Let Us Be

Live and let live.
My brother lives in a very old neighborhood just a mile north of downtown Oklahoma City. He has a traditional brick fireplace and I am cutting wood for him this summer so he’ll have a good supply this winter. We have tons of well seasoned deadwood lying around out here. Besides, it’s a really good workout, and woodcutting with hand tools is a skill in which I revel. If it weren’t for my brother needing the wood, I would probably cut it to sell.
My brother looks nothing like me. He’s taller, lighter, dark haired. He has a higher IQ, in the gifted class. He’s a secular humanist, but we do share some interest in computers and related technology. He’s a busy entrepreneur and I’m a mystic. He fixes computers for pay, hardware and all, while I try to help people out with simpler problems and charge nothing. We get along well, but don’t pal around much.
I’m not willing to push my beliefs on anyone. The only reason I bother explaining them is because people have asked questions when they find out I don’t fit any of their usual categories. So I welcome pagans and atheists and Catholics and Baptists and Buddhists and Muslims and whatever else you want to call yourself. The key to hanging out with me is the same kind of respect which says, “You have to find your own answers. Nobody else can do it for you.” I believe in you.
Perhaps there’s not enough of that out in the world, because I find I’m never short of friendly contacts, at least online. Perhaps we are so thinly scattered geographically, the Internet is about the best way to find each other. The world is going to seem a much lonelier place if it ever goes away, or becomes so perverted and subverted it might as well not be.
Sadly, the majority of the world believes in busybodies who insist things change to suit them. We aren’t permitted to stand on the sidelines and comment quietly amongst ourselves on the things we see. Here’s my busybody rant: I want to teach you to leave folks alone.
Hey, just let us be, and we’ll return the favor.