I am not Good; I am not Bad. Neither are you.

This is a theory of mine, but it only works with a Christian mindset, or at least a mind, set in the belief that no one is perfect.

Everyone is born both good and evil because we are not perfect. This is what I wholeheartedly believe. I also believe, that at the end of days, every single person -- EVERYONE -- is still composed of good and evil, no matter the choices and actions they have made and taken. And, if someone is composed of both good AND evil, then no one is good and no one is evil. I can almost see the names and faces flashing through your mind at this moment in contest to that statement: Hitler, Mother Theresa, Virgin Mary, etc., etc. Just bear with me.

Imagine with me that everything under the sun is tangible: all emotions, all actions, all choices, all souls, all adjectives, all adverbs; everything can be touched. Now imagine that your soul is nothing but a scale. On one side rests one piece of Good, and on the other, an equal amount of Evil. This is what you are born with, and it cannot be taken away because it is one in the same with the composition of your soul.

After you are born with this scale of Good and Evil, you are set on a road, and as anyone who has ever been exposed to any sort of archetypical literature knows, that road is Life (cliche, I know, but it helps prove my point). At every fork in Life, you have pieces of Good and Evil to show the nature and/or outcome of the choice you make at that side of the fork. The piece you pick up depends on the side you choose to continue on your voyage, and the piece is added to the appropriate side. For example, and at the risk of over-explaining, if you choose what is good, then you pick up Good and add it to the side of the scale where your other Good is. This causes, of course, that side to weigh more than the other. At the end of Life, then, your scale is proof of the amount and kinds of choices you have made, judging by the side of the scale tipped closest to the ground. However, because you must at least have ONE piece on either side that you were born with permanently in your soul, you cannot ever be labeled as a Good Person or a Bad Person.

"Good" and "Bad" are separate and distinct things and can only be used to describe something composed ENTIRELY of one or the other, but not both. Like light and dark: if a room is filled with light and has no shadows, then the room is light. If a room is completely void of light, then it is dark. However, if a room has both light and darkness in it, then the room is neither and both. Depending on the amount of light or dark, though, it can be filled with more of one than the other. People are the same. Because we all have good and bad in us, we cannot be fully good or bad, but we can be neither and both all at once. That doesn't mean that some of us aren't filled with more good than bad or vice versa.

This is very different from the normal aspect on humanity, I think. Because so many people label others as a "good person" or a "bad person," it suggests that instead of adding to the scale as they go along, all the pieces of Good and Evil are already on their scale, either all on one side or balanced when they are born, but as they make choices and actions, they borrow from one side and give to the other. This would suggest, though, that at the end of the road it is possible for someone to be perfect, without any sort of Evil at all, if they only made right decisions, but no one is perfect. It would also suggest that Good and Evil are interchangable (see the importance of looking at it as tanglible? A table and a chair are not the same thing with the same functions.), not separate.

Why is this important? Because if no one is good, and no one is bad, then everyone is capable of both, from the preacher in the pulpit to the junkie down the street. If everyone is capapble of both, then no one should be labeled, everyone should be loved, as equally as the quantity of purity and sin in our hearts the day of our birth. Viewing the heart of everyone this way brings a new equality and temperance to the outlook on humanity, and possessing equality and temperance is the first step to perfect love, grace, and holiness.

Because.

Because I said so.

Because I can.

Because it is.

The answers that used to infuriate me now single-handedly hold all the peace I could ever hope to have. When asking God the question "Why" about...oh, EVERYTHING in my life, I was answered with one word: "Because."

It was the most honest, simple, beautiful response I have ever received from anyone about anything, and it truly explained everything.

Why do bad things happen to good people? Because. Why do good people do bad things? Because. Why do good things happen to bad people? Because. Why does anything have anything to do with anything at all? You get the picture.

Everything does have a reason, and that reason is "because." Any further explanation would smear and smudge the line between what happened and what didn't until it was erased; of this, I am convinced.

I apologize, readers, that this post is not pretty or fancy or even intelligent. But, it is spiritual. You just have to be open-minded enough to get it.

If you're reading this...and you know who you are...fret not. Why am I holding off? Because. Why did all this happen? Because. Why can't I be there? Because. Why WON'T I be there? Because. And let's just leave it at that, my friend. All the other explanations hurt too much, so why bother? Consolation is a gift you build with your own hands, purchase it anyway, choose to give to yourself, and receive. Don't ever forget that. You'll get too lost in the worrying about the whys. Just like I was.

Don't get me wrong. Some things in life you need to know the reason for: the things that you can fix, the things you need to change. But for everything else...because is good enough.