On Boundaries

Some of the posts lately have been edgy for a reason.

 

Hopefully the point has been received, acknowledged, and will be respected.  If so, that should be enough.

Tale of the Daft Oil Company

There once was a family who owned the Daft Oil Drilling Company.  They would go around, forcing people off their land using the power of the courts and eminent domain so that they could drill, baby, drill.

The youngest child of this family did not like his family nor his family's business practices.  They were wealthy but not very nice people.  They kept trying to groom him to take over the family business, but only if he ran it the way they wanted him to.  He wouldn't mind taking over the business, but only if he could do it in such a way that he didn't fuck people over like they did.

So one day the Daft Oil Drilling Company was all set to tear down his friend's house so that they could drill, baby, drill.  The child stood in the way of the bulldozers as a human shield.

"What the fuck are you doing?!  You're on the wrong side!  You're supposed to be on our side!" they exclaimed.

"Um, no.  You're assholes.  I'm on the side of my friends.  I'm on the side of the weak.  I'm on the side of the people you screw over so that you can get rich," he replied.

The end.

---

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:25-27)

Tale of the Witch Who Loved Gold

There once was a witch who loved Gold.  She loved Gold more than life itself, more than her own happiness or anyone else's.  She wasn't evil, just so obsessed with Gold that that was all she could ever think about or see.  

She loved to bathe in it.

One night in the castle tunnel she had a vision to search for Gold.  She went up into her high tower and stared through a tiny telescope all night long, searching for Gold that would glitter in the moonlight.  But because she stared so much at the shining it caused her grave eyesight damage.

Everyone across the kingdom either feared her or pitied her or both.  However, the witch was blind from staring at the glittering Gold and did not care.  She did not care that they feared or pitied her, for she loved Gold more than anything else, even her own happiness or anyone else's.

It was hard to blame the witch, for she came from a clan of witches and warlocks that were obsessed with Gold.  They would wage horrific wars on other lands.  They would rape and pillage in the name of Gold, and they would enslave innocent people and force to them destroy their own lands digging for Gold.

One day the witch desired to use a magical spell to turn an ordinary goose into one that lays Golden eggs.  She had gandered a look about such a goose in a book by Aesop, you see, and she wanted one for herself, since she was so obsessed with Gold.  I may have mentioned before that she was more obsessed with Gold than she was with her own happiness or anyone else's.

So she summoned some of the enslaved elves and gnomes and cast Mordenkainen's Faithful Watchdog on them to gather material components for all her spells.  The elves and gnomes went on a wild chase that was quite silly over many bumps.  When they returned, they had what was good for the male goose.

So the witch who was not evil, just so obsessed with Gold that she did not care about her own happiness or anyone else's, turned an ordinary goose into one that laid Golden eggs.

And the witch who was not evil was happy.

For about a minute.

You see, the goose did not lay enough eggs.  You see, the goose did not lay eggs fast enough.  They weren't large enough.  The right shape.  The right purity.  Or...

The witch who was not evil went right back to being unhappy again, as she seemed to prefer.  She was too obsessed with Gold, more than her own happiness or anyone else's.

So she had her servants lock that son-of-a-bitch goose up in a pen.  The servants yelled at it if it didn't do as she commanded.  They intimidated it constantly.  They threatened it with castration.  They literally scared the shit out of it.

The witch who was not evil was not happy about the shit.  The shit was not Gold.

So the goose stopped laying Golden eggs for the witch who was not evil.  It started laying whatever the fuck it wanted to, and started giving that away for free to all of the other farm animals held prisoner inside the barn.  That did not make the witch who was obsessed with Gold very happy, but by this time the goose really did not give a goose-flying fuck.

So the witch went down to the barn herself to raise unholy hell.  She really did not like to come down from her high tower, but by then she had ruined all her relationships so badly that no one really wanted to work for her anymore, no matter how much Gold she offered.  So she did not have much of a choice by then, if she wanted to continue the cruelty.

