What principles define how you live?

In a morally corrupt world, such as the one we live in today, having a set of guiding principles is an asset. Simply turn on the news for five minutes, and you’ll find a lack of principles and moral compasses that people in today’s world have. As highlighted most recently in the senselessly hateful attacks against Israel, people are capable of great evil. I would go so far as to say between the conflict in the Middle East, as well as the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine there is a deep sense of moral dysfunction. People are unique: we come from many walks of life. We are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan, and many others. Hell, some of us are even atheist. We are white, black, brown, tan, and red. We are straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, a sexual and pansexual. We are male, female, non-binary, and some of us even prefer not to say. These are all small things that make up who we are, they’re drops in the ocean compared to the love we are all capable of in our hearts. They are “small potatoes”, compared to what we are all united in and that’s our human experience.

I’d say the biggest principles of what I follow in my life is acceptance of people for who they are. I may not be friends with people whose lifestyles are not similar to mine, and more often than not whether consciously or unconsciously I chose to surround myself with likeminded folks I can relate to. That being said, I have a guiding principle to be respectful and kind. I may struggle to relate or understand (in my own humanity) those different from myself but I believe everyone on this earth has a role to fulfill a higher purpose from the Source (God, as he’s called in my faith). As such, we are all siblings, who come from “The Source” and everyone has the right to be accepted, respected, and treated kindly. As with all families, there are some family members we naturally gravitate to because we feel closer to them, and there are others we keep more of a distance with and talk to every now and then. We still love them though because they are (at the end of the day in lieu of our differences) our family.

There is this idea that as Christians when Jesus calls us to “love one another as I have loved you” that we have to just be around people we inherently don’t like or don’t value what we value. I doubt he would expect staunch liberals and ridiculously uptight conservatives to sit down and become best friends over dinner together but he would call them to be kind and respectful of those differences. When Jesus says “love one another” he doesn’t mean stay around people who made you uncomfortable or upset, but he does ask that we would pray for them, be kind regardless, and move forward respecting their life choices regardless of how different from ours they are. Because when we respect others, we are showing love to one other.

As a Christian sometimes in society there’s this warped idea that Jesus is this vengeful person, and if we don’t suck everybody’s ass, we’re going to go to hell, and I don’t believe that. Jesus knew when he died on the cross for all of us that we would struggle with our humanity. It is written so many times and in so many places “the spirit is strong, but the flesh is weak”. We as humans are constantly in battle internally, our spirit versus our flesh and unfortunately, a lot of the time we succumb to the needs of the flesh. The needs of the flesh offer, fleeting satisfaction, however, we are not nourishing our souls, and therefore we have a malnourished spirit. This allows a lot of people to feel empty and filled with indignation, hate, and greed. I’ve read in several places there are two wolves inside of us, and the one we feed the one we become.

Truthfully, our human hearts and minds cannot accurately judge someone the way our Source can. Most of us, live our lives like new drivers on the road. When I first got my license, everything took me off guard and I was constantly over diligent about what the other person next to me was doing. ‘Would they cut me off? Would they hit me?’ When we focus on how things effect ourselves and our personal preferences, we’re not seeing the whole picture. We are not seeing how our words and actions might make someone else feel. We are seeing a sample snapshot- not the full picture. That’s not to say that our experiences and our feelings aren’t valid, (they are!) but when we focus solely on ourselves, and not how our actions may be perceived by others, we’re acting of the flesh. When we try to understand what experiences shaped that person to who they are, we are able to respect them and love them the way that we are intended to.

I am not the Dalai Lama. I am not Jesus Christ. I am not Abraham. I am not Muhammed . As a disclaimer, my spirit and my flesh are at war daily. Some days, I am philosophical and full of love, understanding, and patience. Some days if someone cuts me off in the parking lot, I just simply say “God love you” and pray for them. Other days, my flesh wins and I, like Batman, am vengeance. Some days, I am so tunnel visioned on myself and impatient that the “jerk wad” in the parking lot I mentioned earlier gets the horn (loudly) and the finger (proudly). I think so many of us are so caught up in the idea of being perfect that we lose sight of the fact we were never designed to be perfect. The source knew when they created us that we would be imperfect. Although I am imperfect, I do my best to live by the principles of everyone deserving acceptance-even on days I’m flipping off the parking lot offender.

When we accept others, we also accept ourselves. When we accept others, we also nurture our souls with a different perspective that may be different from our own. I think the misconception that we need to be “best friends“ with people who think differently than we do, hang out with them, know their mother’s first names is what is hurting humanity today. We can love and respect somebody without offering them a seat at our table. All our Source asks for is that we coexist and “don’t be an asshole”.

As a result of malnourished spirits, some people have extremist ideas that these people who are different from them need to be eliminated. This is a dangerous way of thinking. As I mentioned before, my guiding principles in my life is the belief that the Source created everyone exactly the way they were intended to be for a greater role and purpose therefore our acceptance is mandatory. The idea of forcing someone to conform to someone else’s beliefs and ideals, in order to create a sense of peace is the exact opposite of what the Source intended.

The principle of acceptance extends beyond ourselves. We have the right to be accepted for exactly who we are, and others have the right to be accepted for exactly how they are. We simply need to coexist with others. We don’t need to have them over for game night, share a meal with them, we do not need to socialize with them at all if we choose not to but we do have to accept them, and when we encounter them “in the wild” (aka the outside world) just be kind. When we coexist and accept others, for who they are, we are loving them as we love ourselves, and we are valuing them as we value ourselves. This is a principle I stand by no matter what kind of day I’m having. Everyone has the right to be here. Everyone has a purpose in this world. Everyone (regardless of their religion, race, creed, identity, both sexual and gender related) has the right to feel safe in their neighborhoods and communities at large. Nobody has a right to take another’s peace and right to live in peace from them. Nobody has the right to change someone’s sense of who they are.

The idea of there being one uniform way of thinking in order to bring about peace is asinine. Fighting wars and attacking people who believe differently than them to bring about said peace is like “fucking for virginity”. We can’t breed a world of love and acceptance when we seek to attack anyone different than we are in order to bring about that love and acceptance. Love and acceptance comes from giving people their space and dignity to live their lives the way they choose to. They love and accept you in return when they give you the space and dignity to live your life the way you choose to.

The principles I hold dear are principles that many in the world today struggle with. On my good days, I often pray that those who struggle find their way back to the Source and therefore find their way back to love and acceptance. On other days I can only put into practice what I preach.

Consider Purchasing One of My Artworks