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For the last six years I've written a religion column for our local daily, The Kitsap Sun, out of Bremerton, WA.
In '03 my column was picked up by Scripps Howard News Service, and now you can read me all over the country. They don't run all of us every week but I'm in there pretty often.
The Kitsap Sun is in the process of updating its entire Web site and right now, all my archived columns are MIA. Here is the latest.
Wash Windows of Your Heart
Sally Santana, On religion
June 11, 2005
Pushing back the sliding-glass kitchen window to let in the rain-scrubbed air, I realized I was now looking through glass that made the leafy green trees outside look dusty and indistinct.
If I didn't know any better, I would assume that that was how things really were. Both views are real; both reflect reality. And truly, even if I were outside looking at these beautiful behemoths, could I say that I am seeing them as they really are?
We see the surface of everything; the visible sign of an inward process.
Every thing has atoms consisting of some combination of electrons, neutrons and protons. So even though we're looking at the tree we're only "seeing" part of what makes it it.
You've heard the story about the four people, each on a corner, witnessing an accident. Seeing the same event from four different angles, they have four different perceptions. Add to that mix that one person was 5 years of age, one was a young man 7 feet 2 inches in height, one elderly woman with cataracts stood in the shadow and the fourth was an attorney specializing in personal injury.
What they saw was their reality; the same thing seen in very different ways because education, culture, life experience, and physical and mental abilities differ for every individual.
Just because someone believes something different than you do doesn't make them wrong.
We have faith -- not only because of what we've seen, but also because of what we know in our spirits and souls to be true.
We are so frequently critical of what others believe. How many sons and daughters would have been spared for hundreds of years if we hadn't needed to force our religious beliefs on others, whatever nation or people we were.
Preconceived notions, appearances and assumptions are the dirty windows of our lives, keeping us from seeing what the heart of the matter truly is.
I know when I hear the words "politician" or "used car salesman," certain values come to mind that may not be valid with an individual, yet I've cast them all in a certain light.
Mother Teresa saw through the appearances of circumstance to the soul beneath, saying we are all Christ in our "distressing disguises." And they aren't just sickness, homelessness or poverty. They include sarcasm, fear, wealth and shallowness.
I have no trouble seeing Christ in the struggle of an unemployed mother, but I sometimes struggle with seeing Christ in the over-indulged, pampered lifestyle of the rich and famous.
Take some time to look beneath the surface of life. Understand that your reality isn't the only "right" one and wash the windows of your heart. Even if you can't put yourself in their shoes, bless them anyway.
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