This poem
reflects just what its title suggests, a conversation overheard in a café.
I have included it in my new collection. I came away from that cafe feeling
more than a little relieved that I am not alone in finding the various world
religions divisive.
Societies
force-feed us religion from childhood. It is
reassuring to know that some people manage to take the better (kinder, more
compassionate?) elements of religion while sidelining the rest,
breaking away from the dogma while retaining its spirituality in the way
they take other people as they find them...without rushing to judgment as so
many religious-minded folks are inclined. It is not religion that is at fault,
but many of those who preach it, selecting to home in on whatever suits their
own agenda; an agenda that may well have far less to do with
religion than its founders intended.
Let's be
clear here. I am not knocking religion, only those who use it to their own
advantage, frequently feeding a desire for influence and power that is
contrary to all the principles upon which faith and religion are meant to turn.
It is to
their credit that a good many followers of this or that religion are by no
means as gullible as their self-styled leaders appear to believe, proving
that religion does not have to be as divisive as their
so-called 'betters' paradoxically insist.
As for
me, regular readers will know only too well that I take my spirituality from
nature.
(Image taken from the Internet)
OVERHEARD
IN A CAFÉ (A SIGN OF THE TIMES?)
What
would we do without religion,
where
would we be?
For a
start, we’d have a kinder world,
less
bigotry
What
would we do without religion
telling
us what to say?
For a
start, commonsense might just
win the
day
What
would we do without religion
putting
us in our place?
For a
start, love and peace, not about
saving
face
What
would we do without religion,
no God to
blame?
For a
start, a common humanity living
up to its
name
Where
would we be without religion
separating
us out,
Holy
Books vying with each other to
put us
right?
Where
would we be without religion
promising
salvation
for all
the guilt, despair and grief
it feeds
upon?
Where
would we be without religion,
what
would we have done?
For a
start, arguing over some other
rhetorical
question
Yes,
waiter, more tea and cakes please
and…any
answers?
[From: On The Battlefields of Love by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010]
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