She kicked that son-of-a-bitch goose and told it what a lousy son-of-a-bitch goose it was for not producing exactly what the witch who was not evil wanted.  She slammed the pen door and threw hay and oats at it and went into a mad rage, which she had never, ever done before, ever.

And when she had finally finished, she realized that she had gilted the goose in Gold, and it had flown the coup, never to return.

Tom Sawyer

A modern-day warrior
Mean, mean stride
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean, mean pride

Though his mind is not for rent
Don't put him down as arrogant
His reserve, a quiet defense
Riding out the day's events
The river

What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the mist
Catch the myth
Catch the mystery
Catch the drift

The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his skies are wide
Today's Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you
And the space he invades, he gets by on you

No, his mind is not for rent
To any god or government
Always hopeful, yet discontent
He knows changes aren't permanent
But change is

And what you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the witness
Catch the wit
Catch the spirit
Catch the spit

The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his eyes are wide

Exit the warrior
Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the energy you trade
He gets right on to
The friction of the day

---

Here me out:  I think if Tom Sawyer wasn't specifically written about Christ, the boot certainly fits.

He was a modern-day warrior, who cleansed the temple (John 2:13-16, Mark 11:15-18, Mark 12:40) and challenged the religious elite at every turn even when faced with death (Matthew 5:20, 9:1-8, 9:9-13, 9:32-34, 12:1-8, 12:9-14, 12:22-24, 12:38-42, 16:1-4, 16:5-12, 19:3-9, 21:23-27, 21:33-45, 22:15-22, 22:23-33, 22:34-40, 23:1-36).  And when he was finished destroying their ideological armies, "No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions" (Matthew 22:46).  Those 18 references are from just one Gospel.  Granted, there's a lot of overlap between the four, but still... point is, I could go on.

The religious elite kept trying to trap Jesus with gotcha questions.  They wanted Jesus to fail because they didn't like his message of love and peace.  They wanted him to fail because they didn't like his rejection of strict adherence to an outdated, rigid law that only benefited intolerant hypocrites who were in control.

He was a modern day warrior with a mean, mean stride, a mean, mean pride, who defended the powerless: the prostitutes, the tax collectors (outcasts that people hated), the poor, and the sick against those power hungry snakes, those hypocrites.

His mind was not for rent.  No one could tell Jesus what to do, not the Pharisees, not even the devil (Matthew 4:1-11).

Now devil, like most spiritual things, which, yes, includes the topics in the Bible, is symbolic.  The 40 days represents both a period of testing and humility.  The wilderness represents being lost.  The devil represents spiritual beings that tempt with going off-course.

There's not much more to it than that, but people tend to read things literally.  Do we do that when we read Aesop's Fables or Shell Silverstein or other children's books?  Does that make the lessons in those stories any less valuable?

The Bible and other religious scriptures are inspired, spiritual texts.  But we need to also understand they were given to humanity during our collective childhood, and we are now in our adolescence.  Context is key to understanding.

Don't put him down as arrogant.  Even though Jesus was a fighter and bombastic and a counter-cultural rebel, if you think he was arrogant you really are going straight to hell, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.  Ok, of course you're not going to hell because it doesn't exist.  But seriously, he was not arrogant, just... sure of himself.  He had assurance from a Higher Power.

His reserve, a quiet defense
Riding out the day's events

Despite spending so much time with the peeps, I suspect Jesus was actually introverted, because he kept withdrawing to be by himself to recharge (Matthew 14:23, Mark 1:35, 6:46, Luke 5:16, 6:12, 9:18, 9:28, John 6:15).

The river

This one is deep.  Get it?  Get it?!  The river is deep?  Eh, nevermind.

But really, this concept is deep and we're gonna spend a minute on it. 

I've written about the symbolism of the sun, the sky, and the waters below in my posts on spiritual economy here and here.  But after more reflection and revelation, I can write even more about the river.

Remember that spiritual symbolisms are multi-dimensional, meaning that a symbol will have one true meaning in one context and a different true meaning in another context.  And sometimes those true meanings could appear to conflict, but in fact do not.  It takes some nuance in understanding the perspective from which you're looking at something.

