Amanda Mendez - My Credo

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Amanda Mendez

My Credo, 2006

I believe in love. Maybe this makes me a crazy Bohemian hippy, but I

really believe in love more than anything else. It is what I value most in life, and I

think it is the greatest strength of the human spirit. My view of the divine in the

universe is based in this, that love is not only the defining force of humanity, but

of the entire universe, and that this is basically what the God/Goddess is: a

force made up of the entire universe's love. I personally can't imagine a force

more powerful or more wonderful.

This is not to say that I think everyone's heart is filled with happiness

and light all the time. Instead, I believe that human nature is more of a balance

between the two extremes of "good and evil." Each person's nature includes the

potential for great kindness and for great unkindness. In general, people do not

fill their potential either way, and simply live somewhere in the middle,

sometimes doing "good" things and sometimes doing "bad" things, but not

usually extremes of either.

I did not always have such an optimistic view of the world; I was raised

from a very young age to believe that everyone is bad and sinful. I was raised to

be afraid of the world, afraid of everything and everyone in it, and most of all,

afraid of what will happen to me when I die. Therefore, I spent a great deal of

my childhood being afraid of all these things, and went through a lot of turmoil

during high school, trying to decide if I still believed all that. Although I decided

that I certainly did not, I was uncertain what I did believe, and this is really the

first time that I have tried to fully qualify my beliefs since.

When I decided that I no longer held my old beliefs to be true, I still

kept one truth; that I should be always compassionate to others. I also kept,

but slightly changed, the concept that "God is love." I just believe it more

literally now, and without the concepts of sin and condemnation that the

Christian version of love seems to entail.

Love is also the most valued part of my own life. I can't imagine

living without my family, both biological and created, because they my source

of love, and I give them unconditional love. I feel that the whole point of my

life is to help others, especially my family, as much as I can. I want to help

my family first, my community next, and reach out from there. I believe love

is the real force behind wanting to help anyone, true love for all other people.

It is what I strive for, although I certainly have not reached it yet.

11400 Morris Bridge Road * Tampa, FL 33637 * Phone 813-988-8188