Alisa pointed out at last week's coop meeting (so well attended. Thanks to all of you!) that there are good people who would like to be associated with the coop we're building - and that's going rather well, thank you - but who stay away from it because of the name. "Holy Road House" just puts them off. She pointed out that we get regular friends-requests on MySpace from religious groups because of our name too. We are not a religious organization, which is apparent to all coop members. We are affiliated with no religions and have no interest in such relationships. To us, religion, like nationalism, is divisive. It separates and judges people and rejects those who are not part of their club.
To be fair, we have our biases too. We're not terribly supportive of people who don't share our progressive point of view on social justice, as an example. We try to love everybody equally, but prefer those who have found the personal courage to let themselves find and express their creative sides, who have expressed distaste for the subjugations of corporate culture, and of Walmart culture for that matter. We resonate with people who are willing to acknowledge and accept and explore their spirituality, but again, not those who express that through religiosity.
Does this make us hypocrites? This is tricky ground for us all - not just those of us drawn to the HolyRoad Tours coop concept, but all of us, even the most open minded and progressive of us. One thing that mitigates this for us is the fact that most if not all of us have come to understand that each and every person on earth, regardless of his or her level of consciousness or politics, is an expression of an Inner Truth. Hinduism has a convenient word for this: nameste. We recognize and give thanks to the god within you, within each and every one of you. This includes those caught in the cogs of The Machine, those still wearing the Mask (as Lizzie likes to put it).
I'm not willing to say this is enough to absolve us of our lingering prejudices. But it's an important step in the right direction - toward unity, toward sharing and cooperation. Toward peace.
Well, I guess I just had to explore that a bit. On a lighter note, I will indulge myself by a bit of boasting: I came home yesterday with close to a dozen bags of groceries. On my motorscooter. A personal best for me. And it wasn't that hard. Though one more bag probably would have been too much. I will, in future, probably shop more often and carry less each time. My message here is not a new one for me, but I want to repeat it: if you live in a city, either sell your car or at least park it and only use it when you really need to travel far and fast. A small cheap, fuel efficient motor scooter is not only Earth-friendly, it's a ton of fun!