So the river is a few different things depending on context and your vantage point.  The river is like living water that flows from the heart (John 7:38-39).  It's brighter than stadium lights, but easy on the eyes, and flows directly from the Sun above, which is the Source of all life, also referred to as God or the Great Spirit, or the Higher Power or any number of other terms.  Here, the light shines in all and through all, everywhere (Revelation 22:1-21). In other words, the river sustains us.

Gonna take a quick time-out here.

I do take exception to Revelation 22:14-15, which denies the tree of life to dogs, practitioners of magic, the sexually immoral, murderers, idolaters, and liars.

Revelation is much like a horoscope; you can find what you are looking for in it.  But this is not my vision of heaven.  Why?  It comes back yet again to the Law growing too large to serve the needs of the people, being written by and for the powerful, and then used as a tool to oppress the people (Black Lives Matter).  See my post On the Law.

It's like that overly strict Home Owners Association that complains when you repaint your house the wrong shade of egg shell white, and, even though you have the design board approval letter, they threaten to sue you if you don't pony up and repaint.  They send letter after letter and you're just like:  move already.  Who would want to live next to someone like that?  I'll tell you who:  the religious fundamentalists Pharisees.

Now, I'm not saying create a Wild Wild West of anarchy, either.  But there's gotta be a healthy, happy middle ground where dogs and cats can, at worst, tolerate each other, and those who can't go live with someone else.  Where the most disobedient and the most intolerant can both find another home, leaving everyone else in the middle to live in peace. The graph below visualizes a scale of most disobedient on the left to most intolerant on the right, and the y-axis represents "goodness" or "common sense" or something along those lines.

Unfortunately, the intolerant on the far right (not necessarily politically, just for this graph) are able to grow more powerful and seize control.  This is the conundrum for Zion in the middle.

Back to Revelation 22:14-15.  I imagine a heaven where the "sexually immoral" (says who?) can be intimate however they choose behind closed doors.  Who decided which love and pleasure is allowed anyway?  I get that too much pleasure can become an addictive amber pit, a black hole from which you could, but choose not to escape.  But denial of pleasure is equally unhealthy.  There is a healthy, happy medium.  This is the concept of the Buddhist Middle Way. And for anyone freaking out that I brought up Buddhism, Christ is only the keystone of the holistic spiritual picture (1 Peter 2:6), the last piece of the puzzle.

So I also imagine a heaven where people can worship (or not) as they please.

Now, murder and lying kind of sucks.  But zero tolerance?  That doesn't sound very Christ-like to me.  I dunno who wrote Revelation down or translated it, but that does not sound much like the Great Commandment of "love God and love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 12:35-40).  Plus, for murder, you can always re-spawn, so...

We're all at a certain place in spiritual life and on a personal path and speed that works for us individually.  None of us are perfect, we all make mistakes, and some of those mistakes are pretty damn awful.  But we are also, to some degree, products of our environment.  So to deny someone eternal life for being... a human being... this was one of the things that turned me away from religion many years ago, and why it took me so long to find my spiritual path again.

Ok, back to the river again.

Imagine a complete desert with no life whatsoever.  Now imagine a single river flowing in that desert.  What do you picture?  A refuge, a sanctuary, for all the living creatures to swarm and live (Ezekiel 47:1-12, Psalm 46:4, John 4:13-14, Revelation 7:17).  The spiritual cosmos is dark and cold and empty, but the Sun provides life sustaining warmth.

They didn't know what electricity was back then, but that's sort of what the river of life is like.  A river of pure, raw, holy energy.

We need this river, to bathe and swim within its holy waters, because we are spiritual beings made of it!

It is a return home.  Imagine a being made entirely of electricity.

Now imagine that being made entirely of electricity being cloaked with a simulated body in a simulated world so that it could go to school and learn.

Most of us are asleep to the true spiritual reality beneath the surface.  Our religions have only scratched the surface, merely pointed in the general direction.  There is so much more, but most people, being insecure and wanting final answers to life, cling to the teachings they are fed and are satisfied with those.  I'm not criticizing that, but pointing out that it holds one back.  It's like taking the blue pill.

