Stone Tablets

April 7, 2025

If you could be God for a day and make up ten commandments, what would they be?

That question occurred to me a couple days ago after I went for a hike with friends in the lush green oak woodlands that grace the foothills of the Mayacamas mountains. As we walked past orange poppies and purple irises and little white flowers, the conversation turned to the political and economic chaos emanating out of Washington these days. After listening to my companions complaining about the U.S. president and their agreeing with the anger of various resistance figures, I thought to myself, “I know what you’re against, but what are you for?”

So when I got home I decided to see what I could come up with as a modern day Moses bringing God’s words down from the Sonoma County mountains. It’s taken me a couple days to translate the stone tablets, but here’s what God gave me:

1. Thou shalt respect the trees, the animals, and the oceans of Mother Gaia.

2. Thou shalt be fruitful in creativity, not in multiplying your population.

3. Thou shalt worship love and kindness, not the false gods of the almighty dollar and the almighty gun.

4. Thou shalt recognize the oneness and interdependence of all life forms, while tolerating the diversity of spiritual practices and beliefs.

5. Thou shalt achieve a balance between free enterprise and social well being.

6. Thou shalt create social harmony by encouraging equality – not equality of educational outcomes or musical talent or bank accounts or ethnic/gender quotas, but by honoring the dignity of each individual and family and nurturing their growth, prosperity, and personal responsibility.

7. Thou shalt allow for a variety of gender and sexual orientations, while respecting the different levels of cultural acceptance for such identities and behaviors.

8. Thou shalt meditate, breathe slowly, choose positive intentions and thoughts, raise your vibrational frequency, and listen to your inner guidance or intuition.

9. Thou shalt sing, dance, and appreciate.

10. Thou shalt have fun.

And what, dear reader, do you imagine would be inscribed on the stone tablets that you would bring down from the mountain?