My Life and Times Part VIII

Birmingham wasn’t really all that bad a place, actually. The city itself was a lot greener than Newark or New York City (with the exceptions of NYC’s parks, which Birmingham really can’t hold a candle to), and by and by the people were actually polite! Heck, they even decided to forgo burning a cross in our yard out of their famed Southern Hospitality. (Ok, I know that’s not really a philosophy, but on the off chance you count it, I get one more reference.) However, as I soon learned, this was not instinctual. The ever-present hospitality was in fact a learned behavior that took many years to fully master. To this end, the children growing up in our town were just as rude as anyone else, but had the unfortunate added detriment of also being devout Southern Baptists. Their ridiculous devotion to churches they cared very little about in their everyday lives, and really only frequented out of habit or parental strong-arming put a large distaste in my mouth. The idea of God being such a wonderful thing was quickly fading, despite the possibility of an upcoming Bar Mitzvah. It was around the time of this realization that I also became increasingly aware of world news. My newfound attraction to Nation Public Radio and Garrison Keillor had widened my eyes as to the scope of the world. In a sort of congregation of ideas, my perception of a god began to change. My formerly Aristotelian creation took on a newer form that better fit my current life. I now viewed God as more in tune with nature, in a way much more consistent with Deism than anything else. Even though I still occasionally went to temple (hey, the rabbi lived down the street, what would you do?), I put much less faith in religion (pardon the pun) and the supernatural.