I came across this meme/photo, and it resonated profoundly with me. Life is a masquerade ball, religion a competitive game. I played the game and wore the mask for the first half of my life, but the mask didn’t fit, and I didn’t like the rules. In 1990, I promised myself and, if there were a God, that I would be honest at all costs, vulnerable, and real. It has given me, in some respects, a hellish row to hoe—the religious use my honesty as a weapon against me… following their competitive game. But I wouldn’t do it differently if I could. If there is a God, and I think there is, God would live in reality, in truth, in raw emotions, and with no pretense, not incarcerated within religion. Not in the pocket of fools.

Respectively, Mike