an intimate inter-faith dinner

i spent black saturday with a date at my friend and his lover's place up in the hills of rizal. i love going to his humble abode. he has this big garden, nicely maintained by his young lover (my friend is my age. lol). and they have this beautiful domestic life. over wine and eventually some beer, the discussion ranged from Leona Lewis (whom I knew nothing about) to believing and faith and being gay.

the nice thing about it was that we actually represented different belief systems: im catholic, practicing (trying), my friend is catholic, non-practicing), his lover is raised as jehovah's witness and my date is muslim. we all presented our views about our faith, how this affects our sexuality, etc. there was certainly that atmosphere of just understanding and accepting, never of judgment and "i know better"

it just makes me wonder why can't we all just co-exist like this? then my friend quotes from a book he is reading currently. we would solve all the world's problems if all the religious leaders got together and just said "my way is not the only way."

i got technical and started to think of how the 2nd law of thermodynamics, entropy, could also apply to humans. to put it rather simplistically, entropy talks about how differences in systems (pressure, temperature) will tend to equalize (or reach equilibrium) in time. low entropy is a state where systems exist (boundaries are clear) and these systems, side by side have differences (e.g. temperature difference between a glass of cold water and room). however, in time, these systems will tend towards equilibrium (a state of higher entropy) as the heat of the room will be absorbed the glass of cold water. hence, the differences will disappear in the 'mix'.

human systems currently have clear boundaries, clear delineations in sex, sexual preference, race, culture, religion. and this state of low entropy results in conflicts as the boundaries are 'protected'. but in time, these differences will hopefully disappear as human systems mix more and more (globalization), as boundaries become less 'important' and harmonious co-existence becomes more.

and in the intimate inter-faith dinner, where boundaries were not important, where there was no need to protect 'my faith' or 'my belief system', we four found a higher state of equilibrium, brought by unconditional acceptance and understanding.