I heard some readings from teenage diaries on the radio then a few days later found a bit from one of mine.
A response to Pascal’s wager.
Love is not worship
not ritual of blood and wine
nor offering of silver of gold
these are just the things we can use
to make us feel fine.
Waste no time on praise
pay no heed to artifice
more important by far is
a gift of laughter offered in silence
a smile to ease the tears of a child
a hand held out to a stranger in need
love pays no heed to reward.
Together
We play life’s game on a field of infinite truths; why use your truth to separate ‘us’ into ‘me' and 'you’?
I is I and I will I stay, neither will I stop you being you.
You say choose this and blindly follow Abraham’s God, If I do there is nothing to lose and all to gain.
You dismiss all others as inferior – what if you are wrong?
You use probability to enforce behaviour; is faith something we can choose to choose?
I should live my life as if your god exists, just in case he does; would my poor acting deceive your god?
I offer you the wager I will test: If I spend time being and doing good, if I measure my life by the laughter and joy I bring into the lives of others then if your god or any god exists they will approve regardless of my lack of ritual.
That was written about 35 years ago, I am kind of happy that I have managed to 'be good' or at least I don't think I have been particularly bad, its hard to tell as I am not sure if what I meant by good back then is what I have come to believe good is. I am rather disappointed as to the amount of laughter and joy I have provoked though, my mum dealt with bad behaviour in children by turning it to laughter and she loved to laugh, there's almost always a funny side if you look at things the right way she used to say - time to get to work on that side of things.
ReplyDelete