Visual: Pines, Flowers, Mountains

Visual - "Pines, Flowers, Mountains":

Glacier National Park, MT

Will nature's wonders ever cease? More pics here...

Other Than Oneself

Love is the extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.

-- Iris Murdoch

Until It’s Personal

People don’t tend to really believe in something, until it’s personal.

The fascinating part is about what makes things personal. Much of the time, we aren’t even aware of this dynamic—why it really is that we believe what we believe.

But, it can be revealed a bit more, when something you thought you didn’t believe in becomes something you seriously question. And, this happens most often, when you’ve been put in conflict with something that you’ve thought you believed.

Often times, this happens over something related to someone you love, like a family member or a group that you’ve been impacted by. Introduce a threat of loss there and the conflict emerges—where what you think you believe is tested by the consequence of losing something you want.

What we tend to think we believe is pretty abstract, even theoretical (but, it tends to still tie to something we are personally pretty vested in).  Often, when we feel at risk of losing something we love, we become more able—more willing—to question that belief; at the very least, consider what modifications might be helpful.

Truth be told, most of what we believe is motivated because of what we get out of it. In that way, it is highly personal.

This is what can make belief so devastating; it is also what can make belief so dynamic and wonderful, because belief is not nearly as theoretical as might think.

Discomfort of Thought

Too often...we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

-- John F. Kennedy

More Information

I've noticed...that I don't need a lot more information (though I suspect I will always be interested in more); I have so much already.

If I lived out of even half of what I have already heard....

Your Theology

Instagram: nakedpastor

A Letter on Justice and Open Debate

July 7, 2020
The below letter will be appearing in the Letters section of the magazine’s October issue. We welcome responses at letters@harpers.org

Our cultural institutions are facing a moment of trial. Powerful protests for racial and social justice are leading to overdue demands for police reform, along with wider calls for greater equality and inclusion across our society, not least in higher education, journalism, philanthropy, and the arts. But this needed reckoning has also intensified a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity. As we applaud the first development, we also raise our voices against the second. The forces of illiberalism are gaining strength throughout the world and have a powerful ally in Donald Trump, who represents a real threat to democracy. But resistance must not be allowed to harden into its own brand of dogma or coercion—which right-wing demagogues are already exploiting. The democratic inclusion we want can be achieved only if we speak out against the intolerant climate that has set in on all sides.

The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted. While we have come to expect this on the radical right, censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture: an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty. We uphold the value of robust and even caustic counter-speech from all quarters. But it is now all too common to hear calls for swift and severe retribution in response to perceived transgressions of speech and thought. More troubling still, institutional leaders, in a spirit of panicked damage control, are delivering hasty and disproportionate punishments instead of considered reforms. Editors are fired for running controversial pieces; books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity; journalists are barred from writing on certain topics; professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study; and the heads of organizations are ousted for what are sometimes just clumsy mistakes. Whatever the arguments around each particular incident, the result has been to steadily narrow the boundaries of what can be said without the threat of reprisal. We are already paying the price in greater risk aversion among writers, artists, and journalists who fear for their livelihoods if they depart from the consensus, or even lack sufficient zeal in agreement.

This stifling atmosphere will ultimately harm the most vital causes of our time. The restriction of debate, whether by a repressive government or an intolerant society, invariably hurts those who lack power and makes everyone less capable of democratic participation. The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away. We refuse any false choice between justice and freedom, which cannot exist without each other. As writers we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes. We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences. If we won’t defend the very thing on which our work depends, we shouldn’t expect the public or the state to defend it for us.

-- Harper's Magazine

We Can't Fix What

Instagram: bobgoff

We can't fix what we won't take the time to understand.

-- Bob Goff

Patience

'Poem for the week' -- "Patience":

Patience is
wider than one
once envisioned,
with ribbons
of rivers
and distant 
ranges and 
tasks undertaken
and finished
with modest 
relish by
natives in their 
native dress.
Who would 
have guessed
it possible 
that waiting
is sustainable—
a place with 
its own harvests.
Or that in 
time's fullness
the diamonds 
of patience
couldn't be 
distinguished
from the genuine 
in brilliance
or hardness.