So you're this being made of pure, raw, spiritual energy, and you're living in this simulated reality to learn and grow.  When you return home, to heaven, you return to the river of life, which is the flowing river of pure, raw, spiritual energy.  You're swimming in the stuff you're made of.  You're communing with God, if you will.  Words can't describe it, they're so limiting and clunky.  So we use river and God and stuff like that.

So the river is heaven, but it's probably not what most people imagine.

Heaven is much more like a shared lucid dream where you can do and be whatever you want, which is why the gates are so narrow.  Don't want people mucking it up for everyone else, now, do we?  But you can also sort of choose your community...

The river is also something else, a completely different symbol altogether.

The river represents the separation between the lawless below and obedient above.  The deeper you go below, the more lawless but powerful you become in dark energy.

The higher you go towards the sun, the more obedient but powerful you become in so-called holy energy.

Being on the surface of the river represents being juuust inside the atmosphere, barely on the side of the light, or so-called holy energy.  It is like having a foot in both worlds, but leaning ever-so slightly to the right. Don't laugh--ok, laugh--but it reminds me of the Gray Jedi.

Also, from the surface of the river you can fish for the souls of people (Matthew 4:19), which is to say help them escape the Matrix and wake up to the true reality, the shared lucid dream we call heaven.  There, in the river, the currents carry your spirit forward without resistance that we have in the material world, resistance caused by our cognitive, abstract mind.

So that's two meanings of the river: the spiritual life force of heaven that we return home to (we're actually there now, this world is our illusion for learning and growing) and that surrounds us and binds.  And the river is also the separation between two different types of energy, a positive force and a negative force that need each other, yet endlessly (senselessly) war with each other.

I have one more river symbolism, but this one doesn't really matter, I just find it interesting.  In Texas Hold 'Em poker the first series of three (a perfect number) of cards is called the flop (the fall from heaven while you are asleep); the fourth card (creation) is called the turn, when you awaken to your calling; and the fifth card (grace) is the river.

Whew!

Now where were we?

What you say about his company
Is what you say about society

What did people say about Jesus's company?  They were spreading the news that he could heal people (Matthew 4:23-25).  But they also called him prince of demons (Matthew 9:27-34) and Beelzebul, or demon (Matthew 12:22-37).  Ouch!  And everyone at home was like, "Hey, we know this guy.  He's no prophet or Messiah".  So he didn't do any miracles there and left (Matthew 13:53-58).  In many sections throughout the Gospels (see beginning of this blog), the religious elite said they knew Jesus was referring to them when talking about those who will not enter the kingdom of heaven.  He even said the prostitutes and tax collectors (outcasts that people hated) would enter before the religious elite (Matthew 12:28-32).

Jesus was a reflection of society, and more specifically, what society was lacking spiritually, which was the kingdom of heaven, even if the religious leaders vehemently disagreed.  That's why what you say about his company is what you say about society.  He was a mirror.

So what did Jesus say about the kingdom of heaven?  He said it belongs to the poor in spirit and those persecuted for righteousness (Matthew 5:3-11); to seek it first and everything else will follow (Matthew 6:33); that you store up an indestructible treasure there, where your heart is (Matthew 6:19-24); it is something you can grow (Matthew 13:33); and that not everyone who claims to follow him will enter (Matthew 7:21); something you need to prepare for and be ready to occur any moment (Matthew 3:2, 10:7, 25:1-13); and you gotta be better than the religious elite to enter (Matthew 5:20).

Catch the mist
Catch the myth
Catch the mystery
Catch the drift

The mist is the fog between this world and the spiritual.  The myth is who exactly this Jesus fella is, anyway.  So is the mystery, as well as the mysteries of life, the universe, and everything he speaks of.  The drift is the change in perception, in worldview, the paradigm shift he creates.  CATch it.

We're almost halfway done.  Do you need a break?

