I Love the Wind

NOB HILL--I love the wind. Not that it sometimes isn't destructive. But I love it because it is simple enough for me to understand. Yet it has become a personal metaphor for much that I don't understand.

Take religion...Christianity anyway. You can't see either the wind or God, but nobody says, "I believe in the wind." You either feel it or you don't. Sometimes you can see the results...like the other night. But most days are calm. Still belief never becomes an issue.

Belief always seems to be the issue in Christianity. Never mind that one either feels the presence of God or not. Beliefs are what allow Christianity to differentiate itself from your ordinary, wilderness wandering, semi-mystical, reverent Nob Hill coffee drinker. That is to say, it is possible to be reverent without being a "believer." And it is certainly obvious that many believers are not reverent. TV today is full of believers spouting anti-gay, anti-environmental, anti-science, anti-thinking pronouncements. Reverent? Only to a set of beliefs, not to life.

I am no theologian. Don't ask me about anything spiritual or religious. Let's just say that sometimes I am humbled by just being alive. Some days I do feel that invisible breath, like the slightest wind, kiss my lips softly. I do not have a belief that fits this. Only a momentary smile.