My fiancee’ and I frequent a restaurant in L.A. called Real Food Daily. The concept behind the name is that their food– which is unprocessed, abundantly nutritious, and lovingly prepared– is more authentic, more “real,” than most other food.
This principle has universal applications. Original paintings are deemed more “real” than prints. Linguistically inventive people are deemed more “real” than those who repeat one-liners from TV.
Needless to say, comparing these two entities is trickier (and more controversial) than comparing paintings and prints. Every moment of every day, a gentle battle occurs between those who attend religious ceremonies and those that just “believe in something.”
How many people do you know that just “believe in something”? I’ve met far too many to keep count (and I myself belong, for the most part, to this group). They’re a raw and ragtag bunch that’s curious enough for exploration but too impatient for formalities. Which begs the question: do formalities enhance “real spirituality” or detract from it?
Let’s cast aside our existential leanings (if any) and assume that there is in fact– for lack of a more evocative term– a spirit world. If this is the case, then all of us are intrinsically connected to it, which means that accessing the spirit world (via prayer, visualization, intuition, etc.) requires no special passkeys.
Many of those that just “believe in something” like the sound of this. For them, all formally religious chants, prayers, rituals, and clothing are empty ornaments standing between the plain flesh of humanity and the sparkling blue rivers of eternity.
To my mind, such formalities do not detract from real spirituality. Whereas the concept behind Real Food Daily is both silly and wise, the concept of Reel Spirituality is just plain silly.
Consider the realm of the spirit as a house with many doors. And as for those of us that just “believe in something,” we may lack a formal name, and we may enter through the back, but I’ve no doubt that we reach the same place.
My fiancee’ and I frequent a restaurant in L.A. called Real Food Daily. The concept behind the name is that their food– which is unprocessed, abundantly nutritious, and lovingly prepared– is more authentic, more “real,” than most other food. Wise because it’s an admissible philosophy that the closer something is to its source, the more “real” it is.
Which begs the question: do formalities enhance “real spirituality” or detract from it?
Whereas the concept behind Real Food Daily is both wise and silly, the concept of Reel Spirituality is just plain silly.
