>I had some further thoughts on what you said above today. I was reminded
of
>a guy I knew in your area who while semi-active in the local Pagan
community
>as well as conservation and Earth oriented activities, he refused to call
>himself anything, including Pagan. His feeling was that people in the
days
>of yore didn't really call themselves anything. They worked in harmony
with
>their world around them and called upon their goddesses and gods and did
>their usual rituals but they never called themselves Pagans or Wiccans or
>whatever. They just were. Pagan was a label forced upon certain people
by
>others.
>When I think about it, this seems pretty correct. I'm sure the word
witch
>was used at times but probably not often or openly. But these people
didn't
>name their spirituality or call themselves by a specific label. So in
this
>particular way I can relate to what you say (although I know you mean
>differently! :) )
>L
People seem to get a little too hung up on their labels, I think.
Especially among people who give up their Selves and conform themselves
to some outside faith, like forcing a square peg into a round hole just
like everyone else has. If the hole is big enough or the peg small
enough, it'll go through, but it still keeps an odd, uncomfortable sort
of quality about it. But if everyone else is doing it, it must be okay
and expected of you, regardless of what misgivings you might have.
That seems to be the mentality of religionists from where I sit. Kind
of gone off on a tangent there, but my original thought was that to
some people, many things just cannot seem to "properly" exist until
it's labelled.
Here's something to ponder: did time exist before we decided to
measure it?
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