There’s this really nice guy named Ted who frequents some of the same gatherings that I do who consistently wears t-shirts that cause me to smile. Ted is an unsuspecting t-shirt wearer because he’s a professional man who looks like he could be a model. A model that doesn’t wear t-shirts, but does anyway probably just to shake his image. This past weekend Ted walked into the room sporting a t-shirt with a graphic of Jesus holding his arms wide open and the caption said, “wasssup!!”.

What came to mind was “the Dude abides”.

Probably only Big Lewboski (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/) fans will agree to the reference here but suffice it to say that the Christ consciousness of my understanding, would appreciate (and perhaps even welcome the connection to) Ted’s T-shirt.

This all made me reflect once again on just how untouchable we humans can make some of the focus of our beliefs and faith by how we package them up and put them out there for the rest of the world to enjoy/understand/ignore (fill in what feels right to you here).

One of my favorite tales that I learned long ago is the one about the meatloaf that has been being made for ages in this one family. Well every time the meat loaf is made, whomever is preparing it will cut off the edges before placing it on a serving plate. As it happened, one holiday gathering three or maybe four generations of this family were in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on the meal. One of the youngest members of the tribe watched with interest (and a little humor) as her mom cut the edges off the meatloaf before placing it onto the plate which prompted her to ask why her mom cut off the edges. Before the mom could reply, the great grandmother looked up from cutting her lemon wedges and wiped a piece of hair that had fallen in her eyes with her arm and laughed as she told her great granddaughter that she had done that for years because the pan they used to cook the meatloaf in was too small to hold what the recipe called for and as they could not afford to purchase a new pan, they simply cut off the edges. The grandmother then looked up surprised because she had never thought to ask why they cut off the edges, she’d always just simply done what her mom had done. Likewise her daughter (the mother of the little girl).

I tell you this tale because although some cultures are better at telling stories and passing them down to be learned from and used by the future generations, its part of the human condition for us to pass around stories to each other about what we learn. I think that there is a good chance that some of the oldest stories we’ve been passing around and fighting over for centuries may have some tangents of the “meat loaf” syndrome in their midst without us being the wiser.

There are more than a few people who have commented on my very interesting and mixed cosmology of beliefs and today I welcome this mix because somehow the message of the Beatitudes that can be found in the New Testament coupled with my understanding of the underlying message of love and acceptance mixed in with a favorite Coen Brother’s movie spits out of my mind when I see a shirt like Ted’s to nod my head and say with a smile,

“The Dude abides man, the dude abides”.