When I was a child, I spake as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. Luckily, I put them in a safe place where they could be easily retrieved. And now I am reclaiming a belief from my childhood. That belief is this: I personally can change the world and make it a better place. Yes, how naive! Isnt it beautiful? It didnt take them long to grind that idea out of me, but I was small, they were big and had all the power. Now I have come to see that I am less without that idea. So I choose to have faith in it. I think all faith is matter of choice. If someone believes in Science or Christianity or the lottery, they are choosing to believe in that thing. Knowing and believing, knowledge and belief are two diametrically opposed things. Kierkegaard (or was it Captain Kirk?) said that we cant know that which we believe and we cant believe that which we know. When someone chooses to have faith in something, they concentrate on any and all evidence that supports that belief while ignoring all evidence to the contrary. This is the mechanism of faith whether that faith is a faith in a spouse, or a community of people, a country or a religion. Me, I just want to express faith in a simple idea: I personally can make the world a better place for other people.While I was writing that, I was listening to Kiko and the Lavender Moon by Los Lobos.
I just realized that the lyrics to the last verse go:
Kiko and the lavender moon
Out dreaming 'bout green shoes
Haircuts and cake
And then he wishes
The world away
And then he kneels
As if to pray
He dreams and dreams
Kiko and the lavender moon
I believe that is a good song. But maybe I am wrong about that
