Sunday Ramble: Different Backgrounds... Leading to Different Stories

As some of you may know (or remember), I am sort of in the process of "reinventing myself" for the Nth time in my 58 years on this planet.

As Mrs. Denmarkguy and I phase out of being "shopkeepers" at our little gallery/giftshop in our local downtown area, I am slowly returning to one of my previous haunts: Being an editor and proofreader.

I have had some concerns about this, wondering whether it was yet another field to be eaten by automation, but so far it doesn't seem like AI is quite able to interpret what sets "compelling" writing aside from merely "technically correct" writing.

But I Digress...

Silhouettes at the Golden Hour

Our Backgrounds Shape Our Lenses of Perception

The latest box to arrive in the mail — Yes, I still edit "on paper" rather than "on screen" — contained the manuscript of a friend who has been working on his "Opus Magnum" of writing for some years... and after about 25 false starts finally declared it "done."

Mrs. Denmarkguy and I each have a copy of the manuscript for review... you see, she's also a former magazine editor and publisher, as well as an accomplished writer.

What's the point here?

Our friend is a former baptist preacher turned cynic, and his manuscript is an exploration of the fallacies of organized religion (as seen from the inside) as it exists as an entity separately from individual people's relationships with God and spirituality.

Yeah, I know, that might sound a bit heavy.

Back to the lenses of perception, though.

Flowering tree in our garden...

We both have copies, because Mrs. Denmarkguy is an ordained minister and theologian with a degree in theology, while I am almost exactly the opposite.

As editors of a book that's expected to go in front of a very broad spectrum of the public, our editing opinions are differently — yet equally — valuable and important.

Growing Up With "The Absence Of"

People have often tried to pin me down on my beliefs and spiritual leanings, generally with very little success.

I was born in Denmark, to parents and an extended family for whom religion and God was a "non-issue."

What I mean by that is that we were technically Lutheran, but that didn't really mean much of anything. When you are a Danish citizen, unless you tell someone otherwise, you are "presumed Lutheran."

My parents were neither religious, nor spiritual in any way... on the other hand, they were also neither actively Agnostic or Atheist. I grew up with the basic experience that the entire issue of religion, God and/or rejection of same and everything related was simply "not particularly interesting."

The beach, near our house...

I suppose you could call my family "Functionalists" (if they were -ists, of ANY kind) in the sense that if something didn't (for example) make your cereal taste better or fuel your car, why would you waste time on it?

Certainly, I knew what "God" and "Christianity" were, just as I knew what "Buddhism", "Judaism" and "Islam" were... because having that knowledge (from a purely informational standpoint) was part of being a well-educated and well-rounded human being.

We did go to church on Christmas Eve because it seemed festive, and there were pretty lights and beautiful singing and so on... and somehow it seemed "a right thing to do" to go to church since we were essentially participating in a holiday that celebrated a core figure of Christianity.

Other than that, church seemed to be a place you might go for Christenings, weddings and funerals.

And so, that's the background I bring to my end of editing the above-mentioned manuscript.

Pink rhododendrons in bloom

On Being a Good Person...

I have been asked on many occasions how I can possibly pretend to know what it means to be a "good person," absent the core teachings of a religion.

Whereas religion itself has never been of that much interest to me, that particular question HAS because of its deeper implication that a person's "goodness" is a taught attribute rather than an inherent one.

I have come across many people in my lifetime who confessed to me something along the lines of "Without the fear of God and my religion, I would most likely be a horrible person..."

I'm usually not scared by much, but that particular line of thinking actually frightens me. If all that separates someone from running amok and causing mayhem and destruction is their belief in/fear of "Something Greater Than Themselves" what does that really say about their essential selves?

Is there really just a paper thin line that separates civilization from savagery?

Ducks on the bay...

The discussions are often interesting — at least as long as they don't descend into the other person feeling the compulsion to proselytize — and typically end up at "But you have to believe in SOMEthing... don't you?"

Of course, that can result in some very long philosophical answers, which is an entire post onto itself... which I might explore, someday. However, the very short version of what I "believe in" is (to neatly close this little circle!) something Mrs. Denmarkguy often tells her therapy clients:

Don't be Shitty!

Maybe that seems overly simplistic, and I'm sure there are plenty of skeptics ready to dissect it — perhaps for little more reason than they like to argue — but it summarizes what I tend to feel guided by.

Thanks for reading!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190414 22:58 PST
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