when you pray, move your feet.
[I didn't sign up for LJ Idol this year, but I'm doing these as practice writing motifs or whatevs.]
my mother believes in prayer. not just when it "counts," or when the wheels lock on ice, or when our grandmother develops cancer on her pancreas. my mother believes that God loves hearing her, and that she loves talking to him. she feels some sort of fulfillment. she believes the words are heard.
I myself believe that prayer is bullshit.
prayer is fetishized. it isn't practiced properly. the proper prayers were muttered with hushed tones and reverence. the ritual was more like a prelude to an extravagant movement. let me commune with God, The Powers That Be, All That Is, [Anything In Caps]. now I kiss the hilt of my blade and bring my words to action. now I grab my staff and depart for a long trek. now I take my beloved's hand and find whatever shrub it is in this damned forest I need to cure this ailment. now I break my back sweating to make this payment.
the prayers that seem to mean something are more like empowerment of the Self. as if the reverence fell in knowing that we, God's image, can invoke such fearful wrath into one another. that multiple sides could be right, and thus the perfect justification fell in the one who felt most strongly. emotion is man's most powerful weapon - it would seem that emotion moves mountains.
it seems that every prayer falls on deaf ears nowadays. metaphysically, I'm sure that all prayers fall on deaf ears - but the main thing is that you yourself understand the conviction of your thoughts and words. prayer is the sanctification of self-thought: the holiest of self-affirmations. thus the only prayer that falls on deaf ears is the one in which your mind fails to shake the limbs to life.
my mother believes in prayer. not just when it "counts," or when the wheels lock on ice, or when our grandmother develops cancer on her pancreas. my mother believes that God loves hearing her, and that she loves talking to him. she feels some sort of fulfillment. she believes the words are heard.
I myself believe that prayer is bullshit.
prayer is fetishized. it isn't practiced properly. the proper prayers were muttered with hushed tones and reverence. the ritual was more like a prelude to an extravagant movement. let me commune with God, The Powers That Be, All That Is, [Anything In Caps]. now I kiss the hilt of my blade and bring my words to action. now I grab my staff and depart for a long trek. now I take my beloved's hand and find whatever shrub it is in this damned forest I need to cure this ailment. now I break my back sweating to make this payment.
the prayers that seem to mean something are more like empowerment of the Self. as if the reverence fell in knowing that we, God's image, can invoke such fearful wrath into one another. that multiple sides could be right, and thus the perfect justification fell in the one who felt most strongly. emotion is man's most powerful weapon - it would seem that emotion moves mountains.
it seems that every prayer falls on deaf ears nowadays. metaphysically, I'm sure that all prayers fall on deaf ears - but the main thing is that you yourself understand the conviction of your thoughts and words. prayer is the sanctification of self-thought: the holiest of self-affirmations. thus the only prayer that falls on deaf ears is the one in which your mind fails to shake the limbs to life.