Even I want to conform, to belong, to have a name that I can call my own. I'm sick of saying, when people ask me what religion I do follow since I'm frequently vehemently anti-Christian: "Well, I sort of have my own blend of beliefs drawn from various different faiths, but I don't entirely believe in the narrow-mindedness of a system. I think it limits your relationship with the Divine, don't you?"

At this point, without fail, my conversational partner either edges away, avoiding eye-contact, or bursts into self-righteous flames.

Now, however, I can state firmly: "I am a syncretist."

I looked at a whole heap of places that talked about this sort of thing, but the definition that made me go: "Hell yeah, that's me" comes from Foucault's Pendulum (the book that is slowly changing my life and the way I view the world) where the incomparable Signor Eco writes: "But in its loftiest sense syncretism is the acknowledgement that a single Tradition runs through and nurtures all religion, all learning, all philosophy. The wise man does not discriminate; he gathers together all the shreds of light, from wherever they may come..."

Of course, I still have to explain my newly declared syncretism to aforemention conversational partners, so I still get all the fun of frightening conservative agnostics or duelling with the rampantly fanatic. Goody.