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A Real Now Here Man
When Arlo Ween became an adherent to a particular religion, he bored the daylights out of friends, family, and total strangers. There was no conversation that he could not turn into a religious argument. He seemed angry, defensive, and desperate as he argued, wheedled, and cajoled. Everyone had to agree with him. They just had to. Didn’t they want eternal bliss, or what? This went on for ten years. People avoided Arlo. Then he found another path, the real one this time. No, really. Seriously. He was completely convinced. Not only did he try to talk everyone into agreeing with him, but he also had to undo the beliefs of the folks he had convinced to follow his original one true religion. He worked overtime, parading his piety and delivering his diatribes. This went on for another ten years. One day, an acquaintance noticed that he had not heard Arlo talking about religion for a long time. Arlo Ween was pleasant to be around. He didn’t talk much at all. He seemed quite happy. Eaten up with curiosity, the fellow asked Arlo what he was into nowadays. Arlo said he would rather talk about something else. He commented on the beautiful weather. The fellow persisted. He wasn’t going to let it go until Arlo gave some accounting of himself. Arlo did not feel obliged or pressured, and he knew the fellow was not genuinely interested, but he made a conscious choice to reply anyway. “There are many ways, but no one way. To change the outer world, one needs only to change his inner world. Happiness is a natural bi-product of impartial self-observation, combined with an honest desire to know. Love is what we already are, not something we have to chase after.” In a defiant, challenging tone, the fellow said, “I don’t believe that crap for a second!” Arlo smiled, shrugged, and said, “I don’t care.”
We do not argue about what we know. We argue about what we merely believe.
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