Existing Is Fun

Institutionalized spirituality has never appealed to me. How is it that one is supposed to be able to find what should -- according to all sources -- be an individual experience within a strongly collectivist one?

Well, if not institutionalized spirituality, then what?

Why not an awe and amazement for the science that came together over gazillions of years that ultimately resulted in humans even existing, that ultimately resulted in each one of us getting to experience this very moment?

I would never refer to this as "spirituality". Instead, I think it's acknowledgement of reality and a gratitude that you could be so lucky as to come together as you did -- even if it's only temporary. It's a reminder that you are lucky enough to have a chance to do good things that could contribute to moving the species forward. It's an awareness of your responsibility as a component of the universe. It's a wonder over how the heck it even came to be and a giddiness that you got to see even the tiniest speck of the big picture.

There's a sense that, without some form of spirituality, we are threatened with the possibility of being taken over by a collective megalomania. It's said that without some sense that there's something else out there, we become our own gods. (Alternatively, of course, celebrities or athletes or kings or designer labels can take on the role.) And, to be fair, this does seem possible. I have ranted time and again about the ickiness of North American culture and how we seem to be a little... lost. But institutionalized spirituality is still around and "better' than ever-- see politics and war for evidence -- so perhaps these aren't the connecting points at all.

Why do people feel so uncomfortable with the idea that children might not be raised with this traditional "spirituality" component? How can the feeling that you're just a tiny piece of the gazillion amazing things that happen every second spur megalomania? How can the concept that you're incredibly fortunate to even get to exist go horribly wrong? How can having the awe we all so admire in children for the whole time you're around be so troubling?