Catholic, but I have never heard him even mention anything about God, or Jesus or going to search, or even really celebrating Christmas for any other reason then the “Gift Giving”
So why the concern, why the slim element of fear just from the books title? I have mentioned to others in my family, now that I think about it, that I have studied Kabbalah, but I would say that I have tried to make anyone else read it? And the part that also makes me wonder why this small element of fear brought itself to the surface is that the Title of the book is fairly innocuous. All it really says on the cover is “The way of the Kabbalist (A users guide to the technology of the Soul) By Yehuda Berg. (Maybe it was the name of the person who wrote the book? I have always kind of said in a certian way that I felt closer Judaism then any other Religion. But never to my Step Father.) Now normally I think if I saw something like that, and I had no idea what Kabbalah was I would assume that maybe it was a tech book? (As I am a bit of a tech geek.) I am not sure and I am a little confused about this sudden concern for what kind of books I can leave around the house, especially because I am the “Searcher”. I wonder if my copies of “Catcher in the Rye” will be burned as an excuse to start a BBQ? Or if there will be an intervention for me on the subject of my reading lists and my lack of attendance at the local Church? (But how will they know if they don’t go themselves?
I guess the reason I am bringing this up is that, I have never had my parents tell me that certian books could not be read in some areas of the house? I have been studying Philosophy for approx 30 years give or take. But they never had to took away any of my Nietzsche Books or hide my copies of Plato’s works or even any of the obscure and somewhat and sometimes psychopathic books that I have come across while reading various books under the guise of “searching”!
For me it is just interesting for me to see him/them get that little fear in their eyes when they learn that I am reading something that doesn’t follow the Normal idea of Religion, at least not to them….
I have always said that the people with the most to hide are the ones to yell about someone doing something wrong, maybe this is just their way of pointing at me so that they will feel better about themself and their “deeds”??
