Waxing Poetically: Addressing Culture with a Twist of Poetry

My painting “Electric Faith”

Hi, Folks! This week I’m continuing my Articles of Faith series with my own story of how I came to study spirituality:

This whole project may have started when my lady Abby over a year ago when she gave me a book called Jesus and Buddha: the Parallel Sayings by Marcus Borg. As its title implies, the book gives both a historical as well as a textual account in scriptural parallels and in the striking similarities in both men’s births, lives, teachings, deaths and their tremendous legacies left behind for the world to study.

Yet, as far as I truly can recall, my journey started much earlier than one gift could imply. As a young boy raised in the Roman Catholic faith, I have always had a general idea about who I thought Jesus Christ to be. Jesus was to me, a teacher of good. He respected all as equal among each other. He gave children new rights to be both seen and heard and recognized the sinful tendencies within all people, teaching followers to “judge not” and to love one another as we love ourselves. These teachings among others are why I still to this day, consider myself a follower of Christ.

By the same token, I am a person who grew up in a multi-ethnic neighborhood where cultures mixed now and again, from the Indian family two houses to the left of mine to the Jewish family across the street. In this way, my upbringing gave way to an open-mindedness that is still with me today. I still remember when I was five years old, my mother telling me that our Jewish neighbors, the Falks, did not celebrate Christmas. I then asked politely, “They don’t believe in God?” to which my mother replied, “No, they believe in God but they don’t celebrate Christmas.” At the time, it was an innocent question but the answer was something that would shape my diverse worldview for the rest of my life. It is this same ability to see beyond the confines of one perspective or another that sparked my curiosities toward other cultures, whether they leaned toward the rave culture of the UK or toward the Kabuki theatre of Japan.

Obviously, such a wide perspective lends itself to exploration where religion is concerned and my parents and especially my mother would have it no other way. Growing up, I was never told that any cultural group, race, religion or ethnicity was necessarily wrong in any way. So one day it hit me like a virus. I was curious about other religions. It began in the tenth grade when I read Enlightenment pieces by Thomas Paine, John Locke and Martin Luther. I then told my mother that I didn’t believe in the need for all the Catholic sacraments and in the need for the priesthood. My subsequent search for meaning lead me toward many faiths and I explored them each a bit just for curiosity’s sake.

Then in the fall of 2001 in my sophomore year in community college, I discovered two remarkable things: The Bible as a work of literature (in both the actual book and other works such as The Inferno and Dr. Faustus) and Zen stories about being more aware, less materialistic and more conscious beings that were provided by a cynical but brilliant English professor who shall go unnamed. The two experiences were profound. I saw the same sins, redemptions, messages of love and warnings about the dangers of wickedness and the journey to a higher Self. In the weeks that followed, I began to read a book about Zen Buddhism given to me by a friend. While I read the book, I began agreeing with the philosophy more and more to the point I might have converted myself to it. However, since I had never been a believer in a particular religion (or even a political party for that matter) being “the one,” my conversion fell short of its mark. I was intrigued nevertheless.

My exploration stretched even further after the World Trade Center attacks of that year, which taught me to cherish my moments alive and forced to wonder about my own purpose in being alive. I graduated that Spring with a liberal arts Associate’s degree and planned a one year hiatus from college (which unintentionally turned into a two-year layover). I read, wrote poems and freelanced as a DJ, all the while still exploring my personal faith. My search lead me to the Gnostic texts which reminded me more of Hinduism and Buddhism but with Jesus mixed in the recipe, and Unitarianism which believes in the acceptance of all faiths. I’ve since gotten my Bachelor’s degree and become a freelance writer…. This project is the culmination of my search to this point in time. It references the diversity of world religions and cultures while maintaining a common link between all people.

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