Enlightenment

So I feel like an idiot for even feeling like this and even more of one for writing about it but that is all okay because we are all friendly friends here. Last night I saw the Exorcist the Beginning with a bunch of my sorority sisters. WOoHOo. I walked into the movie already knowing the plot, already hearing it was lame, and already expecting to scream like the little girl I am. I found it to be quite profound and poignant all at the same time and probably in ways the director, screen writer, and producer never intended. But to each her own, right? Churches have always creeped me out, made me feel like the insignificant being I am, and caused me to nervously glance around for the entire duration of my inhabitance in the particular house of worship. Religion is something I definitely don't understand and something I never expect to fully grasp or comprehend and I think that is what makes me so uneasy.

I have a fear of the unknown and of what I cannot control. I feel like religion, because it is so ancient, is one of those things that is so far beyond me but so fundamental to what makes us human that it possesses a power like no other. So here is what I think of the Exorcist. I think it comes down to a battle against good and evil. And while evil has the ability to tempt and manipulate even the strongest people, it is the faith in inherent goodness that will allow us to triumph over adversity. I feel like this message is so applicable to the war we find ourselves in today. It is undeniably a religious war, one testing the tolerance and belief systems of two very diverse societies. We are pitting one faith against another. And though it would be quite difficult to fairly label one side as evil and the other as good, I think that is what this battle is about. I feel that only our faith not necessarily even in God, but in a more general higher calling is the only thing that will bring us salvation and peace. And really, this goes way beyond politics and even the two religions.

So believe in something...please.