Global Consciousness, Religion & Blogging

Probably the time of year with the holidays and all…but I had not one, not two, but three conversations today about the world’s religions, global consciousness, and how the internet is rapidly accelerating the propagation of that consciousness. It made me stop and think, examine my memories, and realize why I’m thinking about the holiday season this year on a much more global scale.

There is currently a fair amount of agitation and debate about so-called “politically correct” celebrations in America this season (vs. just Christmas). In my opinion, this angst is a direct result of increasing global consciousness and the growing awareness of other ways to practice faith (and that much of the world practices something other than Christianity). Part of it could be the war in Iraq and the various religious factions at odds there of which we’re learning. Part could be caused by an increasing assertion by people that are non-Christian to celebrate their point of view.

What I am coming to believe, however, is that the blogosphere is a platform for voices to be heard in ways previously not available and are an amazing counterpoint to media that tends to sway people to one common point of view. Questions are public. Counterpoints are public. Opinions are public. They’re searchable and ranked in Technorati and Google Blog Search.

The photos above bring back a lot of memories for me and are illustrative of how my worldview and consciousness around Christmas was shaped. The one where I’m a cowboy was special since I loved that outfit. The other — with my sister and I in front of a painted window — is special since my Mom (who is now deceased) painted those by hand for many, many years on our front picture window. For me as a kid, the season was all about Christmas trees, Santa, presents, painted windows, cookies, Grandpa’s, Grandma’s, Auntie’s, Uncle’s and cousins, snow (and, oh yeah, that Messiah that was born in Bethlehem!).

What the photos don’t show is that my narrow worldview and consciousness was extraordinarily limited as were all of my family members. We watched the three broadcast network Christmas specials, went to movies about Christmas, read about Christmas in books and magazines, and had a Christmas pageant and celebrations every year in school.

I grew up Catholic and in suburbia with virtually no one of color or even of non-Christian religious persuasion (though I remember the one Jewish boy in my school who had a real hard time with the Christmas season when we were in 3rd grade). Mostly I couldn’t have cared less about anyone else’s reality and we certainly didn’t talk about any other religions at our dinner table. Consequently I spent the first 25 or so years of my life with a pretty myopic point of view and narrow consciousness when it came to religion or any other point of view.

The longer I am alive — and the more knowledge of other perspectives and reality I gain — the higher my consciousness becomes. I am increasingly aware of the vast number of people on this earth that practice a religion other than Christianity. Awareness that this season isn’t about presents, snow and in fact doesn’t even need to be a White Christmas. Having just been in Arizona (where the Christmas decorations are everywhere) I had to remind my son that it was OK to not need snow to celebrate Christmas…since Jesus was born in a desert.

The more I blog, connect with people all over the world, and continue to expand my consciousness about other people’s reality, the more accepting I am of other ways to interpret the spiritual parts of ourselves and of our world. As other people globally raise their own consciousness and grow (if allowed to do so) in their understanding of others, it can only help move us all forward.