Five Five Five

It's Cinco De Mayo kids. But not only is it Cinco De Mayo, it is the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifth year.

Or,

05.05.05

Kinda weird. You may be asking, why is it any different than other recent date alliterations like 01.01.01 or 02.02.02 etc.?

Here's how.

I am by no means a religious person. Though I attended church regularly (under my parent's regime) until I graduated from high school, went through 2 years of confirmation classes, went to Sunday School every Sunday, those days are behind me. I'll go to Christmas Eve service or Mother's Day service now and again for my mom's sake, but I soured on religion of any kind a long time ago. When the church I grew up in started handing out statements to all the members on how much they had put in the offering plate every week, I could feel the lightning bolt wrath of God was upon us. It gave me the money changers at the temple vibe. Remember how Jesus got his whoop ass on when that happened? How was this any different? Or as Bono (the aging pop star, not my duckie traveling companion) once so eloquently put it, "The God I believe in isn't short of cash mister!"

Which brings me to my point (sort of). I am not religious at all and those who push and peddle religion and wrap it around themselves like some sort of "justify anything/get out of jail free card" blanket make me ill quicker than any carnival ride that spins.

But, that is not to say that I do not believe in God or a God. I am not one of those monkeys with a "I'm Not Religious, I Just Love The Lord" bumper stickers. These are the self affirming and self congratulating morons I am talking about when I say how much I loathe organized religion of any flavor.

I believe in God because I have to. I have to believe that there is some greater power or control or judge over things. I have to believe that there is some great supernatural power that holds you accountable for your life after it's over. I simply could not go on if I didn't. If I thought for one minute that all the inconsiderate/pompous/blowhards of this world could act the ass for their entire life and treat everyone and everything in this world like their own personal toilet paper and get away with it, I'd go mad. I have to believe in a God because God is there to cash in all the Karma after these human pimples finally punch their ticket. Some power has to exist to bring them back as toilet brushes or to spend an eternity with fresh paper cuts and hemorrhoids.

I know this belief is fraught with questions and problems. What if the universe or all existence is simply not fair? What if God is nothing more than some sick Loki playing a lifetime of pranks on all of Earth's hairless monkeys? I don't have answers for all the angles and questions and problems with my beliefs. I just know that a certain number of truly good and amazing things and people have happened to me in my life that make me cheer and hope that the God is fair and good.

So I believe in God and that he uses his power for good.

Which brings me back to my point (sort of) again.

This year we get 05.05.05.

Next year we get 06.06.06., or 666. Because this year's 555 is only a year away from next year's 666, that is why I decided to bring up this year's cool date of 555. It's just because it is closer to a number that means something than the previous cool dates of 111 or 222 etc..

So here's my hot water time machine stream of consciousness diagram for today;

1. Heard on the radio that they were having a Cinco De Mayo party
2. That reminded me that it was 555
3. 555 means that next year is 666
4. 666 is the number of the beast
5. God doesn't like that number
6. But that's just what a religion says
7. I don't believe in religion
8. But I do believe in God
9. Begin tireless cycle of personal introspection and let those thoughts spill into a rambling post on the internet

Maybe I should start taking cold showers instead?