The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his skies are wide

The world is wide because he is like a child who is awoken for the first time, awestruck with amazement, bewilderment, and wanderlust (Revelation 12:1-6).  The child will lead the faithful followers, the quiet leaders, the heathens, the un-awoken, the bold leaders, and awoken youth.  He will bring together all of the different types and clans who previously struggled against each other: the mothers and the fathers will finally see eye to eye again and also not need to predate anymore.  The child, who is pure and innocent will do the unthinkable and play around near the most vicious of creatures without a care in the world (Isaiah 11:1-9), but no harm will come to him because he has the Lord's rod and staff (Psalm 23:14).

There is nothing holding him back.  He speaks only of love and life.  The sky is the limit for him.

Today's Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you
And the space he invades, he gets by on you

I said before that I think Jesus was an introvert, in that's how he recharges, but I also think he was energized by the crowds, at least to a point.  He certainly attracted them (Matthew 4:25, 8:1, 8:18, 19:2, 20:29).

No, his mind is not for rent
To any god or government

I already covered that his mind was not for rent.  But to any god or government?

Jesus was constantly at odds with the Pharisees, who taught about God.  Ok.  But there's a little more to that.  He also had innate or mystical knowledge without having studied (John 7:14-24)  that amazed everyone (Matthew 7:24-29, 13:53-58, 22:23-33, Mark 1:21-28, 6:1-6, 11:12-26, Luke 2:41-48, 4:31-37).

Keep in mind what I said earlier, too.  A teacher only speaks to what the student is prepared to hear.  Humanity at that time was in elementary school, so the course material, the lessons about God and spirituality, were to that level of understanding.  The college professors will tell you that much of what you learned in primary school was, not exactly wrong, just... basic.  A deeper understanding requires revision.  You also have to consider the cultural context and knowledge limitations of the time period, too.

But we're growing up now.  We are more mature (sort of) and capable of digesting more complex spiritual food (sort of).

Was his mind for rent to any government?  The religious elite yet again tried to trick Jesus.  He said "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me" when they asked if it's right to pay Roman taxes, since Judea was a Roman puppet state.  His famous answer was, "[G]ive back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's" (Matthew 22:15-22).

The Jewish high Priests were finally ready to kill Jesus, but they weren't allowed to, so they sent him to Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea to do it for them.  When Pilate questioned Jesus about the charges, he remained silent and refused to answer (Matthew 27:11-26).  So Jesus was not beholden to any government, not Rome nor Judea (the people thought he was going to be a king in the material world).

Always hopeful, yet discontent

Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem on that last Passover knowing he was about to die (Matthew 21:1-11, 21:33-46, 26:1-5).  If that doesn't speak about his hope for his future even after the shit storm he's about to face, I dunno what does.

And as for discontent, yet again the dude was constantly ripping on the religious elite.  Not content with the status quo there.

He knows changes aren't permanent
But change is

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away" (Matthew 24:35).  The Law will not disappear until everything is accomplished (Matthew 5:18).  Then it will disappear.  And remember, the fulfillment of the Law is love God and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:34-39).

And what you say about his company
Is what you say about society

We covered this before.

Catch the witness
Catch the wit
Catch the spirit
Catch the spit

He's the witness to the spiritual world, is mentally sharp and intelligent, has a desired spirit, and is spittin' mad lyrical parables and rhymes.  Catch it.

The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his eyes are wide

We covered this before, too.

Exit the warrior

Jesus the dragon religious elite slayer, once he establishes his kingdom in heaven and finds peace for the birds in the air to roost under his tree (Mark 4:32), will cease being a warrior.

Today's Tom Sawyer

What would Christ look like today?  Put aside your pre-conceived notions.

He gets high on you
And the energy you trade

We have an aura, a vibe, chakras, or whatever woo-woo term because we are only beginning to understand this more (even though Masters have known since the beginning of time).  We exchange this energy when we communicate with each other, whether that's the high energy of a concert or sports game or the frequency drop in the room from a buzz-kill or high frequency rushes of sexual intimacy, and so forth.  Today's Tom Sawyer gets high simply on trading his energy with you, sharing himself with you.

