The Religion of a Plumber

Religion.

It ain't for me.

My mother is Catholic. She says her prayers, wants to attend church regularly, and reads her bible.

My father, the dog, and I are all about the same in our level of spirituality. We don't really go to church. We live just fine without it. We do what we think is right at any given moment in time 'cause thats what seems right.

It's my opinion that men are naturally inclined to believe in what we can see and touch. We like things that are solid, things that can be broken and fixed. It's common for a guy to understand mechanics, gadgets, carpentry, or some other form of maintenence usually passed down from father to son. That labor becomes a sort of bonding, church-like experience for men. We begin to understand the world by what we can touch, feel, learn, see, and experience. That's always made sense to my father and he handed that down to me.

We would talk about how to be a good man through our labors together. He taught me to be a hard worker, to always do my best, look for solutions to problems, making me his worker. By dealing with his customers I learned how treat people fairly without letting myself be taken advantage of. By working under him and alongside his other workers I have learned humility. The physical demands of the job have even taught me the value of stayin' in shape and tryin' my hardest. I learned all that a man needs to know about bein a good man from that job. My father taught me just about all that he knows about everything there. I could write forever and probably still never be able to teach anyone all that he taught me.

Girls, I dunno what the hell it is exactly girls learn. I don't understand women enough to know what goes through their minds. I know that each one is like a snowflake in that way they're never alike. They can look alike, like the same foods, or music, or movies but in the end Eve is Eve and Lilith is Lilith. A lot of what women believe, at least in my experience, has a lot more to do with emotions, feeling, and instincts.

My mother claims to have a book of witchcraft as a child. In it were contained what she thought were recipes. She brought it to her mother not understanding why someone would have gotten rid of a perfectly good cook. My grandmother got rid of the book believing it was witchcraft.

My girlfriend believes in astrology. Other females I've known have believed in predestination, tarot cards, spirits, and of course God. Females seem to be very open to those ideas.

For me religion has several faults. People get to believin' in a thing and all of a sudden it's worth killin' over, like the Spanish inquisition or the crusades and a dozen examples. Some people think that if you go to church regular-like it's okay to judge everyone for not bein' Christian or whatever. Last I heard Christian's ain't sposed to judge lest they're ready for some judgin' themselves. And I'm not the strongest supporter of homosexuals, i don't care what they do as long as it doesn't get in the way of what I wanna do, but I have never thought it's right to condemn them for bein' gay. A gay man that is a strong contributor to the community and a good person goes to Hell? That doesn't seem fair.

Some of those might be issues with people more than religion though. I love most people but can't stand a lot of 'em. It's mostly for those few that are ignorant and intolerant. I dislike a lot of things people do like, sittin on their asses watchin T.V. all the time, standin' by when they could be helpin', bein' mean to one another. That doesn't make those people evil but it sure does make me not like 'em so much.

I don't follow any particular religion. I was raised Catholic but I don't belong to any particular church. I follow the sense of right and wrong my parents gave me.

It's been said that I don't believe in God. Joss Whedon (a talented writer for those of you who don't know him. He's the guy behind Dollhouse, Buffy the vampire Slayer, Astonishing X-Men and a confirmed Atheist.) said that when you remove God from the equation a lot of people tend to think that people will run wild. He believes that when the promise of a Heaven or Hell is taken away, the only thing that matters what we do here on Earth. I'd have to say I agree with him on that. Heaven and Hell don't really matter to me. I do what I feel is right regardless if any religous text says it's okay. If there is a God he will judge me based on my best effort. I can't say I'd be disappointed by that.