The thing about God is. No one knows for sure. Really.
I read this article in The New York Times by Eric Weiner called Americans: Undecided About God. Weiner so eloquently writes that the national conversation about God “has been co-opted by the True Believers, on the one hand, and Angry Atheists on the other.” He asks, “what about the rest of us?” Weiner calls these folks the Nones. Nones doesn’t do it for me. I think of myself as an Other. Don’t ask me why. It’s just kind of the way I am. But regardless of the moniker – Nones or Others – I agree with Weiner, we haven’t been a part of this conversation. We’ve been this tight-lipped group who shied away from any discussion even remotely religious like sheep about to be sheared and left standing naked in the field. Awkward. Embarrassing. Uncomfortable. Skin-crawly. To say Weiner’s article resonated with me is an understatement. It got me thinking. Then it inspired me. And then I felt like having a conversation about None Other than God.
Little back story. For the past twenty years I’ve been writing these letters to God. Some people, far more intellectual or spiritual or hip to this pursuit than I, would call this “Journaling.” I call it writing letters in spiral bound Hilroy notebooks. Nothing terribly fancy. But organized. And to prove that they are letters, not emails or memos or blogs to the Big Guy in the Sky, they all begin “Dear God” and end “Love, Me.” In my world that constitutes the basics of Letter Writing 101.
I write one almost every day. Except on the weekends. I do other things. Like grocery shopping. Errand running. Movie watching. I relax and generally do everything I can to break the Monday to Friday routine. Basically I laze around and waste time. Even God rested on the seventh day.
After reading the New York Times article it occurred to me that after twenty years of writing almost daily to God, I must have something to say about the topic. I’m an “other.” Typically when it comes to religion I keep my opinions to myself. Unless in the company of other “others.” Then I might say something provocative like “no one really knows for sure do they?” Even the comment is plagued with doubt. Ends in a question mark, implying uncertainty. Not a definitive, confident period.
