So yesterday I was reading the Dear God: website (which, incidentally, I found through the blogroll on Enna’s blog,  Kosher Porkchops). Because Enna’s blog is funny, I (mistakenly) thought all her links would lead to hilarity, and some of them do, but Dear God was NOT funny, unless you’re a sociopath (or a robot programmed by a sociopath to delight in human suffering). It was, however, an interesting window into the human condition: Fraught with uncertainty, angst, longing, secret torment, and deviant sexual urges. The idea of the website is that people can write letters to God, and then post them for the voyeuristic indulgences of all who have internet access. And, presumably, The Lord. (Because God loves the internet. After His Son showed him how to use it, of course.) The letters range from angry agnostic tirades, to pleas for miraculous events, to creepy confessionals. As you might imagine, the confessionals were the most intriguing. And there are some truly exceptional, compelling photographs.I dug around on the site looking for photo credits, but found none. So, whoever you are that’s takin’ these photos, good job.

Photo from Dear God: website.

After reading the deep, dark secrets of complete strangers, I felt a little depressed. But that’s the point of the website, I think. Not spreading depression, exactly, but as a method of unburdening oneself, however anonymously.  There’s a certain catharsis in dislosure. And this kind of broad, public unbosoming doesn’t just shift some of the heaviness onto the shoulders of one or two others; legions of readers are enlisted to carry little bits away in their pockets, sprinkling it across infinity.  After all, keeping a secret is hard work, like constantly leaning against the closet door to keep the skeletons from tumbling out and getting bone dust all over your groovy shag carpeting. I know, because I used to have lots of secrets. Sometimes you just want to leave the closet behind and go have a cocktail in the back yard. But that bone dust is nasty stuff- it just goes right through those microfilter vacuum bags, and before you know it, it’s floating around in the air and sticking to the TV screen and floating on top of the fish tank water.

The website was fascinating, from a psychological, social-science-y kind of perspective, but I don’t think I’ll be spending much time there, because mostly it made me feel sad, and conflicted. Part of me felt a little bad about reading what is essentially a prayer for entertainment, and then I wondered if the site was exploitative. But I can also see how, for the modern,”connected” (yet so totally DISconnected from other people and ourselves and the Really Important stuff) generation, writing an email to God on the internet might make perfect sense and serve as a way to organize your thoughts while interfacing with the Creator. I mean, I think God is so big that anything and everything is a potential tool for spiritual contact.

CNN? NPR? I don't think so.

This is (vaguely) related to a similar conflict I feel about listening to the news on the radio. On the one hand, I feel like I have a civic obligation to be informed about the goings-on in the world, and the deeds perpetrated in my name by my elected (or otherwise) officials. On the other hand, I often find that the news leaves me feeling cynical/pissed-off/bitter/depressed. And I have to wonder if that’s valuable. I mean, do I need to hear about a terrible earthquake in Bangladesh that killed and displaced millions of people if I can’t do anything about it? Do I need to know about the seven-car pile-up that left four people critically wounded? Is my life (or anyone else’s, for that matter) enriched by knowing about all the terrible, tragic things that happen all over the world every day? In the Olden Days (before instant and widepsread media access) people who were not directly affected by such events didn’t suffer the knowledge of them. If you knew about an earthquake, it was because it happened to you. I go back and forth about it. Civic conscience vs. blissful ignorance.

Anyway, I’d love to hear what y’all think about it. But, first a wee caveat: many of the letters to God are not, as you might expect, “family-friendly”, so if you bruise easily, maybe Dear God: isn’t for you.