Text of flyer that was sent out

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Two plus years and still going?  Really?  If you look at the history of various pandemics, they don’t last long.  This one should be ending by now.  The last pandemic, the so-called Spanish Flu, lasted about two years with four waves and according to Wikipedia, estimated deaths of 17 to 50 million world-wide.

Seen through the lens of history, we’ve gotten off rather lightly, three waves and as of February 2022, 6 million or so deaths.  Of course, no virus has faced such an onslaught of modern medicine, the best trained minds working near magic, creating vaccines and new treatments in record time.  And let’s not forget the huge difference public support for health measures such as wearing masks and even closing whole sectors of our economy made to our case numbers.  Such things have never been tried before.

We are unique, and we should give ourselves more credit.  Nearly everyone pulled together to wage war against an enemy that we cannot see.  But if you read the news, you would think we are losing this war.  Why is that?

Could it be our attitude towards things?  Expectations can be a curious thing.  You expected a sunny day and it rained.  Your new car is wonderful, but the new car smell is giving you a headache.  That new guy at work will make a difference to your workload but training him is exhausting.  We tend to focus on what is wrong and not what is right.

There is something to be said for mountain top experiences, you know the ones where your whole life makes sense.  You feel exhilarated.  Nothing stands in your way. How do people get those, you might say?  Easy.  Make sense of your life, even with this ongoing pandemic.

You can’t have mountain top experiences without a mountain.  And you must climb it yourself.  Otherwise, it is sort of like how you aren’t religious, but something awful happens, and you start to pray.  You don’t really expect an answer, you’re just hoping to win the lottery or something.  You saw it in a movie. 

Or it can be like taking out insurance, you invest the time to get what you need and make your payments before you use it.

Ok, let’s cut to the chase.  I haven’t gone to the trouble of writing this to endlessly tease about where I am headed.  The mountain is a belief system, a way of explaining everything.  And we all have belief systems, we just are not in the habit of talking about them.

It’s like breathing.  You only think about it when there is something wrong.  And for many of us something is very wrong right now.  Let’s talk.

I can be reached at Chimeri.ca.  There’s a discussion board there.  For some of you it might be a little complicated to post something because you have to register, but just reading should be straightforward. 

Oh, and for those who like full disclosure, I’m a Roman Catholic, if that means anything.  Just thought you might want to know.

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Why is it difficult to live?  A child will reach for something and believe that they can have it. We came into this world believing that good things would happen.  To one degree or another, we still believe this.  You wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t.

What gets in the way of us having what we want?  The Pandemic, certainly.  But to really understand we need to dig deeper.  You see, if we are honest, we have spent our whole lives being disappointed.  Educators call it socialization, parents call it “doing what you are told.”  Your boss calls it “doing your job.”  We are hemmed in on every side by society, even our friends have certain expectations for our behavior.  And how we respond to this endless barrage of expectations, determines the quality of our lives.  We can believe that we are being picked on, rebel, fail at school, lose a job or lose friends one after another.  We can believe that we are worthless, stop caring, go through the motions, let these expectations crush us inwardly to the point where there seems no point in living. 

But where does having a belief system fit in all of this?  After all, a small child believes everything you tell them, so things are so much simpler for them.  But we are adults.  We don’t just accept everything we are told.  We choose what we believe in, or at least that’s the ideal.  And that choice can be thought out and carefully reasoned or it can be a hand-me-down, borrowed from someone else, or worse, a reaction against what others believe. 

You are the expert on you.  If your life is not what you expected, you know it first.  How often we hear a tragic story about someone and people we know exclaim, “Who would have known?”  Of course no one expects an answer to that question even if there is one.  It helps to read about others who struggle.  Here’s a story:

A man was born into a lower class working family.  He was an only child.  A dreamer, he never held down a job in his life and his father died when he was young.  One day, when he was thirty, he decided to make his many dreams come true.  He started telling others about how they could live a better life.  At first, people listened and he became quite popular.  But then of course there was a backlash, as there usually is.  People got jealous over the attention he was getting. His enemies conspired against him, accusing him of saying politically incorrect things.  One night, when he was alone, he was arrested, and his friends abandoned him.  He was then cruelly treated by the government, deprived of a fair trial, tortured and soon after killed.

And a major world religion sprang up from his teaching!  Unlikely story?  More strange than fiction ever could be?  Yes, that and more.  You see, if this could happen, anything is possible. Investigate Roman Catholicism.  Ask questions.  Do the hard work of taking seriously a new belief system that has the power to change your life for the better no matter what your circumstances are.  I look forward to hearing from you!