Folklore, tradition, wife’s tales, superstition all play a part in our everyday lives

When I was little, my mother had to work, unusual for a Cuban woman of the day but I was left to the care of this very nice woman who said I was “her Godson”. In any case, having that privilege was awesome for me because she was kind and loving. She lived with her parents and was unmarried…clearly at her age she was a spinster. The parents, both illiterate were colorful characters in my hometown.

One of the curious thing that I observed was the pious behavior and religiosity that the mother displayed. She kept a calendar and would look up every day at the saints listed for that one day and she would announce: “Today is St. Gervasio’s day…we have to go to his house and wish him a happy Saint’s day.” It matter not that the bloke wasn’t born on that particular day but what mattered to her is that he had the Saint’s name.

There was one very curious thing this woman believed in: she thought that she had supernatural powers…the power to heal, to give a stomach massage and to “pasar la mano” of any sick person and she would miraculously make that person healthy again.

But I think that what really took the grand prize was that she believed she could actually dissolve a waterspout or a forming tornado. This was significant because my hometown was almost destroyed in its entirety in a December 26, 1940 tornado. What this woman did was to take a knife, point it at the forming menacing cloud and utter some nonsense accompanied by a prayer. Sure the waterspout dissolved and everyone was at awe…but it was going to dissolve anyhow…at least that is what I thought and to me she didn’t really do anything…and in reality, she didn’t…it was her own conviction that she could, she actually thought she could dissolve the tornado.

Look, I don’t care really if you believe in little green unicorns from Tasmania; nor if you opt to worship them while hanging upside down from a chandelier. What troubles me is the insistence of some of these believers of nonsense and superstition that I too have to believe or I am a heretic or worse.

The most important thing for those “believers” or those who claim to have “faith” is that their convictions may be very real and very emotional for them but they can’t go around trying to push it on other people. Some of us are even resentful when one of these religious fanatics comes and knocks at my front door looking for validation and to convert me.

The way I see it; if your religion is so great, you wouldn’t need to go around knocking on doors looking for converts…people would knock down your door in order to join you. So, please spare me the absurdity of your rationalizations, refrain from trying to tell me that I am going to hell and that sort of thing if I don’t believe the same way you do.

You have your Constitutional right to have faith and believe in anything you deem worthy…but what I will absolutely not tolerate is for you to get together with other people of the same mindset as yours and make laws that deprive me of my rights or render me a second class citizen. You are not any better or any worse than I am and the sooner you learn that the better. You don’t have a special relationship with God and if you did God hasn’t found out about it.

PHOTO SOURCE: http://members.fortunecity.com/spaar/unicorn-gallery/unicorn01/unicorn006.jpg

http://news.webshots.com/photo/1480129479073760323CdEczD

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It is a concept fabricated by religions to subdue their followers

The reason I am doing this post is because I received a very misguided comment from someone who does not even have the balls to have a profile but signed it “Rodney”

I had written a post May 17, 2010 named “WHY DON’T WE TURN THE TABLES AROUND?” Pointing out how it felt to be discriminated on the basis of your sexual orientation and how religions will deny you the rights everyone else enjoys thus making gays second class citizens

That was way back in May and today I get a comment from Rodney and this is what he had to say:

Rodney has left a new comment on your post "WHY DON’T WE TURN THE TABLE AROUND?":

“completely wrong!!!!!!!!!!! Marriage is for man and woman only!!!!! GAY PEOPLE WILL GO TO HELL! READ ROMANS 1 in your Bible.”

First of all, the concept of heaven and hell is a little too difficult for me to even contemplate let alone accept. I do believe that it is something religions fabricated in order to make their followers be submissive and obedient, to behave well and to be able to be governed.

You are basically telling me that my love for someone is not as worthy as yours

Second, I don’t think the Bible or any of the Scriptures are HOLLY; in other words, they are not the word of God or the Creator whatever you want to call it. The Scriptures were written by men and they were not very enlightened in those days nor was the idea of procreation not to be promoted since the world population was very small in those days and one lousy plague could have wiped out the whole human race.

The Scriptures were written from tales and historical accounts that were told from father to son before there was written language. As one might expect the next narrator would attach his own interpretations and embellish it some more. By the time it made it to the written Scriptures it was nothing like what the elders had in mind to pass along as a form of wisdom and a guide to fairness and civilized behavior.

Enter the Church and they picked and threw out a lot of it in more recent times. The early Church for example did perform SAME SEX MARRIAGES although nobody talks about it and they will refute it and ask you to prove it. I couldn’t prove it any more than these religious fanatics could prove the existence of heaven or hell…because these are based on FAITH and it has nothing to do with either historical, scientific or common sense…FAITH is a feeling, a belief albeit it might be erroneous, it is held dear as one of the convictions most passionately defended.

So, Rodney, your faith means nothing to me, nor do your Romans 1 and I am not going to tolerate for you to get a secular government to put their seal of approval on your desire to discriminate and make laws that take away my rights. Furthermore, HELL means even less for me since I am not really looking forward to going to some place after my demise where I can find the likes of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and yes, YOU.

If you need the threat of hell to behave well, if you only act in a civilized and reasonable manner because you want to go to HEAVEN then basically you are not really a good person. You should be able to be good because it is in your nature and because you want to be not because of fear or because somebody who wants your tithing tells you that is the way it is.

I suspect Rodney you are a Mormon because this posting was in between some of the “DEBUNKING MORMONISM” posts I made back in May 2010. If that is the case, I suggest that your church will eventually realize that gays have a lot of income and by some miraculous “vision” one of your church elders will have a revelation that gays are to be accepted just the way you did in the 70’s with blacks.

PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.formulatv.com/series/103/queer-as-folk/foros/141/5/arte/