false shepherds and shellfish.

as time goes on, i've taken notice of two things that i find myself
increasingly allergic to. the first thing is something i've known
since i was eight years old, and that's an allergy to shellfish. no
shrimp, no lobster, no crabs, mussels or oysters. otherwise my throat
begins to swell up. luckily it's never been a serious enough issue
to where i needed to hit an emergency room, and my sensitivity is
at the point where if someone cooks it i don't seize up because of
the aroma. the other thing? people who perpetrate the fallacy of
believing themselves to be a supreme messenger. false shepherds in
search of a flock that will allow the wool to cover up their sight.

of course, this last bit has become more relevant to me. i was raised
in a Christian family, went to Catholic school from the 4th grade
until my junior year of high school. today, i consider myself very
spiritual, and i affirm my faith daily. i feel as if i've been blessed
to learn about and get to know the faith i was raised in, as well as
other faiths i've come in contact with. i'm at the point where it's
past religion for me, at least in the sense where one faith dominates
all. and i can see and value those people from different backgrounds
more clearly. and spot those charlatans who use faith and religion
for divisive and sinister purposes. you know the ones. pastors who
preach hate from the pulpit. the embezzlers. the deacons and those
reverends who abuse children. the imams who promote bloodshed.
clerics who feel it is right to make little girls into wives and
objects. the rabbis who denigrate women and cast stones at their
neighbors. and many more. one of the biggest hustles you can ever
pull is aided by the use of religion. and it all begins with the
person who realizes it and in turn, whittles their humanity away
like one does cheese on a grater. those people make believing a
hard thing to do. and of course, there are the atheists, who do
not believe in gods. i find some of them fall into this false
shepherd category too. mainly because to me, this group seems
more hellbent on flat-out derision to the point of spite. there
is no room for debate. in detailing what they feel is wrong with
religion, they come off sometimes as people who sound like they
were owed something and didn't get it. and in turn, sound exactly
like those religious zealots they hold up as bad examples. you
even have the doomsday prophets who come off like Biff in 'Back
To The Future' with the sports almanac.

i am writing in specifics here because i strive not to fall into
the trap of generalization. and the point is not to throw slop
on those who believe and those who don't. i'm talking about the
people who use either platform to make themselves bigger than
they are, to lead others around the nose not because they give
a shit about these people, but because it gives them a sense of
power. it strokes their ego like a client with an exotic dancer
in the champagne room. they can't see that they look stupid
because of their immediate return on their ego hustle. it draws
in the well meaning, the gullible and the indifferent. i see
strands of this on my daily jaunts through social media. funny
how technology brings certain things out of some people. there
have been more online altercations due to some perpetrating the
fraud that they know all. they're true messengers. look at
their posts and messages. note the air of supposed superiority.
all the while, they ignore the fact that it actually highlights
their weaknesses and doesn't help them get better in any way.
one of a hustler's best tools is confidence. confidence that
is designed to be so outstanding upfront. but in truth it's
like a store with a full window but no items on the shelf. i
have little tolerance for false shepherds. they take up time
and energy. which is why these days, i'm content to let them
stray out into the fields and deserts and suffer. no one needs
their wool to be taken from them in that way.

until the next time...