He gets right on to
The friction of the day

And in sharing that energy, sometimes there is friction.  In fact, it is the friction of two spirits that are not alike that create the heat, that create the energy, when they mesh together.  If they were exactly the same (none are), then there would be no friction and no energy exchange.  Too much and you get a grinding of gears, too little and there isn't much energy generation and exchange.  Grok?

---

And that, my friends, is how I read the lyrics to Tom Sawyer by Rush, lol.  Come join me.

---

By the way, I laughed so hard on my insides when I read this.

Stairway to Heaven

  

There's a lady who's sure
All that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to Heaven
When she gets there she knows
If the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
Oh oh oh oh and she's buying a stairway to Heaven

There's a sign on the wall
But she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
In a tree by the brook
There's a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiving

Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it makes me wonder

There's a feeling I get
When I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen
Rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who standing looking

Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it really makes me wonder

And it's whispered that soon,
If we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
And a new day will dawn
For those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow
Don't be alarmed now
It's just a spring clean for the May queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by
But in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on
And it makes me wonder

Your head is humming and it won't go
In case you don't know
The piper's calling you to join him
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow?
And did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind?

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll
And she's buying a stairway to Heaven

Striking Vipers

Cool game, but I'd much rather stay a dude, thankyouverymuch.

Pokemon is Annoying

Whew!  The blogs lately have been so heavy.  Here's something much lighter and completely, totally off topic.

I've been playing a lot of Pokemon lately with my kids, mostly my son, but also quite a few random members from the community.  I'm kind of done with the game.  To be honest, I never really cared for it at all, and I was never very good at it, either.

So what else is there that's similar?  I'm thinking, in approximate order of desire:

World of Final Fantasy Maxima (yes, please).

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

Digimon World: Next Order

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth

Little Friends: Dogs and Cats

Monster Hunter Stories

They all look good, so it's kind of hard to choose.

On the Law

I know more or less what I want to say, but I don't know quite how to say it.  So what will I do today, brain?

Seems legit.

I have exactly ten (10) things to say about the Law, no more, no less.

1. Everyone loves Jesus, except those who don't, but those heathens are going to suffer a righteous eternity of damnation burning in hell in anyway, so fuck 'em, am I right?  But I'm a Belieber, so I got my Golden Ticket.

So what does the Mel Gibson action hero of ancient times have to say about the Law?  He respected the Law, but saw it as a guide, not an absolute.  Further, he condemned those who were more bound to the Law than they were to a good Spirit, and who hypocritically used the Law for their selfish purposes.

Jesus spent pretty much half his ministry criticizing the religious fundamentalists Pharisees, who are definitely not still in charge of the world.

(Man, this is going to be fun, just 'Cuz.)

In Matthew 23:1-36, the J-Man (he said I could call him that, we coo' like dat and he lives inside my heart)...

... anyway, in Matthew 23:1-36, the J-Man tears the religious fundamentalists Pharisees a new one. He woed them not one time, not two times, but eight times!  Have you ever been woed eight times?  Woed, not wooed.

2. Earlier in the Good Book, in Matthew 12:1-13, The Dude is put on pre-trial for sticking his hand out the window while passing some wheat and eating some, and--get this, for real--for healing someone (I know, right?!) because it was Sunday and he was skipping Bible study.

He was like, "You religious fundamentalists Pharisees are fidiots".  And they were like, "No we're not, we're the good religious people who will go to heaven".  And he was like, "Um, no, you're hypocritical assholes."  And so they plotted to kill him like fidiotic, hypocritical assholes.

3.  Ok, you still don't believe me?  Ye of little faith. <tsk> <tsk> That's ok, you only need a nanobot of faith.

In Matthew 5:17 he pays homage to the Law by saying, in effect, "Yo, I ain't here to destroy everything y'all built". Then in Matthew 9:17 follows up by saying, "Buuut... it just ain't working out for us anymore.  It's gotta change with the times".

