Defining My Neutral Zone

No, I have NOT signed on with “The Federation” and been given a mighty space ship to command on patrol near the Neutral Zone.  It actually didn’t occur to me until a few days after the launch of my blog that I had borrowed the well-known term from my old favorite television SiFi drama.  Not too surprisingly though, the fit is quite nice.  In that futuristic world in which starships tool around the universe looking for new life forms, with ship’s officers and crew always welcoming new contacts, assuming peaceful encounters, I would feel at home. 

The Neutral Zone to which I subscribe is pretty much verbal.  Would that we could, as a species, find some way to proclaim such a zone in the real world of physical interactions among all peoples, and then nurture it to the point that our planet could be one entire world of harmony and peace.  Would that humans could actually learn to live by a true Golden Rule philosophy – that each person could accept others as equally deserving of fair treatment and consideration.  Would that men would practice what they preach.

But humans have basically always, from all we read in history, preached peace but practiced war.  So my interest in neutrality grew out of the friction among believers.

Strangely enough (and this is the real kicker!), my thought for trying to reach the minds of a few who might appreciate and desire neutrality as I do, was inspired by my recent foray into the world of my religious past.  [My time spent in re-connecting with many folks from almost a half-century past has for the most part been positive.  I have felt more acceptance than rejection.]  Now that I have become entirely neutral to ALL of the many divergent and divisive religious concepts adrift in our society, I find that to some old friends, I am not seen as neutral at all but perhaps subversive.  Perhaps frighteningly UN-godly and therefore, a representative of anti-goodness.  Perhaps immoral or demonic!  Perhaps a devil incarnate.

From a few snippets of the thoughts shared by others from my past, it would seem I’m hardly alone; that my own suspect position is also, in varying degrees, attributed to others, even those who still claim a form of belief but are somehow no longer acceptable.  Some have talked of “tolerance” toward others who have slipped into some unfavorable denomination or new sect.  Some see themselves as being outcasts from the “group” as a whole, while from my own platform I see all similarly with none having any right or reason to exercise judgment over others – to either cast anyone out or have any fear of being treated in this manner.  I truly occupy a neutral stance and harbor respect for each individual, without regard for any belief.  I may wonder what makes someone tick, but I don’t want to stop the ticking!

Let me share a story of a neutral zone I was required to create.  In my personal world, following my former life of devotion to a belief system and a church that had been for me the embodiment of “truth,” I had some major hurdles to clear.  (Cannot most of my former associates grasp this quite well?)  One of the highest of these obstacles to happiness was the fact that I entered a Catholic family!  No – I did not in any way become Catholic (except in its generic sense, with the small “c”); I merely needed to find a way to live at peace among my newly adopted family.  While I was struggling to calm the heavy prohibitions (well-trained into my young mind) against ever associating with the “Great Whore,” those folks who were becoming very important to my future were trying to convince me to become the godliest of all by joining their ranks.  And how rank do you suppose this idea was to me?!  

In order to build a lasting peace between myself and a very devout Catholic who was going to be a part of my future, whether I liked it or not, I had to adjust a great deal of my thinking.  I started by trying to understand all I could about him and his approach to life.  I attended mass!  Over a period of a year, whenever I was in his home on a weekend, I forced myself to accept his cordial (somewhat insistent) invitation to “his” church.  He constantly cajoled me about becoming “closer to God.”  He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that his personal success in life was directly due to his Catholic belief and active devotion.

After that year in which my mental and emotional discomfort during those church meetings was excruciating, I at last asked him to go with me to my church.  He wanted to know where that was, and I explained that it would be at any location that we might choose together – somewhere on a mountain top or in a forest, a place of natural beauty and serenity.  He outwardly laughed at me.  My desire to commune with nature was deemed not equal to his NEED to commune with a supreme being while sitting in a pew and accepting a wafer with wine, calling his action “partaking of the body and blood of Christ.”  So “my church” was rejected, but I had taken the high road.  He could not deny that I had been willing to subjugate my preferences and to endure something I found repugnant in order to try to accommodate his need. 

We then began on a firm footing of live-and-let-live, a comfortable friendship that’s lasted for nearly two decades.  He stopped trying to convert me to Catholicism and I never again brought up the concept that spirituality need not be in a huge church with showiness and tokens of worship; that humans can be moral and principled without any outward form of religiosity.  Today we are as close as two people can be in most all of life’s important matters.  We share time comfortably and we openly express love for each other.  He has asked me to be executor of his will.  He knows I would act honorably and non-judgmentally upon his wishes.

Some of those with whom I shared incredibly intense beliefs and devotions, back in my youth, in our college days and beyond, would not be as accepting of me today as is this devout Catholic.  Sad state of affairs.  I am as accepting of any one who is part of any of the thousands of divergent belief systems as I am of this Catholic man.  And those who label themselves “atheist” are not worrisome to me, even though much of their dogmatic absolutism mirrors those who stand firm on dogma of many kinds.  I am neutral.  To me, if there is a supreme being, It, She or He can do anything so desired to show me how powerless I am.  And I already know I am powerless.  I also know I am whole and not in need of any belief system guiding my actions.  Power, it is said, corrupts.  What do I need of power?  Never would I say I am above corruption and immune to its pull, but I am certainly not of my own nature corrupt and I give others the benefit of the doubt.  I live imperfectly but happily by the single principle that is given lip-service in all known religions yet is shunted aside in practice - the "simple" Golden Rule.  Quite sincerely, I see no way of life that could be as desirable.