rational awe

a non-believer in the great fictions,
the ridiculous notions of the organized
religions of the world
does not walk around
without the ability to experience the
wonder of this world
this only world
in which we exist for an extremely brief
moment---
the ability to be rational &
to appreciate the wonder
does not come in some kind of
perverted package deal
with a belief in something outside yourself
which will back you up when you are all set to
murder someone
(always ready to forgive you if you swear allegiance to
it)
or when the choices that you’ve made in your life
just don’t pan out
(no matter how much you get down on your knees
and squint your eyes tight, mumbling to yourself).

in fact, to use the word
“wonder,”
without having to pay some kind of
homage to
a deity whose very existence
(totalitarian 24hr surveillance of all actions within &
outside said human)
depends upon the instilled fears
the outright child abuse
which stems from days & nights of
caretakers pounding absurdity after
absurdity into the mind of a
a defenseless child
during the most formative years of
their lives---
we who do not wallow in the excrement with the
rest of you faithful,
need not ask your permission to use the word,
or to have to do so only when accompanied by a
“spiritual reason.”

rational people still fall in love &
they do not need to attribute it to anything else but
a mutual feeling between two people

rational people are still flabbergasted by the vast menagerie of
beauty which our world displays---
one can see three flowing waterfalls & NOT
feel that they reveal some kind of secrets of jesus---
one can climb a mountain,
standing atop, looking down on everything,
breathing in the air & letting all the grandiose details of the
surrounding environment
swallow one up,
leaving us with a greater respect for the non-human characteristics
of this place---
in fact, this realization can make one go back down the mountain
determined to want to improve the world for the very sake
of the world and its people,
without the want for gold stars or
a better seat in some kind of afterlife.

how amazing it is to feel a genuine interest in the art, the music,
the science, the philosophy & the literature of
us humans!
to realize that this world is so rich with intrigue
whose evidence is here already &
that no matter how long you have to live,
you may never actually consume all that you want to
because more enthralling products of our rational hearts & minds
are being pumped out every single day!