--Kay Ryan

Only When We Can Say No

Some believe that setting boundaries is not loving.  But setting boundaries can be one of the most loving things you do, certainly for yourself, often for others.  It's only when we can say no that our yes actually means yes.

-- Hillary McBride

Highly Adaptable

In some ways, in spite of our general aversion to change, we are highly adaptable to what is around us, especially over time.

It is easy for us to tend to associate with those who seem most like us, or with those whom we like, or who we believe would benefit us in some way.

We also tend to start viewing things like those around us do.  And, for better or worse, we tend to see others the way those we spend time with do.

I've even been in groups where people start to mimic each other's mannerisms (including facial expressions).

In other words, our high propensity for adaptability seems tethered to what appears to be a kind of innate social need.

At one level, this can be a bit disconcerting; especially when it is related to areas where we don't like to think this is true, like with matters of faith.

But, at another level, the good news is that this reality is also part of why our stories of redemption are also true.  We are much more about 'we, than me'.


Spiritual practices done alone will not change our character. They may help a little. But relational skills grown through community will lead to lasting transformation.

-- Geoff Holsclaw

Continue here....

About Themselves

The ultimate value of personal growth work is not to feel better about ourselves but to contribute to how those around us feel about themselves.

-- Simon Sinek

Orthodoxy

Ever noticed...that people are always recreating orthodoxy?

A conceptual oxymoron, it seems to me; but at the very least, a rather human one.

Jesus Remains

No matter what falls away, no matter what shifts, no matter what breaks down, no matter what questions you were asking today that you would never have dreamed of asking five years ago, regardless of whether the people say you are in or out now:  Jesus remains.

-- Jen Hatmaker

The fact that things change doesn't mean that there are no constants.

For me, Jesus is a constant.

And this frees me to embrace change, rather than resist it (including even what I think I know of Jesus).

Ideas That Animate Essence

There is substance, or essence, and then there are the ideas that animate it.

I read a profound and disturbing book recently, Educated.  It puts in sharp relief the vagaries of the tendencies of the human spirit to maintain a strange brew of independence, family, religion, faith, power, suspicion, and control.  I can hardly recommend reading it, but you should.

It feels important to know and be able to recognize these tendencies, not just in others, but in ourselves.

And, we need to understand how ideas animate the essence of things—physical and spiritual.  Why you believe what you do, is a pretty important thing to know.

Visual: Sunrises

Visual - "Sunrises":

Myrtle Beach, SC

More here....

How vs What

There are many difficult situations in life that have, seemingly, no easy solutions. So the question may not be quite as simple as which one is right, as it is how we do whichever one we end up choosing.

In other words, what may not be as significant as how.

Idealize Our Preferences

We don't like to admit it, but we pretty much tend to think that other people should be more like us and, if they would, things would be better.

This seems more obvious on a political level, but that may largely be because of it being true at a personal one, too.

To support our perspective, we idealize our preferences.

Braver

It’s possible that you no longer need to get better at your craft.

It’s possible that you need to be braver instead.

-- Seth Godin

From Wonder

I'm wondering...we often speak from what we know (or what we think we know); what if...we spoke more from wonder?

Corner On God

Nobody has a corner on God; so, nobody should act like they do.

Few would overtly disagree; so, why does it feel like this still needs to be said?

Betray Hearts & Minds

Fear of radical changes leads many citizens of our nation to betray their minds and hearts.

-- Bell Hooks

I’m not even sure changes need to be particularly radical for this to happen.


Retaining power always seems like the way forward.

-- Tara Westover, Educated

Actually, letting go of a grip on power...is the way forward (and, God himself provides us with a supreme example).


As we experience discomfort in this time, let’s begin to dream of a new normal, a new normal that addresses the weaknesses and problems that were going unaddressed in the old normal. If we’re wise, we won’t go back; we’ll go forward.

