this is something i wrote for my english class. its not quite done yet but tell me what you think.
Posted May 11, 2007
I am sitting next to a clear, desolate lake. It is bursting with life and positive energies. I am lost in thought about my surroundings and their source. My train of thought becomes broken by a hiker asking me for directions. He is asking where he can find his brothers camp site. He describes to me where it is, and I realize that I am staying in the same part of the campground. I take him to where his brother is staying and we get to talking. We speak of morality, religion and politics. The three things you are to never speak of with a stranger. It turns out that we have completely different views on all three topics. This man was a very serious member of the religious right and an avid gamesman. Then on the other hand, you have me, the liberally minded, vegan buddhist. While he stood for combat boots and the Bible, I stood for Boca burgers and peace amongst men. We agreed on almost nothing except one thing. We both loved the outdoors. But we loved them for very different reasons. I love it for the beauty, the cleanliness, the untoched virtues of it all. While he loved it for the hunting and fishing and campfires. I have shown him where to go and I am on my way back to my spot by the lake. On my trip back I have begun to think about the man. I wondered why he was so open minded to hearing my oppinions and understanding them. I mean, generally people with beliefs simialar to his refuse to hear anything that contradicts their own beliefs. They tend to cover their ears and call you America hating liberals that burn Bibles for simpily saying some of those things. I just have trouble comprehending all of this. I continue to walk towards my destination a catch sight of something truly amazing in my perephrial vision. I stare at its incredible beauty and it reminds me of all the beautiful things in the world. After studying this patch of flowers for a few seconds I notice something oddly relevent to todays events. All of the flowers are exactly the same a brilliant bright pastel red, except, for two right next to each other. One of these two flowers wer the same species of flower as the rest but was a much different color and the other was a very different type of flower and was a dark blue. I made a connetion to my own situation and realized that even if the man was the same kind of person as other people with his political and religious beliefs, he was still vastly different than all of them. Just because the man was entirely different than me, doesnt mean we cant coexist in this world and have our own truths. Although we both know we are correct, that doesnt make the other one wrong. We still allow each other to live how we want to live and thinkthe way we wish to think. We dont have think with a mindset of I'm right and you're wrong or illinformed. When I think about it there isn't a whole lot of difference between most religions. Yeah sure the gods all have different names, but the primary goal of a religin or a philosophy is to empower and enlighten its followers. I've come to the conclusion that wars over faith are rediculous and overall make no positive contributions to mankind. Even if you win the war, who ever you have defeated still believe what they believed before. It doesnt change anything except that your religious group has more "followers" and more money that it can spend on places of worship and other things like that. By now I have made it back to the spot by the lake and have been sitting here for a little while.
i still need to add more but I think its pretty good.
