Right now, I’m going through a very deep spiritual struggle about forgiveness that is triggering some bad memories where I felt that God couldn’t forgive me (though I’ve since rejected that hellfire-brimstone god). I’ve had a deep fear about doing something so bad no one can forgive me, and the scariest part is fearing that I will DESERVE that and will, in truth, be defined by a mistake I have made. It’s leading me to have a lot of hard questions about the morals of forgiveness and about who deserves to be forgiven. Nevertheless, I believe the silver lining here is that I will discover what I already intuit: everyone who sincerely repents deserves forgiveness, and refusing to forgive reflects on the person who won’t forgive, not the person who was wronged. We should live with grace, not grudges and hatred.

When I shift my focus from “me” to “we,” I learn to experience true love and community and to fight for justice and compassion for everyone. A world where everyone’s human needs are met is the kind of world I envision. At the same time, it teaches me to forgive when an injustice is done to me. I would rather say, “This is my experience from which to take a lesson about the way I treat others,” rather than, “Look at how terrible that scumbag is!” Everyone deserves to be humanized and treated with inherent worth and dignity.

For my life, I desire a sense of inner peace. I have a lot of deep existential worries, and it would be nice to come to some convictions that are strong enough that I can feel okay. For the world, I desire a simpler world where we stop destroying the environment and care for all life, especially our fellow human beings. I imagine a world where everyone lives in harmony and everyone is cared for. I imagine a world where people who commit injustices are held acc0untable and take steps to repair the wrongs they have done. With this, I also imagine a world where people forgive each other, and there is a process of restoring people who have done wrong back into the community. What would the world look like if we sought to live in love for all creatures?

I love celebrating Christmas! On Christmas Eve, we go to church and have a beautiful candlelight service (the second to last verse of “Silent Night,” sung a capella, combined with the mystical light of the candles, always gives me goosebumps!).Then, we go home and eat all kinds of homemade snacks and watch a Christmas story. In the morning, of course, we open our presents (which still say “From Santa To _” because we still like to imagine the old man and his magical reindeer exists. Once we’ve opened our presents, we either go to Colorado Springs to go to the annual family Christmas party or, if we get snowed in, we stay at home and mess with our presents all day and continue eating leftover snacks from the night before. Through all this, I remember and celebrate the Messiah’s coming, both as the historical Jesus and the inner Messiah-light, and remember that the coming of Jesus and the inner Messiah allows us to have new life and participate in an ongoing process of spiritual growth initiated by the esoteric knowledge Jesus and the inner Messiah-light bring.

Well, here’s 5 things I’ve learned recently:
1. Maria Guadalupe (the Virgin Mary who appeared to Juan Diego on Mount Tepeyac) is considered to be the patron saint and protector of Mexico, as well as the major figure appealed to in social justice movements in Latin America, especially Mexico.
2. Whatever religious or secular tradition one is from, it is important to use scriptures, teachings, mythical heroes, and traditions that are useful for forming a theology or ethic of interfaith collegiality.
3. The Psalms are organized into a structure that echoes the five-book structure of the Torah.
4. Humanism has ancient origins in Greece, China, and India.
5. The light that stars emit come from photons of light energy released from the nuclear fusion process in the star’s core.

That’s an interesting question. I feel like gratitude matters in part for prudential reasons. Being grateful feels good and is good for your mental health. It also helps us put struggles and difficulties into perspective. I also feel like when others do good things for us, we have an obligation to show our gratitude for what they do. Otherwise, they may feel unappreciated, and we come across as entitled. Even so, I don’t believe gratitude can be demanded, as our focus should be on our own showing of appreciation, not on whether others do so or not. At the same time, whether or not we have a moral obligation to be grateful about non-human-related matters, such as life events or natural beauty, is something I am uncertain about. My intuition wonders if maybe there are ethical reasons why we should be grateful, but I am uncertain about that or how our gratitude or lack thereof affects other people. It’s a very interesting philosophical question to ponder though.