watch your back
Jun. 8th, 2006 10:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyjadwigaToday the drive in to work was total chaos. I was late, and we have now reached the point where there are 6 different work zones in my 45 mile commute, and even after 9:00 am there are points where it takes 10-20 minutes to go 2 miles because the road is at capacity. I have become somewhat used to NJ traffic but after the 3rd car IN A ROW cut me off, I was out of patience.
That 3rd car-- had a "Smile God Loves You" bumper sticker on it.
To prove that I am evil, I rolled down my window and shouted, "Would Jesus drive like that?" (No, I don't have Intermittent Rage Disorder. I'm just an irritable bitch.)
Then I started thinking about it. I've been thinking about my learned reactions lately. (For instance, in general, I feel I'm more likely to be in a bad driving situation precipitated by a white male driver than any other type, followed by elderly white ladies and young males of any race. That doesn't mean that all white males, elderly women, or young men are bad drivers, it just means that the people who drive badly around me tend toward those groups.)
As a compulsive reader, I notice bumper stickers. Certain types of stickers-- such as W or Bush/Cheney stickers -- tend to signal me to drive cautiously around them. I'm wary of cars with either Jesus Fish or Darwin Fish (though I am more nervous about Darwin Fish drivers, probably because of their iconoclastic reputation). "Jesus is my Co-pilot" is somewhat worrying, but i find "My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter" usually a good sign. But what about the pagan stickers? What do I think? Well, if there are a lot, I tend to be cautious as they may be the only thing holding the car together. If the stickers are insulting, I am also cautious. Otherwise, I'm more likely to park next to a pagan than think driving near them is comforting. :)
Getting back to my shouted insult: for those of us who are Pagans, are there good role models in our Gods and Goddesses for What would [Diety] do? Let's face it: Generally no, at least among the Goddesses. Consider the Chant: Isis Astarte Diana Hecate Demeter Kali Inanna. How would they drive?
Isis? Are you kidding? She's that well-coiffed senior citizen driving a sports car to the public danger down in Florida. Astarte is right next to her in a large late model Lexus. And Diana/Artemis? Does the phrase "daddy's spoiled little girl" mean anything? Hecate. . . eep. Driving an ancient compact car in Boston with a "My other car is a broomstick" sticker and scaring even the other MA drivers. Demeter? Maybe, but obviously struck with intermittent road rage and a tendency to stop in cornfields. Kali? Let's just not go there. Inanna... let alone Ereshkrigal... eep.
Juno and Freya are out there in SUVs talking on cell phones. Juno/Hera by all accounts would make anyone who talked to her want to give her tranquilizers and the number of a good divorce lawyer. Freya's setting up her dates for the next month. Aphrodite blows by her in a white convertible. Athene is driving a socially concious small car, but she's so wound up from being the only female law partner/professor in her department that she'd run you off the road without noticing. Hestia is the one driving quietly in the right lane, dedicatedly 3 miles below the speed limit and letting everyone in front of her. Oya and Yemanja? not gonna go there... The Norns are those wierd ladies you meet in a station wagon on a back road where you can't pass and you can't speed up...
In general, maybe that's the appeal that Christianity had. Few of the pagan gods and goddesses are really friendly and 'nice'. Generally they have their faults. Ok, the Jewish G-d certainly had a severe rage disorder as well. But Jesus? Generally a nice guy, if sometimes showing his roots as the oldest/only boy in his nice Jewish family... terribly bullied by the women in his life; means well; appears to have only one serious outburst of rage, and it's against rich people... well, that could be appealling. As Douglas Adams put it, "Nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change..." Probably wouldn't cut people off in traffic too much. Generally not a major speeder. Probably passes on the left...
That 3rd car-- had a "Smile God Loves You" bumper sticker on it.
To prove that I am evil, I rolled down my window and shouted, "Would Jesus drive like that?" (No, I don't have Intermittent Rage Disorder. I'm just an irritable bitch.)
Then I started thinking about it. I've been thinking about my learned reactions lately. (For instance, in general, I feel I'm more likely to be in a bad driving situation precipitated by a white male driver than any other type, followed by elderly white ladies and young males of any race. That doesn't mean that all white males, elderly women, or young men are bad drivers, it just means that the people who drive badly around me tend toward those groups.)
As a compulsive reader, I notice bumper stickers. Certain types of stickers-- such as W or Bush/Cheney stickers -- tend to signal me to drive cautiously around them. I'm wary of cars with either Jesus Fish or Darwin Fish (though I am more nervous about Darwin Fish drivers, probably because of their iconoclastic reputation). "Jesus is my Co-pilot" is somewhat worrying, but i find "My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter" usually a good sign. But what about the pagan stickers? What do I think? Well, if there are a lot, I tend to be cautious as they may be the only thing holding the car together. If the stickers are insulting, I am also cautious. Otherwise, I'm more likely to park next to a pagan than think driving near them is comforting. :)
Getting back to my shouted insult: for those of us who are Pagans, are there good role models in our Gods and Goddesses for What would [Diety] do? Let's face it: Generally no, at least among the Goddesses. Consider the Chant: Isis Astarte Diana Hecate Demeter Kali Inanna. How would they drive?
Isis? Are you kidding? She's that well-coiffed senior citizen driving a sports car to the public danger down in Florida. Astarte is right next to her in a large late model Lexus. And Diana/Artemis? Does the phrase "daddy's spoiled little girl" mean anything? Hecate. . . eep. Driving an ancient compact car in Boston with a "My other car is a broomstick" sticker and scaring even the other MA drivers. Demeter? Maybe, but obviously struck with intermittent road rage and a tendency to stop in cornfields. Kali? Let's just not go there. Inanna... let alone Ereshkrigal... eep.
Juno and Freya are out there in SUVs talking on cell phones. Juno/Hera by all accounts would make anyone who talked to her want to give her tranquilizers and the number of a good divorce lawyer. Freya's setting up her dates for the next month. Aphrodite blows by her in a white convertible. Athene is driving a socially concious small car, but she's so wound up from being the only female law partner/professor in her department that she'd run you off the road without noticing. Hestia is the one driving quietly in the right lane, dedicatedly 3 miles below the speed limit and letting everyone in front of her. Oya and Yemanja? not gonna go there... The Norns are those wierd ladies you meet in a station wagon on a back road where you can't pass and you can't speed up...
In general, maybe that's the appeal that Christianity had. Few of the pagan gods and goddesses are really friendly and 'nice'. Generally they have their faults. Ok, the Jewish G-d certainly had a severe rage disorder as well. But Jesus? Generally a nice guy, if sometimes showing his roots as the oldest/only boy in his nice Jewish family... terribly bullied by the women in his life; means well; appears to have only one serious outburst of rage, and it's against rich people... well, that could be appealling. As Douglas Adams put it, "Nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change..." Probably wouldn't cut people off in traffic too much. Generally not a major speeder. Probably passes on the left...
