Art jumped at me when he saw me today. "ridiculous..." he said, and then he started explaining what happened. And our coversation ended with Art confessing he is an extremist...
His kids had come back from an event with family and friends. Apparently they had been talking about religion...and they asked Art why he was not religious.
First he wanted to avoid the subject saying "well, art is my religion"...
Art admitted he had felt some sort of anger though...who are these people to trigger this with my kids and try to influence them...
But he decided to do an effort being wise...which is not easy in these situations.
"People say that wisdom comes with the years and grey hair, but there is no guarantee...and it certainly doesn't come natural... at least not for me..." is what Art confessed.
I asked Art how he had reacted in the end.
He shared he first checked all his initial ideas and they all seemed a bit over-reacting.
It is funny how - when you are emotionally hit - you can try as much as you can to stay relaxed, but somehow all you say comes out in a f**ked up way.
1. So he had first asked them what they felt so he could cool down a bit,
2. He had explained them that he was not sure what to do,
3. He told them that there are many religions and all religions start with a purpose of love, care and respect
4. He then explained the problem: all religions feel they have and own the only God(s),
5. And then they start interpreting and creating new rules interfering with freedom of others; that's when they get too fanatic about it.
So Art explained he is puzzled and just hopes they make the right choice, and that when they believe they stay true to the original thoughts and purposes of that religion.
Art did explain he does feel there are different levels of living; way to direct your life. And it is good for kids to think about these things.
He likes philosopher Kierkegaard's theory around the levels:
- aesthetic level - where you do the things you do to get something out of it, things that you find beautiful, things that reward you.
- ethical level - here you do adhere to behaviour that are in the interest of the group; you respect written and unwritten rules.
- spiritual level - where when choosing your actions you keep in mind you are part of something bigger, whatever that may be.
To me it was not directly clear so I asked Art if he could give an example.
He rolled his eyes and said "do you not understand or do you not WANT to understand...?"
Art: It's like nowadays around eating meat and fish.
Level 1 - You will just eat meat as it tastes good; you might not always realise where the meat comes from or you wish to avoid subconsciously as you have 'other priorities'.
On an ethical level you will respect the rules in the community. More people starting to eat biological food, eating less meat etc.
On a spiritual level you might feel like ensuring the animal has had an okay life, and it has not died in too worse of conditions. You might care about 5% of the shrimp fishing catch being shrimps, and the rest getting killed and thrown away.
So, what is your religion, being so passionate and almost fanatic? I asked.
"I am an art religion extremist" he said and walked away.
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