I'm Ok but You Suck?

I have to confess that I did grow up in the 70’s and that a large portion of my intellectual baggage came out of the 60’s mindset where you didn’t trust anyone that was over 20. It was understood that you were anti-authoritarian and that any beliefs of your parents or grandparents you automatically doubted or believed the opposite. I would never be caught dead being viewed as being old school about anything. The challenge is I have grown up and now am considered on the other side of life and should see my intellectual shortcomings.

I can remember taking your typical Psychology 101 course that was in a rather gigantic lecture hall that would accommodate around 500 students. The professor and his TA were not that outstanding but I do remember the sessions that covered transactional analysis or dumbed down to layman’s terms that either I’m ok and you’re ok or I’m ok and you’re not ok or I’m not ok but you’re ok. I have to admit that most people, myself included, believe that they are fantastic in their views about life and you obviously don’t have a clue about much of anything. I know that we are too quick to judge someone and say they suck but maybe if we were totally honest we would admit that we believe that we are the smartest and are closed to learning from other’s life experiences.

I’m a student of philosophy that enjoys reading and better understanding the present mindset among both the typical person on the street that Letterman or Leno would interview and also the supposed intellectual you would find on a college campus. I know that if I’m going to be capable of dialoguing with anyone I had better understand the present mindset so I can at least attempt to put myself in their ‘shoes’. I just finished reading a rather interesting little book by an atheist that wants to ‘air’ her gripes about religious types. I had read Christopher Hutchings book a few years ago, “God is not Great….” and realized that I needed to stay in better touch with those outside my worldview.

As I finished reading “Why Are Atheists Always Angry”, it struck me that Christians are very closed minded to other worldviews and we come across as arrogant and conceited. I have always thought, even as a young 20 something, that I held the only correct view of the universe and understood all mysteries about life. I would be the one that would come up soon with the unifying equation that would be the amazing link between science and theology. Yet, my name hasn’t appeared on the Who’s Who’s of anything recently.

Is it really possible for anyone to really be capable of listening and learning from someone with a totally different view of life? I know that the book, “99 Things Which Piss off the Godless”, gave the impression that only the godless have the ability to be opened minded and capable of discussing divergent opinions. The other impression that should be obvious to all is that the religious types are the ones that have caused great atrocities throughout the recorded history of mankind. War typically is started because the godly believe it is their divine right to rule the world and take ownership of all the land regardless of the collateral damage.

My wife and I take our dogs for walks on the canal trail at 5:30am or close to that and also before we go to bed. We dialogue a bunch about her present graduate clinical studies about spiritual care and our work in doing neighborhood transformation. I have been bred and taught to always be the aggressor. I can remember as a young Christian thinking that I had the truth and hotline to God and that all others were deficient. As I live and reflect more on the life of Christ I’m discovering or admitting that Jesus chose usually to take the road less traveled and be at the back of the line or the one to quickly do the dirty work instead of assuming that the working class would do it.

I get a sense that Greta’s book on why she is always ticked at the godly is that we aren’t living like Christ but competing for first place in line when it comes to intellectual ability or the desire to be articulate. I know that it is impossible to hear someone when I’m talking. So I have to admit that maybe I’m not ok and I shouldn’t say much of anything about you. Yet, too often I’ve made the fallacious assumption that I’m sitting on the top of the world looking down on everyone else who needs to put on my colored glasses to understand the mysterious of life. The only way that I will ever hear a Greta type of person is when I’m humble enough to admit that I’m not ok.