Oh, yeah?  And how so?  Well, in Matthew 22:36-40 the religious fundamentalists Pharisees, sneaky little devils they are, again tried to ensnare him by asking which of the gazillion laws of the Torah was the greatest.

Anyone but J's son, or a politician, would have likely fallen into the religious fundamentalist's Pharisee's bear trap.  But nope.  He simply responded with love God and love your neighbor.

That's the change of the times.  That's the fulfillment of the Law.  That's the Spirit of the Law.

Now you have to remember something: an enlightened person speaks to their audience in their context and to the level of understanding they can comprehend.  The broad meaning, the essence of the message of "love God" means to look to things that are beyond the material world.  That's it.  I do not think it means to swallow the pill of a religion, hook, line, and sinker.  The reason is because once you do that, most people stop seeking.  You think you have finally arrived at The Answer.  Guess what?  Spiritual reality is so deep and vast you will never grasp it all, and anyone who claims to Know The Truth is selling you snake oil.  Religion can be a good gateway into the spiritual world, but only as a stepping stone.

And obviously "loving your neighbor as yourself" means loving yourself well.  I think a lot of people tend to overlook that one.

4. Paul, who was like the Hamilton of New Testament... wait, let's stop here a minute.  I'll come back to the original thought after these messages.  Seriously, Paul was ambitious, wrote way too damn much, and was the boss's right hand man.  How much better could my analogy be?

Here's a shocker for you: I think the Bible is inspired spiritual writing, but is not the one and only authoritative Word of God, and certainly not literal in most cases.  With that in mind, Paul, being the extremist zealot that he was, was often a kind of a punk.  A good-hearted, well meaning, punk, but c'mon, look at his background.  He was killing Christians practically the day he converted to Christianity.  Talk about bipolar!  Anyway, not everything about Paul is bad.  He, too, was inspired.  He had some good stuff to say.  Which brings me too...

... in 2 Corinthians 3:6, Big Papa says the letter of the law kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Talk about killin' it!  Religious fundamentalists Pharisees and those of the same ilk are the vampires who will drain you of your life force with the letter of the Law instead of pumping it full of Spirit.

This part is important! They are the ones who will try to trick you into saying something you didn't mean, then use that quote out of context in court.  They are the ones who will pull you over for doing 56 mph in a 55 mph zone when everyone else is doing 70 mph.  They are the ones who will provoke you into a reaction, then mock your reaction, coyly feigning that they have no idea what you might ever be referring to.

We'll circle back 'round to deep dive that in further detail (I'm mocking buzz phrases if it's not obvious), but first:

5. The Spirit gives life.  The Spirit of the Law is the essence of the meaning, the whole purpose of its existence, without which there would be no law.  It is the whole reason we have judges of the legislature.  It is the reason why, in an ideal society, the criminal justice system has leeway to consider many factors before deciding the appropriate course of action and measure, rather than rigid thinking, maximum enforcement, (profiling) stop and search, mandatory sentencing, and so forth.

The Spirit of the Law is when you catch someone stealing food, but you look the other way.  It's when you don't fret if your neighbor's house party goes a little past HOA curfew rules.  It's when you ask the employee why they're tardy for the third time this week instead of firing them on the spot.

The Spirit of the Law is anytime anyone can say, "Yes, you can do that, you are authorized to do that, but the most prudent course of action is this other thing instead".  Oh, man, I can see it now.

6. However, we have come to the point now in our religious and political institutions, for both are intimately intertwined like snakes doing the nasty, where the letter of the Law has come to rule over the Spirit.  Politicians stonewall rather than let common sense prevail, attack strawmen and sling mud rather than debate issues, and pad incomprehensibly long, unread bills with needless pork barrel spending in order to win local support.

This was not the intention of our founders.  Corporations are now more politically powerful than the people, especially after the landfall Citizens United case, but they have none of our legal liabilities.

7. The letter of the Law is when bosses set you up for failure and document it fully, but intentionally aren't looking when you knock it out of the park.  It's when they sabotage your work, but are never caught.

