pikachu i choose you

Does being grateful make you happier? Does a deep reverence for the universe, its intricate workings and its bountiful mysteries invoke an awe that in turn fosters an all encompassing connection with all that is? There's a great big mostly empty, ever expanding balloon that we're all floating in. One day our fortunes will reverse, and it will begin to deflate and collapse in upon itself, and us. As for now, we're still here, living, breathing, this is a very nice way to be. I suppose I should be thankful.

Does mediating your experience of the sublime through a chosen deity increase your ability to transcend the banal elements of reality, allowing a greater way to reach out and grasp the divine? The godless among us have wondered "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful, without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too." Take the world at face value, embellishment effaces its beauty. Others of the same persuasion have pointed to faulty design as proof positive that The Designer is incompetent at best, but more likely non-existent. For the atheist (and I am one of them) the world is simultaneously beautiful and ugly, and both forms of aesthetic indicate that there is no god.

In spite of this, (and many far more compelling reasons not to believe) I am still fond of the notion of worship as a means of appreciation for, and recognition that I am not the center of (I often forget), the universe. My two favorite authors -- and now we move to men who make up worlds rather than obsess over the "real" one -- Alan Moore, and Grant Morrison, are iconoclasts in the realm of beliefs. The former worships Glycon an ancient Roman hand puppet/snake god, the latter believes he was abducted by aliens and has had personal visitations from Superman. Both believe in magic. Such audacity in the face of our sometimes soul crushing modernity. I would love to try on different gods as one might a pair of shoes or other items of clothing. I'm not fond of snakes per se, but Ozomahtli, an Aztek monkey god? Now there's a definite possibility. That will do for now.