Some people in the world, you just will not click with, even if they are people you share religious beliefs with. This may be for many reasons. In this case, I believe the people in question believe they know all, or are pretty damn close to knowing all. They presume to know motivations just based on a quick perusal. That is a pet peeve of mine. That, and being patronized. Nothing will set me off faster.
Being Wiccan is not a phase for me, it’s not about following a trend, and I would not encourage anything or anyone I suspected of calling themselves Pagan just to fit in or follow a trend. I believe in being yourself and finding the people who can accept that. I is what I is, as the saying goes among my friends.
There are some Pagans out there who are on the path just because it is what is cool to them at the moment. There are Pagans who call themselves Pagan just for the hell of it. I admit these things, but I also recognize that most of the Pagans I’ve met are nothing like that. They are on the path because it feels right to them on a deeply spiritual level, and most of them also happen to have strong personalities and a strong sense of individuality. They are not going to bend who they are to please anyone. And the fact that they openly admit to being Pagan is evidence of that.
Pagans with strong personalities are bound to clash, but it’s one thing to argue, and quite another to just completely rub each other the wrong way with everything that comes out of your mouth. Perhaps if we met in person, these people would not have made me so upset with their comments, but on Facebook where it is hard to judge the tone of someone’s voice when reading their comments, it can get a little hairy. And it did.
Let me ask my readers a question. If you were told about a page called One Million Pagans, would you see it as a group of people who are just following a trend? Would you think of it as blog fodder? Consider the opposite side of the coin, if it was a One Million Christians page. You do not think that people join just for the sake of show, you think they join to show the numbers of people out there who believe. That was the whole purpose of One Million Pagans and I think this group I shared the page with completely missed that point. Even when I reposted and explained, they still did not get it. They tried to spit out some crap explaining to me about what Paganism is. I am not an idiot and I am not new to this game. I know the word Pagan is an umbrella term and the definition is often debated. Explaining all of this to me when I am telling you point blank why this page was created was a little silly.
They know so much that the simple concept of showing the world that Pagans (under the definition of believing in multiple gods, just for clarity’s sake) are here and have numbers and are not going anywhere completely blew their minds. They could not understand it. It was a joke to them, blog fodder. I was fuming when I read that particular comment. I was in a Xbox Live party at the time and my friends got an earful while I ranted about how stupid those people were. But then I realized that they’re not stupid. They just do not think the way I do. And the way they respond to things is not like I would.
So, as I stated earlier, some people you just do not click with and will not click with, even if they are among the few people in your life that you can count as sharing something as personal as religious beliefs. You can still be civil and exchange information when it comes up, but I am always wondering when those magic online friendships I keep hearing about will pop up for me. It is probably not going to happen with this particular group of people. Disagree, get over it, and move on. That’s the way to be I suppose.
Perhaps this blog is a bit of an overreaction, but I am also basing my opinion off of other posts I’ve seen within the group. I think this can fall under the random ravings of a broke college kid. Dang, I was trying to escape that trend! Oh well. Maybe next time. ^_^
P.S. Next week’s blog is going to be something I’ve been thinking on for a while and am dying to write about. Curious? Check back next Monday.
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