Rusuk & Religious Symbols
Roger Bara

It is certainly not “The” bible, which, as a child, I was forced to read by my horrible church; just how distressing is it to read how this wonderful God of ours is so hell bent on an eternity of revenge for the unfaithful? 

Religious Symbol 4

Luckily, I was brought up by loving parents and was, eventually, able to make my mind up about God, the Universe, women, and more importantly in later life, wine.

My bible is so simple that anyone could write it, and at any time in history.

Treat everyone around you, everyone to whom you come into contact, with respect, and empathy. You don’t know anything about most people you meet, so never assume anything. And hopefully, they will treat you likewise.

Religious Symbol 1

If they don’t, walk away. Don’t confront, it’s never worth it. If you hate me, frankly, that’s your problem. I don’t give a shit. It might help if you told me, to my face, why you hate me, but let’s face it, that’s never going to happen.

Tell the truth. Then you never have to lie. Simples! A few home truths never hurt anybody.

I ask myself this every day: Why do you want to hurt everybody so much? Why do you moan incessantly? Why are you so fucking negative all the time? Why can you not see the glass half full? Why do you think, for one moment, the earth is flat?? Why would NASA stage a moon landing, you utter fuckwits? Why don’t you get the vaccine, you unbelievably ignorant cretins?

I have no answer to these questions, so my bible has a few empty pages while I decide how I should handle the world’s most pathetic people. I am at this time finding it difficult to unearth the empathy to deal with them.

My bible says rejoice in everyone’s success. Don’t be jealous, but instead let their success inspire you to greater things. And most of all, be thankful for what you have and not what you aspire to. There is always time for improvement.  

Amen.


What is my Bible?

Photograph of Dean Lewis

The question itself provides the answer. Simply calling a Holy Book a Bible means you are Christian. It’s one of many things the three of us share, we are all from conservative, Christian leaning countries. Roger perhaps less so than Sergey & Dean. But the basic premise still holds.

Religious Symbol 3

While I didn’t think of the topic, it has fascinated me in the past. You would think that someone who was contemplating his very soul would do some real research: this is serious business and concerns your afterlife. If you are religious, I would think this is perhaps the most important question you would ever be called to answer.

Of course, I’m wrong… again. It seems folks just kind of commit their entire soul based on their street address. Nothing more. Before you scoff, may I offer the following evidence? Why are all the people from a given area the same religion? So, I’m expected to believe that everybody born in Central America just happened to be Catholic? They all looked carefully at each religion and by some magic settled on the same branch of the same belief?

Religious Symbol 5

I would guess that if you plan to commit your immortal soul to any religion, you would review each religion and try to find the one that most closely matched your inner compass. This would require a serious, open mind and several days of reading. 

Now if you follow my logic, you would think a map of religions around the world would be very defuse. Maybe a few hot-spots here and there but overall the world’s religions would be distributed across the globe in certain percentages. Maybe one religion a bit more popular, but still just one of many. Naw, that would mean you took this seriously. 

OK, obviously people do take it seriously, but it doesn’t look like they gave the matter much thought before making the big commitment. Am I really the only one who sees the stupidity in this? I hate the smart assed remark where Mom says “well if Jimmy jumped off a cliff, I suppose you would too?” But when it comes to your immortal soul, the answer appears to be yes.

Religious Symbol 6

I do understand that as a small child, you have little choice in the matter. Your parents believe in Hinduism, Buddhism, or whatever and they don’t ask your opinion, they want you to have a “good start” and they define that as you should believe whatever they do. There is a logic to this and I cannot fault the parents for wanting their child to read The Quran or The Hadiths and drink in God’s Divine gifts.

But what happens when you turn twenty? It appears that few people ever ask serious questions like What is my Bible? It really is odd to my way of thinking and doesn’t bode well for the future of man, we simply go with whatever we are told. So yeah, getting that vaccine will make you magnetic and silverware really, really does stick to these sheeple.


What is my Bible? 

Our Rusuk Blog writer Sergey

I don’t believe in God so, technically, I shouldn’t talk about the Bible even for myself in such terms. 

Religious Symbol 7

But I do believe in myself, so now the Bible talk runs smooth here. Let’s call it a personal code. 

My first rule is that I do not respect people who get money without actually earning it. You might be rich or poor but you have to earn it. Working is essential.  

In Russia’s case, people who don’t earn it; the mob (which is a vanishing breed now in its pure form) and the so-called syloviki, i.e. the folks who work in security/law enforcement and get rich out of briberies or racket, etc. They’re the mob now.  I know a guy from Kazan, a smart one, working in law enforcement, high rank, just around my age, but, gosh, you won’t buy such a house or a car on your legal income. Shame… to me. But… he is in this system so you have to follow its rules. In America he would have been jailed… Here he is, just a tiny element of the big frame. 

This is called corruption. Those guys are crippled inside and they symbolize my country today. Bad. I do hate those corrupt non-productive jerks. 

Religious Symbol 8

Second, you’re kind of in a position to argue with women but not in a position to touch them in a violent way. This is obvious. 

What else? 

I think a man has to be strong and stylish at the same time. Probably sounds weird but to me it looks pretty clear. Hard to achieve, too. I mean, face your problems straight away, solve it and don’t go whining. Not an easy task to me, personally, but it is nice to be able to do it, even occasionally. Stay cool even if shit happens much more than once in your life. 

But the biggest thing, like the US3 band puts it, is to be true to the game. To be yourself. Then you will act naturally in, basically, any life aspect. If you’re true, then your actions are true, too. Then you would trust yourself. It is very important to behave it this way, I guess.  

My personal code might look a bit chaotic. Still, these are some tangible pieces that make up my perception of life.