-- Brian McLaren

Why It Backfires on Kids

Dignity

'Poem for the week' -- "Dignity":

And what, in fact, is dignity? In those
Who have it pure, it is the soul’s repose, 
The base of character—no mere reserve 
That springs from pride, or want of mental nerve.
The dignity that wealth, or station, breeds, 
Or in the breast on base emotion feeds, 
Is easy weighed, and easy to be sized—A bastard virtue,
    much to be despised.

True dignity is like a summer tree. 
Beneath whose shade both beast, and bird, and bee,
When by the heated skies oppressed, may come,
And feel, in its magnificence, at home; 
Or rather like a mountain which forgets
Itself in its own greatness, and so lets 
Vast armies fuss and fight upon its sides,
While high in clouds its peaceful summit hides,
And from the voiceless crest of glistening snow, 
Pours trickling fatness on the fields below;
Repellant force, that daunts obtrusive wrong,
And woos the timid steps of right along;
And hence a garb which magistrates prepare,
When called to judge, and really seem to wear. 
In framing character on whate’er plan, 
‘Tis always needed to complete the man, 
The job quite done, and Dignity without, 
Is like an apple pie, the fruit left out.

-- Too-qua-stee

Peddling In Labels

Racist.

Socialist.

Those pretty much sum things up right now—how the divide in America is described.  But, we have even more sub-labels, don't we?  Many are used to the same effect—to bolster our side, at the expense of the other.

Maybe taking sides is part of the problem.  It feels easier for us to deal with them, that it does for us to deal with me.

Experience & Risk

Truth be told, none of us really know what we’re doing.

We're all juggling—when to trust experience and where to take risks.

Innovation-Killer Org Chart

Seems like this doesn't apply just to business....

Refinement

Ever noticed...that resistance can lead to refinement—not necessarily efficiently, but effectively.

Solidarity

It is amazing how religion has turned the biblical idea of faith into a need and even a right to certain knowing, complete predictability, and perfect assurance about whom God likes and whom God does not like.

God’s intention is never to shame the individual (which actually disempowers), but solidarity with and universal responsibility for the whole (which creates healthy people).

-- Richard Rohr


"I run a food pantry in . . . Massachusetts. During the pandemic, the number of families we serve has doubled, and so has the tonnage of food we distribute. At times the task can be daunting. The readings and resulting prayers [of the Daily Meditations] have shifted my thinking. I no longer think of our work as service, but as an act of solidarity, of becoming one with our neighbors. Service implies a vertical relationship, one above another. Solidarity calls for a horizontal, two-way relationship between equals, one to one. Of course, God is at the center of it all."

-- Tom M.

Frederick Douglass’ Fiery Fourth Of July Speech

A gifted orator, Douglass wanted more than to convince the crowd of hundreds gathered to celebrate Independence Day about the hypocrisy of slavery. He wanted, as James A. Colaiaco writes in Frederick Douglass and the Fourth of July, “to sting the conscience of America.” Douglass did not mince words. “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine,” he would tell those assembled. “You may rejoice, I must mourn.” And he was just getting warmed up:

"What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: A day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless … your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery … a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages."  Continue here....

-- Sean Braswell

a crisis

How to Bring the Dream Back to America

Massive crises have one great advantage: They show you where you stand. The sight can be distressing and shocking. But it would be wrong to say “Who knew?” We all knew. In this country you’d have to be willfully ignorant to not know about racism, police brutality, income inequality, global warming, the staggering cost of medical care, and the rapacious activity of huge international corporations.

A secondary benefit of a massive crisis is that change can occur. People have waked up enough to protest racism and police brutality. COVID-19 deaths have waked up enough people that Medicare for all has a viable chance of happening. We cannot afford to keep recycling the same old story once things get back to normal. As overwhelming as a massive crisis is, the good news is that the solutions are just as well known as the problems.

