Who am I? Let me give a bit of background about how this page came to be, and how I came to believe what I do. As you will no doubt soon find out, I don't have what would be considered "traditional Christian beliefs". Don't let this scare you - I am not evil.

I was raised in southern California, in the United States. I lived in the foster care system of Los Angeles County for the first three and a half years of my life, then I was adopted into a family with a Psychology Professor father, a housewife/violinist mother, and an adopted older brother. My father was raised a Roman Catholic, and my mother was raised a Methodist. I was raised to be an agnostic, which very likely had a *lot* of influence on my beliefs.

When I was about nine, my parents divorced, and a year later my mother married an atheist engineer who had a son by a previous marriage.

My life was relatively uneventful until my teenage years, which were much fun. (Note the sarcasm.) When I was younger, I was sometimes teased for my lack of beliefs and the fact I didn't attend church. This didn't really bother me that much until I was in junior high school, when teenage angst met with insecurity and the need to fit in. So, I began what would become a very long journey of spiritual exploration.

My first forays into spirituality were a result of the "I Found It!" movement of the late 1970's. (How many of you remember *that*? Hehe.) For those who are not familiar with this, it was I guess you would say a Christian revitalization movement aimed mostly at young people (or so it seemed, that may have just been my perception due to the fact I was a young person at the time.) Anyway, people would pass out little pamphlets with "instructions" on how to become a Christian which basically involved accepting Christ as your savior. Easy enough. So I figured, why not? And besides, I could get a cool bumper sticker to boot! If only I had a car to put it on ...

My "faith" didn't last long however, due mostly to the fact that I had a hard time believing it could be so easy, I wanted more ... uhm ... something ... like ... rules! I had a couple friends in junior high school who were Mormons, and they had to live by lots of rules! So, after visiting their church a few times, I decided to become one of them when I was fifteen. I liked their values, but I did have a hard time with some of their doctrine - in fact I think I even laughed when the missionaries told me the Joseph Smith story. I should have taken that as a hint, but I didn't. I stayed a Mormon for a few years, and went to Brigham Young University for a year, where, hard as it may be to believe, I was enlightened ... well not complete enlightenment, but let's just say the door began to open and some light shined through. An interesting thing about BYU is that the Mormon church is so prevalent there that it's a part of the culture, and this was probably largely responsible for the "culture shock" I experienced there. I had been a California Mormon™ which is very different from a Utah Mormon™. The main difference between the two is that California Mormons are generally more relaxed and liberal and the Mormon culture doesn't permeate their lives quite as much due to the fact they must "live in the world, not of it" which basically means they have to be around lots of non-Mormons. It was another thing altogether in Utah though. Mormonism is everywhere, you can't even go to the mall on a Sunday. If you want to read more about my experiences with Mormonism, visit my Mormonism essay, but be warned, it's whiny and critical, so don't read it if you're a Mormon or easily offended.

After my trip through Mormonism I re-ignited my quest for spiritual truth. One day, while in a bookstore, something beckoned me from afar, it was sticking out on a shelf; it was The Tao of Pooh. I read it and felt twinges of familiarity. Odd. It became a stepping stone to further study in Eastern philosophy. The more I studied, the more I found familiar ideas. I explored Taoism and Buddhism, and have incorporated some of those ideas into my current beliefs. But I don't consider myself a Taoist or a Buddhist ... I consider myself a NONOist. The name NONOism comes from trying to explain my beliefs to others - if they ask if I'm a Christian I say, "No." If they ask if I'm Jewish, I say, "No." This usually goes on until the inquirer runs out of religions and says "Well, what ARE you?" So, I say I am a NONOist. NO I am not this, NO I am not that. It is also an inside joke to some who know me from my internet adventures as my cyber alter-ego NONOBADKITTY! who, interestingly enough has a philosophy of life rather similar to mine, only I'm not hopelessly addicted to catnip.

So, now that you know a little about who I am, you can find out a little about what I believe.