What you want (Baby I got it)

**So this is taking off from my last post of whether or not it's good to be a static person. I think the idea of intimacy fits in here somehow...**

So, I do have a couple people that I think have a good feel for the entire Brett Ripley spectrum and it's noteworthy that long talks with these people seem to be about the most therapeutic thing I can do.

I think that's one of the deepest desires of us little humans: real intimacy. To be known fully, with all the good, and more importantly, with all the bad, and to be loved for who you really are.

This need for deep connection though is many times disguised and mistaken for a myriad of feelings. In both Western and Eastern cultures this need is often played out as a desire for sex, or money, or buying things, or being popular or famous, or status. A person just wants -no- NEEDS to hear "You're good. You're good where you're at right now. "

What most people get is "you'll be good if..." or "you'll be good when..." and this leads to other bad things (that I'll have to save for another post :) ).

I think that's what makes God, especially the God revealed through Christianity so appealing. He knows you more than you know yourself. All that good stuff you did? He saw it. All those selfish things you did? He saw it. All those triumphant feelings when you aced that test or won that game or gave that speech? That pain you feel, that guilt, that isolation? Yeah, whether you knew it or not he was right there with you. He knows YOU and he knows you even more than your closest friends. And the best part of all? He loves you for it- loves you like crazy.

Sounds good, right? The only thing is that you can't have a conversation with him like with your friends. It's different. You have to pray, but even then you likely won't use your ears. Wait a minute. This great friend is there and he won't even talk to you! What kind of friend is that?

Alot of times this straight up just pisses me off- just makes me want to say this whole God thing is just a bunch of bullshit and all religious people are a bunch of frightened, blubbering idiots believing what their elders say just because they say it.

OR maybe this God is a kind of a father figure and just wants to teach you discipline and patience (and faith?) enough to dedicate time to sitting in silence and letting the world go by without you. Maybe.

-Brett

PS I've discovered that my typing can go for about 3 pages per dribble now that I've pent up all this thinking and all of these ideas for the last three months. These last three posts were going to be one little update. This could maybe turn out to be an interesting blog yet...