Glen and I ended up working at a movie theater back around 1991. Honestly I can't remember exactly, but it was right around that time. We felt an immediate kinship as we help open a new movie theater in Oceanside, California. Glen had recently been discharged from the Marine Corps; I had taken the labor route out of high school, opting to go straight to work instead of going to college - a move that although I meet with some regret, that choice and the myriad others that came with it led me here.
Glen had enrolled himself at the local community college, and was soaking up learning like a thirsty sponge. ("Thirsty Sponge" would be an awesome name for a rock band.) I don't know what it was about going to college that kept me away, but it was not my path - at least not directly. For although I wasn't going to school, I was learning vicariously through Glen. He and I would sit for hours discussing poetry, creative writing, art, philosophy, music, theater; things that still resonate highly with me. It all started in that little one bedroom apartment.
During these times, we would brew a big pot of coffee, and as we discussed the latest writer he had discovered in his creative writing course, we became energized through the natural buzz of coffee, and the pure discovery of learning. My favorite discussions were when we discussed philosophy and religion in general. Over time I grew to realize that all religious teachings and all the positive messages in the world that were given to us by various teachers, all seemed to stem from a central point of view: Love is all there is, and the thing we call God, Allah, the Universe or the Great Spirit is all energy. Or, as Glen so eloquently put it during one of these Coffee Mug Sessions, "I believe God exists where you and I connect."
If that is true, that God exists where two people connect, then God is truly everywhere, and everywhere all at once. If we can agree on that, then it stands to reason that God exists in you and me. We call upon the God-part of us when we need help, assistance and nurturing. If God does exist within you and me, then each of us is God, and that phrase in the Bible makes more sense, "I am". We create our own life, our own path, our own destiny, because we can follow our own truth. When we finally acknowledge the God-part of us - not only acknowledge, but honor - we begin to see that we are not alone in this world. We only seem to be a small piece of the puzzle that is the Universe, but appearances can be deceiving. We are One. More importantly, I am One.
Beautifully said, J.C. :)
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