What Do Jesus Christ and Rudoph Have in Common

Jesus Christ and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer were both mavericks. They had the audacity not to conform, and to be leaders. In seeing the old holiday television show that I have watched many times, I was touched and saw newly the message of the importance of individuality. I had forgotten about the island of misfit toys, where a train, for instance, had square wheels, and a bird swam like a fish. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was at first shunned, like a shabby dog, handicapped person, or someone with a voice to say something DIFFERENT. Yet EVERYONE deserves love and EVERYONE can make a difference.

Jesus Christ loved everyone, even lepers, prostitutes and the poor, and did not like the tax collectors. I believe in balance, which may be different for each person, and that even ego or selfishness are good and needed at times, but not at a high rate. We saw what happened on Wall Street. Many people discard organized religion for spirituality, and others discard spirituality for organized religion. I believe that religion, spirituality, art, science, etc. can co-exist. Sometimes things are black and white and modernistic. Usually they coexist, as in Taoism, and they can in a context of God. In quantum mechanics, an electron and light are particles and waves. It’s not black and white. In fact, both church doctrine and legal laws have been changed over time. And so have even medical and scientific theories, and thank God for that! We live and learn!

The Church is important, yet everyone makes mistakes, I believe, besides Jesus Christ. Didn’t the Church, at least the Catholic one, believe that the Sun revolved around the Earth? To me no Saint, Gospel writer, Pope, priest, etc. is infallible. That’s why you have to balance what you believe by your intuition. Intuition can grow if you intend that and have common sense, and not have fear of mistakes and ridicule. Fear may lead you to use Church as a crutch, as food, drugs, hard work or anything can be used – again, balance. We see what happens in societies where people are fundamentalist. Priests, rabbis (as Jesus Christ pointed out in the Bible), doctors, parents, all of us, are human and will sometimes always go to the dark side of our personalities to seek power, praise, domination and celebrity. As with the middle road, balance, yin/yang principles, there is a time to conform and a time not to conform and be like Jesus Christ and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Prayer and Church reading/attendance is important. But why make a cross or fast if you don’t get the mature spirituality aspect of religion? If you have that, it is not that important to make the cross, fast, etc. For instance, if a writer knows the grammar rules well, they can be creative and change them around like some poets and produce a masterpiece. More important than prayer is finding something for which to take a stand and make a difference. I quickly thought of many outliers/mavericks who took a chance and revolutionized the world: Jesus Christ, Socrates, Freud, Jung, Einstein, Graham, Mandela, Gandhi, Washington, Susan B. Anthony, Dr. King, to name a few.