Revising the base

I grew up in a humble little home many years ago.  I was taught that religion and education made the world a better place.  I supposedly needed copious amounts of both in my life to be successful and moral.

Now I find myself in a world where religious people fight among themselves and denigrate those outside their beliefs. I hear people who go to church saying the most awful things about the people they work with and religion and democracy often get confused.  I look around at the successful people and see truck drivers with little education making $150,000 a year, plumbers charging $80 an hour and earning $40 of that for themselves.  I get my hair done by a stylist who brings home more than most people with college degrees.  A felon I know makes 80K running a landscape business, and an illegal immigrant I know runs his own pool service business that employs others and provides for the families of the two brothers who own it.

It's a little hard to believe anymore in what I needed copious amounts of to be successful and moral.  So, I have retreated into a different view of things in lieu of the puzzle that life presents for making sense of one's experience.  This new world consists of doing good for the ones who need it, loving the events that each moment presents, and following my heart in matters of sharing love.  I find this yields a much, much more satisfying life.  Val's art diary is a good visual for my current state of affairs.