MIND THE SPIRIT What do you

What Do You Believe?

Questions of Faith

BY STEPHEN SINCLAIR

I once had a friend, Benny, a birthright Quaker, who had over the course of his life become an atheist. After battling lung cancer for several years, his body started to weaken, and he was put on hospice care. One afternoon as I was sitting by his bed, I asked him what he believed awaited him after death. He said he thought it would be peaceful, like lying in a mountain meadow. I then asked him what he would do after he died and saw that there was a God. He replied, “I would look him in the eye and categorically deny existence!” Benny died peacefully.

Bob, another elder friend of mine, was raised Roman Catholic, but had left the faith and considered himself agnostic. When his health began to quickly fail him, I encouraged him to figure out what he believed awaited him at death. He made attempts to do this but found it overwhelming and kept putting it off. Bob didn’t have a peaceful death.

Many of us embrace the tenets of various faiths and the theologies and doctrines that instruct one about the meaning of life and what awaits us after our time on earth. However, many people do not subscribe to any faith tradition and are atheist or agnostic. In my work as a pastor and chaplain, I encourage people to engage in the process of theology regardless of whether they believe in a deity. I stress that it is important at any stage of our lives to really know what it is we believe, something that is especially true in our later years.

Over time, I developed a workshop to help people construct their own theologies. Here are 10 of the main questions:

1What moral principles guide your life?

Most everyone learns from an early age the difference between right and wrong, either by direct instruction from caregivers, through religious teachings, or by observation of the adults in their lives. We rarely think much about what ethics, morals, and codes of behavior inform our attitudes and actions. Reflecting on them and then writing them down shows us who we really are.

2What is the purpose of life? Contemplating this makes it possible for one to begin to articulate one’s core values.

3What is Love? Is it simply an emotion? A dynamic force at work in the universe? From where does it originate? Is it the opposite of hate or is it something else entirely? Are their limits to your ability to love unconditionally?

4Do you have a Higher Self? If so, how do you connect with it? Most people sense that there is more than one aspect of what is called “I.”

5What brings you joy? This sounds like an easy question, but often is more difficult to answer for those in the latter part of their lives who often are no longer able to do many of the thing they once enjoyed.

6What does creation and the idea of infinity

mean to you? The answer to this isn’t always easy to formulate as we often have feelings about them that cannot be expressed with words.

7Where is God/the Divine/Greater Reality

in the world? Those who are religious will have an easier time with this. However, even members of faith traditions do not subscribe wholly to the dogma and doctrine of those systems of belief.

8Are there other dimensions of existence?

Children continually engage in fantasy so they can respond to this easier than adults who, for the most part, no longer allow themselves to do this.

9What are miracles? Many will say that miracles can be explained scientifically, but for those who have experienced miraculous things this does not hold true.

10What happens when we die? Even religious people may not be sure and for others, it simply doesn’t matter.

These questions may sound straightforward but can be challenging for those not in the habit of selfexamination.

Whether you’re a devout religious believer, a humanist, or a spiritual seeker, you can benefit greatly by engaging with these questions. When one knows who they are, why they’re here, and what awaits them, they do, indeed, find peace.

Stephen Sinclair lives in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Earlier in his life he enjoyed a career in show business while working out of New York and Chicago. A career as an ordained Unitarian Universalist parish minister and a hospital chaplain followed. Most recently, he worked with the homeless, and is a weekly volunteer visitor at the Monroe Correctional Complex.

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HELP CRAIGSLIST GIGS WANTED

How to find brief, interesting jobs that offer cash and opportunities to meet new people. BY JANE ADAMS

Here’s how I spent my summer vacation: • Participated in a clinical trial for a vaccine against a respiratory virus for people over 65. • Spent a couple of hours having my motions “captured” for an artificial intelligence project. • Took part in three different micro-gesture studies with sensors on my hands being tracked on computers as I followed on-screen instructions. • Brought my dog to a warehouse in South Seattle, where a camera followed both of us as we moved around a room.

She sniffed and scampered and played with a toy that quickly became her favorite. Fortunately, she was allowed to take it home. • Had my blood drawn for a cancer research project. • Joined a mock jury to provide feedback on legal arguments in a civil suit against a contractor. • Participated in a smartphone app study from a Texas university. •Joined a consumer panel that pays for opinions on everything from TV shows to mobile banking. • Recorded candidate speeches at a political picnic (and heard them in ads for the opposing candidate two weeks later!)

Here’s how much “pin money” I made: $600, plus two Amazon gift cards worth $100 each!

Not bad for a mostly retired senior, said my upstairs neighbor Kristi, who turned me on to my favorite new activity—checking out the gigs on Craigslist and finding brief, interesting jobs that offer not only cash but opportunities to meet new people, connect with a (mostly) younger crowd of techno wizards, and expand my world. Kristi scours the site daily for jobs that often involve more standing around than I’m comfortable doing. She checks vaccination cards at events that require them, drives around the Sound to count pallets at Costco, waters plants regularly for people who are on vacation, takes tickets at sporting events, and signs up for studies aimed at people who are slightly younger than me, which she is. We both take a lot of “screeners,” which weed out certain demographics, but when one of us qualifies, we usually refer the other, which adds a sum to the credit cards they use to pay us.

The last thing I do at night is check the newest items on the gig list. I ignore the ones for delivery drivers, warehouse helpers and day laborers, migraine studies, and egg donors, but there’s usually a new project that I qualify for. I don't answer any postings that require me to show up alone at any place that's obviously not a legitimate business or event or office building. My rule of thumb is, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and scams are unfortunately prevalent.

Last month I answered an interesting request from a man seeking someone to accompany him to an art auction, dinner, and dancing. He posted a picture of a man in his 70’s or so, but didn’t request one of me, which I thought was gentlemanly. We had a couple of email exchanges, and I dusted off my dancing shoes, but he might have been put off by my selfdescription as a “woman of a certain age,” since he didn’t contact me after that.

On a day when there’s too much white space on my calendar and too little pin money in my checking account, www.craigslist.com/seattlegigs is the place to be.

Jane Adams, PhD, is a writer, coach, and social psychologist. She is the author of 12 books, including When Our Grown Kids Disappoint Us, and a contributing writer for Psychology Today.