Now there’s a word I don’t like: spiritual. Heard in these contexts: ‘I’m not religious or anything, but I am very spiritual…’ -or- ‘yeah, you know, he’s all spiritual and shit.’ Spritual people supposedly tap into the grand essence that is, the great non-materialistic who-knows-what, all without the aid of organized religion. In general, they are rather wheat-grassy, herbal, and unwashed. Only the last adjective is essential. Spiritual people are the Great Unwashed. But that, of course, is hitting rather below the belt.
It’s supposedly about truth, justice, and the beauty of things, inner
oneness and all that crap, but really, it’s just about getting a bigger
piece of the pie. Yes, in the cosmic bakery that is beyond human understanding,
there is the pie of holy consequence—usually reserved for gun-toting Christians, political parties, and other fundamentalists, it has of late become of especial interest to the Spiritual.
Don’t get me wrong. There are sincerely spiritual people. Just not very many.