The Humble Rock Dove

The main things I have done this evening are making a very basic, simple (and cheesy) pasta dish, eating it, then doing my task of cleaning the main television room. Then, I logged in to my PC, and promptly failed quite badly, at playing Total War, Warhammer III.

Outside is a deep and dreary pastel light, from the sky of said color, with all houses, surfaces, road and gardens, trees and footpaths all painted with this – the sky’s chosen evening hue.

I’ve had a few cans of “Kratendaeng” Red Bull. The original version from somewhere like Thailand. It’s flat and way more potent. To calm my heart and nerves after a few cans, I began to think and thank. Thinking about all the things I am so extremely grateful for, as I always do. Regularly, and suggest anyone and everyone do the same. It starts, after clearing the mind of all, then being so thankful for your first breath in that blank state, and then the life that depends on each breath, from there on. Genuinely, very, very glad to be still alive, well, and functioning… and, surviving, still!

In an open confessional style, I think of all actions considered, not all choices made, and not all statements said, hit the mark. Nearly at all, sometimes. I remind myself then, that everyone significant, that I can think of, has realms of things they’d rather not have. (If they have a good heart, that is.) Otherwise, those realms are just logically barricaded from public sight, as pure strategy of survival, and sense. Secrets, if you will.

I am thinking, now, along the lines of the topic of sin. Well, what IS “sin”? For thousands upon thousands of years, sin was the breaking of religious laws. So the prime example of that would be breaking one of the 613 laws given to Moses, including the ten commandments, that are written in the first five books of the old testament. Sin was very clearly defined as breaking one of these 613, that governed every aspect of life, death, everything in between, and sacrifice. That is what sin was.

Then Christ died. That changed everything. He himself became sin, to remove sin for the entire world. He did not die for the righteous, but for sinners, we are told. Christ took atonement for the sins of everyone, should they believe in him. This is at the very heart of Christian doctrine and belief.

Then, I don’t know how many centuries passed, before a prominent set of individuals – Christians, Christ Bearers, witnesses, and Christ worshippers, known now as the Desert Fathers, came up with eight sins. Then an early pope decided “pride” was more of a father to the other seven. And so, thanks to these prominent Christians, many have concepts, and a framework of what is commonly accepted to be sinful.

I have also heard, and taken note of St Paul the apostle, saying “everything is permitted, but not everything is helpful” which is almost certainly groundwork for a redefining of what it means to sin, post-Moses’ laws.

That concludes a brief report on what I have learned about what “sin” is, and means, to a lot of people, before and after Christ, and his crucifixion. I also have seen first hand and experienced a form of democratic, or a delving away from what the masses deem acceptable. That can be considered sinful too, and Christian-wise, that type seems to be very common in Catholic faith, and with Bolsheviks and Communists (although they don’t call it “sin”)

Times change also, and systems degenerate over time, so the commonplace, common sense style of “sin” becomes hazy and lost, often, as civilizations fall, as they tend to do. But this type of sin is the most basic and commonly understood type of doing a bad thing. “Why did you do that?” Says one man, to another. “You know in your heart that was the wrong thing to do! Everyone in the world knows better than to do that!” Usually sitting on a closed book of their own transgressions of their own. Which leads me on to how the most commonplace view of what sin is, to the public, seems the most robust, but is actually the most frail, as we can see, what’s thought of as right or wrong, in the eyes of the public, is subject to change, and is spiraling outward, as each new chapter of life opens.