The letter of the Law is when family members and teachers play favorites but you cannot prove it.  It's the good 'ol boy network.

The letter of the Law provides justification for corruption and cover up for abuse.  It's plausible deniability for deception while claiming holier-than-thou honesty.  It's incentives for cutting corners more and more until it's indistinguishable from outright cheating.  It's throwing your friends under the bus so you can get ahead, and then rationalizing it.

The letter of the Law is when whistleblowing against wrongdoing is protected, but retaliation occurs anyway behind the scenes.

The letter of the Law is when the police target people of color more often and juries convict them more often and judges sentence them harsher.  And if you don't believe me, ask any unbiased demographics statistician. (Note that this is aggregated data.  Most of the people involved are not aware of subconscious racism.  We are all conditioned from childhood, but it's also our responsibility to recognize bad programming and re-write it.)

The letter of the Law is when people misinterpret everything you do and then spread rumors.  It's when you are falsely accused and then guilty until proven innocent.  It's when you're judged through biased filters.  It's when you're never fully exonerated.

The letter of the Law is when religious institutions want the double standard of tax exemption, but also receive government assistance and government involvement.  Religious fundamentalists think that their religion can somehow escape the First Amendment clause whereby Congress is restricted from respecting the establishment of a religion.  They do so by making the inaccurate red herring claim that the country was founded on Christian values, when in fact it was Enlightenment Deist values.  But if the truth doesn't fit your perspective, do you change your perspective, ignore the truth, or try to make the truth fit your perspective?

8. Religious fundamentalists also believe the dominance of wider Christianity as a whole is under attack by a hostile secular society waging spiritual warfare.

What war?  There is no war on Christianity. 

Demanding space for all is not a war.  Allowing Muslims to serve in Congress is not war.  Critiquing the commercialization of holidays is not war.  Allowing prayer to be in school, but not sponsoring it, is not war.  Taking "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance--which was added during the Red Scare as if that would somehow inoculate against the communist atheism that was stealing your children's souls--is not war.

No one is prohibiting the free exercise of Christianity in America.  Anyone who thinks otherwise should talk to a missionary or a history professor.  They'll tell you all about the prohibition of free exercise of Christianity.

This blog post that speaks a personal truth, my opinion, my perspective, is not war on Christianity.  It's not even war on religious fundamentalism. I don't want war.  I want peace.  If you were to ask religious fundamentalists, I bet privately most would want a world that was entirely their particular sect, or at least a theocracy--but only of their sect.

I want a world where everyone is free to worship as they please, including religious fundamentalism, or even not at all.  I want to not be dominated anymore by a singular perspective that has the "sincerely held belief" that they are the privileged few to rule them all, that this country was founded by them, for them.

9. The Law has become a Beast.  Beast... beast... now where have I read that before...

By the 1980s the US criminal code has grown so much that no one could figure out just how large.  The best estimate, based on the survey of 3,000 cases, was that the code was scattered over 50 titles and 23,000 pages.  That number didn't even cover civil, contract, or tort law, and no doubt it has grown more in the past 40 years.

Scriptures grow rather slowly as new religions like Islam or Baha'i or new sects like Latter Day Saints add to the compendium.  However, religious legalism has stuck its holy fingers into so many holes now in secular society where they don't belong that it continues to grow in that sense.

I suppose the pushback against that is the war Christian religious fundamentalists are referring to, and if that's the case... um, who started it, bro?  I'm a spiritual person, but that doesn't effing matter.  Whether I'm a Christian religious fundamentalist or a Muslim or a Buddhist or Hindu or an atheist or a Pastafarian, it still doesn't effing matter.

The US Constitution is pretty clear and the majority of the people are pretty clear: stay out of our bedrooms, stay out of our schools, stay out of our workplaces.  You want to carry your cross or your star or your crescent or your colander with you wherever you go?  Awesome!  Do so with pride!  You do you.  Just don't make anyone else do it is all we are saying.

10. Regardless of who started what, US law and religious law both need simplification in codification and flexibility in application.  If Jesus were to return, he would probably say,