Reading

 I read a lot, more than you think. Often it is rereading or as I call it visiting friends. But I recently started reading a new to me series of loosely connected Trilogies. It’s the Governor series by Lesli Richardson. https://tymberdalton.com/books/series-info/governor-trilogy/

Right now the first book Governor is free as an Amazon Kindle book. Which is why I started it a week ago. I was hooked and have greedily devoured them. Made friends along the wayside. So what if those friends live in the pages of a book. Lots of readers have “book boyfriends”.

The books cover triads that are involved with politics. It covers love, sex, politics and I seriously love some of the rants. All the politicians are socially liberal and fiscally conservative, which is my political philosophy. 

Why I stopped going to church

 I have nothing against religion- any religion. Religion should bring you peace and the strength to get through the storms of life. I never found that in a church. Every single time I went to the church for help nothing. No help at all. 

As a teen playing in the church orchestra I was there for every service. So I heard the same service repeated several times every Sunday morning. I started reading not just the versus that was a part of the sermon but the entire chapter. The number of times those verses were twisted to mean something else was high. Once I started writing research papers, I learned it’s easy to take a comment from a completely unrelated article to make my point. Even if that sentence was used to demonstrate the opposite of the intent  of the article. 

I took it upon myself to read the Bible not as a religious, handed down from a higher power but as a collection of commentaries on the purpose of religion. As none of the New Testament was written until 50+ years after the events. They were stories passed down orally. Did you ever play telephone in school? Teacher whispered to one student and they whispered it to another and so on and so on? Did it ever make it to the last person the same? Not in my experience. So why shouldn’t I take the Bible as nothing more than partially remembered stories? A secular example - George Washington didn’t chop down a cherry tree. I always thought Nixon was impeached - nope he resigned before the article was written.

Then the people in the church. On Sunday morning they are kind and loving - Monday morning they are selfish and indifferent. More worried about the amount in their bank account than the welfare of their fellow man.

It took years but I finally found a path for myself. It’s pretty simple - I will be as good of a person as I can be, ask for forgiveness when I fall short, and uplift those that need and deserve it. I don’t have a “religion”. I have a belief system cobbled together by research and experience. It works for me. I don’t need a building to follow the path I’ve set.

Love & Hate & Impeachment

 I love few things and hate only one. Love and hate are two sides of the same coin. The only thing I have time and energy to hate is the fact my husband, friend and confidant died. Why bother with hating a person? In the end the hatred only hurts me, it has no effect on the other person. Oh I still have a temper and unlike when I was younger and hold it in until I literally would wonder how I got somewhere because I blacked out. Losing time sometimes hours is no fun. Now I prefer to vent so I don’t reach that point. 

With that said I do not hate Donald Trump. To be honest I just think he’s a waste of oxygen. Son why bother to hate him? He’s overweight, 74, and has criminal charges coming down the road. And then my personal belief that life is 100% fatal for 100% of the population. So why bother expending energy hating him? As for the Impeachment - expected, hoped I was wrong, but with the current political climate? Who is shocked? Certainly not me.