Everyone has their own philosophies and opinions about life and religion. In Saul Williams book “Said the Shotgun to the Head” he ventures through his theory that God is actually a woman along with the “son” and the Holy Spirit. He believes that man created other beliefs and used the bible as a tool to consider themselves of a supreme order or more so the dominant gene of people. As he discuss the theory in the book he addressed God as She and believes that once a person has the courage to open their mind to new options and ideas that they themselves can be a whole person instead of fitting into the nations stereotype. The theories discussed have the effect on each reader to give them the chance to think about their upbringing and how they have lived their life.
The way the text is written it gives equal opportunity to the reader to have their own opinion about what he is saying rather than forcing us as the readers to believe what he says. Saul Williams is simply giving us another look on what the world has given us to believe from early ages and how simple things could be if everyone was not afraid to believe in what their own minds were saying. The words he uses causes you to think deeper than usual as you venture through religion and beliefs. I will continue to discuss how different people can come up with different theories according to how they were raised or their situations that they have dealt with in their own life.
In the book Mr. Williams is directing his focus and work towards anyone of any age that has ever questioned religion or the aspects of life that we live through every day. Many people in the world have their own thoughts about certain things but we find that these people keep to their selves believing that no one will listen to their thoughts or understand their own opinions. We have grown to believe what is told to us has to be the right thing to live by and that any other thoughts that we might have could be a coin toss to see if they are accepted or even listened to. He discussed how once we accept our own beliefs that we all have deep down in our souls that we will find our own form of God to believe in. This is a very important statement that can be seen in the bible as it tells us God made each of us in his own image. This is essentially the same thing Mr. Williams is trying to get us to remember.
If we are made in God’s image then every female would be an image of God and not just every male. It is written in his book that the thought of God and religion should be something that you are comfortable with. He feels as though given the chance to think what you want and express how you feel you will open your own eyes to thoughts that have been building up inside of you your whole entire life. All of the questions that you had as a child will be reborn as you ask the simple who, what, when, where and why. While aging in this world we found ourselves less and less asking questions and being curious just as a child can be. As we grow old our minds are so use to the normal actions of the day that we forget everything we feel is important in life.
The arguments I have been hinting towards in the first two passages have been for each reader to read this book while opening their eyes to the thoughts of a brilliant man. The passages I wrote have all been to give a new insight on what an open mind can do when the person is not afraid to speak their own mind. Saul Williams book opened my eyes to see that many people will push you to believe different things to make their own lives better and we assume that if we go along with what everyone else is brought up to believe, everything will go smoother in life. Saul Williams shows that even though it may be easier to follow the path of others, it will be a greater achievement to convince others that your thoughts can be correct and not everything told to us is real. Even the leaders of today have beliefs and systems in which they want to place on the general public but they have these ideas due to their own thoughts and how they feel things should happen in society.
In the book he asked the reader if we have ever been kissed by God. This question can be broken down into different forms. Being kissed by God can mean has anyone ever touched you and changed your life. Being it negative or positive, God has control over different situations that only God can control. Another example of being touched could simply be the embrace of your own mother.
People have been seen and also studied to say that everyone that has some form of companion or love in their life have a stronger belief in life and the opportunities that can come from being different in the world. This all comes back to having a open mind where accepting others beliefs can make your own belief stronger in or out of religion. He explains how God breathes life into each of us with our own mind and path we are destined to take. There could be different paths that we can take but if we believe what we have inside we will end up back on the track that we are suppose to be on. There is nothing saying that you have to follow one belief your whole life and that if we do we can stay ignorant to the true beauty of life which understands all aspects.
The goal of this book is to get the reader to believe in their selves and stand up for their own thoughts. If everyone in the world thought the same and believed all that we were told, we would place ourselves into an invisible dictatorship which can cause problems that we as a people do not need to place ourselves in. Being able to express our minds to its full potential can bring us to our full potential as a whole making us a much greater person than we could have ever imagined. Even though the focus is to get ourselves to be able to think for ourselves it is discussed that we should not go on this journey alone. There is always someone that can assist your thoughts and give you your first experience in listening to others opinions. This is a key component in believing in your thoughts.
If you can understand others opinions without letting go of what you believe, then you will continue to evolve into the perfect spokesperson for your own thoughts waiting to be talked about and given to other people’s minds. Truly believing and understanding your own words can keep your mind at peace knowing that through all the struggle of the world you can go by something that makes you comfortable and something that feels real to you without wasting your time focusing on a topic in which you have no collection or believe in.
In conclusion to my argument, reading this book was one of the best experiences of my life. I felt as though I was open to others thoughts before I read this book but the way that Saul Williams worded this poem opened my thoughts even more and gave me an understanding to things I never felt. I realized that I was an open minded person but still did not accept every aspect of other people’s opinions or judgments. This showed me that even a open person like myself can learn from experiencing different things and not being stubborn to the ideas that the worlds people hold in their own minds. I suggest anyone should read this book and hopefully they will be enlightened as much as I have.