If you stare this crisis in the face without flinching, the solutions stare back at you. They include

• Social justice. This can be solved with a fair, impartial court system and a police force that isn’t skewed to victimize minorities.
• Economic justice. This can be solved by guaranteeing a safety net for every citizen of the kind that exists in countries where social democracy already works.
• Sustainability. This can be solved by removing the pollutants and toxins that everyone knows are causing climate change.
• Peace and conflict resolution. This can be solved by demilitarizing the world and ending us-versus-them thinking.
• Epidemic disease. This can be solved by taking public health seriously everywhere it is lagging.
• Unhappiness and discontent. This can be solved largely by doing everything else on the list.

Each of these problems, by general consensus, is moving in the wrong direction. Even though everyone knows what the problems are, and generally speaking the solutions are staring us in the face, the situation isn’t improving. Why? Slavery, child labor, lynching, tainted food, and totalitarianism were changed in the past, and at the time when reformers confronted these horrific problems, the same obstacles were presented by rich, powerful, corrupt, entrenched forces acting in bad faith that we see today.

Something fundamental is as true today as in the distant past: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” The axiom came from Edmund Burke, a giant in 18th-century English politics who also happened to be a conservative. Reformers count on good men (and women) to act on what they already know. This is a simple matter of vision. Change your vision, get enough people to agree with you, and good prevails.

I think of this as the new American Dream, because the old American Dream no longer inspires the vast majority of us. The Land of Opportunity is the old American Dream, to put it in a nutshell. But where has opportunity gotten us? Rampant materialism, mindless consumerism, the dominance of the rich against the poor, woeful social mobility, unchecked polluters, political apathy that has allowed two generations of reactionaries to advance their agenda. Hollowness and corruption were not supposed to be the legacy of the American Dream, but now we’ve learned to live with them in the hope that the goodies we amass won’t be taken from us.

The tragic irony is that every problem can be solved without sacrificing American prosperity. What did polluted air and water, exorbitantly expensive health care, stockpiles of nuclear weapons, trampled minorities, the burgeoning super rich, the corporate stripping of retirement plans, and venal demagogues in places of power do to make you happier? It’s not a wild surmise to answer “Next to nothing.”

The United States has around 4.5% of the world’s population while generating 20% of the global economy, leading the world in greenhouse gas emissions (second only to China), enjoying the world’s most expensive health care with the worst returns from the existing medical system, and standing alone among developed Western nations in not guaranteeing housing, education, and free medical care to its citizens. We do not have to call these things the product of evil, but they are certainly the product of inattention, inertia, social barriers, reactionary political forces, apathy, and a lack of shared vision.

Of all the things that keep us from a better life, I think the lack of shared vision is the one we can change right now, because no outside power can stifle the mind completely. The mind is free if you wake up to what you already know is right. Such a step isn’t difficult, but another maxim must be heeded: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

If you know what the solutions are, you are already part of the new American Dream. You are not a victim of fate, circumstances, or history as long as you are awake instead of asleep. The real opportunities have never been material in the first place but mental. No one has taken that opportunity away from you. Only habit and inertia has caused the sleepiness of the past to remain in place. Being the change you want to see in the world doesn’t require unusual courage or scary action.

It only requires that you stop telling yourself that things will change while at the same time recycling the same old attitudes, beliefs, fears, blindness, conditioning, and apathy. Those are the pernicious forces that led us into the current crisis. If American exceptionalism is true, then why are we the worst country in the world to deal with the pandemic, led by reprehensible politicians intent on preventing the common good instead of promoting it? The only shred of exceptionalism left to us is a vision of possibilities. To me, a new American Dream requires nothing more, thank goodness.

-- Deepak Chopra™ MD

Self-Liberation

Instagram: enneagram.kam

The Enneagram is not a tool for self-absorption, but instead a map for self-liberation.

-- Christopher L. Heuertz

More here....

Desire For Connection

Is at the root of loneliness, a desire for connection?

Is the strength of our desire for connection based on the fundamental, interdependent nature (connectedness) of all things?

Is so much of what is unrecognizable about all that we are feeling personally (and collectively) right now a challenge or change to the ways we're used to maintaining the connection we want and need?

Are we disconnected?  Is that why so many feel so much loneliness?

If so, is it time to re-consider what it is that we've been trying to be connected to?