Standing Still, Moving the World

Give me a place to stand, and I will move the whole earth with a lever. 

-- Archimedes

Archimedes (c. 287–c. 212 BCE), a Greek philosopher and mathematician, noticed that if a lever was balanced in the correct place, on the correct fulcrum, it could move proportionally much greater weights than the force actually applied. He calculated that if the lever stretched far enough and the fulcrum point remained fixed close to Earth, even a small weight at one end would be able to move the world at the other.

The fixed point is our place to stand. It is a contemplative stance: steady, centered, poised, and rooted. To be contemplative, we have to have a slight distance from the world to allow time for withdrawal from business as usual, for contemplation, for going into what Jesus calls our “private room” (Matthew 6:6). However, in order for this not to become escapism, we have to remain quite close to the world at the same time, loving it, feeling its pain and its joy as our pain and our joy. The fulcrum, that balancing point, must be in the real world.

True contemplation, the great teachers say, is really quite down to earth and practical, and doesn’t require life in a monastery. It is, however, an utterly different way of receiving the moment, and therefore all of life. In order to have the capacity to “move the world,” we need some distancing and detachment from the diversionary nature and delusions of mass culture and the false self. Contemplation builds on the hard bottom of reality—as it is—without ideology, denial, or fantasy.

Unfortunately, many of us don’t have a fixed place to stand, a fulcrum of critical distance, and thus we cannot find our levers, or true “delivery systems,” as Bill Plotkin calls them, by which to move our world.  We do not have the steadiness of spiritual practice to keep our sight keen and alive. Those who have plenty of opportunities for spiritual practice—for example, those in monasteries—often don’t have an access point beyond religion itself from which to speak or to serve much of our world. We need a delivery system in the world to provide the capacity for building bridges and connecting the dots of life.

Some degree of inner experience is necessary for true spiritual authority, but we need some form of outer validation, too. We need to be taken seriously as competent and committed individuals and not just “inner” people. Could this perhaps be what Jesus means by being both “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16)? God offers us quiet, contemplative eyes; and God also calls us to prophetic and critical involvement in the pain and sufferings of our world—both at the same time. This is so obvious in the life and ministry of Jesus that I wonder why it has not been taught as an essential part of Christianity.

-- Richard Rohr

Randoms...

Forgiveness is like reaching out and grabbing someone’s hand.

In the end, you really can’t legislate sexuality.

What is true about things that are true is that they are true across time and space...a sense of universality.

What really makes something valuable?

Prior Randoms...

This Week's Miscellany

AXIOS

The Morning

AXIOS

To Rebuild

'Poem for the week' -- "To Rebuild":

The house was built,  

Brick by brick, pane by pane,  

Initially withstanding winds,  

The force of a hurricane. 

But over time, the faults are found  

As storm after storm  

Assails, the craftsmanship outdated,  

In need of reform. 

The windows break, one by one,  

Under the weight of wrongs, the structure strains, 

Until one day fire catches,  

And only the foundation of good intentions remains.  

While easiest would be to walk,  

To abandon, moving on to rebuild,  

The value is seen by those who have called it 

Home, desires to be fulfilled.  

Remembering the mistakes,  

Maintaining the hope of freedom,  

Hand in hand, we work,  

Entering a new season.  

The work is not complete until  

The walls protect all who live there,  

No exceptions. Abandonment of all  

Unnecessary despair.  

A job led by all, not by one,  

We work long days turn long nights.  

The creation of our hands  

Proving more than surface level acknowledgment of rights.  

The past is not buried  

But underlies 

What we have transformed  

Before our eyes.

-- Hallie Knight

About the author:

Hallie Knight is a high school senior from Florida. Her poem “To Rebuild” was the winner of the 2021 Inaugural Poem Contest for Students. 

“What a powerful analogy Hallie Knight has drawn for us: our country imagined as a house that we built together and has been figuratively destroyed. Yet the foundations of our hopes, ideals, and perseverance remain intact, allowing us to rebuild our country, our home, echoing Abraham Lincoln’s powerful words: ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’”

-- Richard Blanco

Art Saves Us

Art saves us...a way to help people feel less alone.

-- Brandy Clark, On 'Remember Me Beautiful,' Brandy Clark Processes Death And Celebrates Life 

...a worthwhile listen, by the way.

Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t.

Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t.

It really depends on what the motivation is, doesn’t it?

It also depends on what we are talking about? Something good? Something bad?

Pick a topic…

For example, we might say something like, “Wow, that person has really lost weight!“

Is that good?

Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t.

Doesn’t it depend on the context?  For example, what if the weight loss is a consequence of cancer?

And, doesn’t it depend on the motivation?  Is the weight-loss a function of a lifestyle choice that someone has made?  What if it was a consequence of anxiety?

We often don’t really know, do we?

Rather than dump us into some kind of broad-based 'I give up, then' equivocation, perhaps acknowledging these realities can actually put us in a more helpful position, a different place to start from...whatever it is that we're talking about.

Because, maybe it is. But, maybe it isn’t.

I Never Learned Anything

I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening. I never learned anything while I was talking.

-- Larry King

The Winners

Ever noticed...that a lot of history is written from the perspective of the winners?

That sure leaves a lot of people out (not to mention history).

Language and Imagination

Creating language and cultivating imagination is really hard work.

-- Jason Miller, Just A Quarter Of Republicans Accept Election Outcome 

...especially in the church, where we prize what has already been created.

I suspect that often what is going on in that context is actually something else—a similar dynamic , often shared by institutions like the church and politics.  Religion is often about something on the order of policy.  And policy is often about preservation of something (real or not).

But, historically, church, when free of politics, has often been the thing that has altered the course public policy because it is a voice that comes from a different source, from on-going creation not preservation.  

But, this is really hard work.

Randoms...

Just because I am interested in something, doesn’t mean that someone else is...or even should be.

At my age, there are few things that are quite as pleasurable as new cotton socks (OMG, I didn't really just say that).

God doesn’t use a point-system.

We all seem to want more...but is more what we really want?

Prior Randoms...

This Week's Miscellany

The Morning

AXIOS

The Morning

The Hill We Climb

'Poem for the week' -- "The Hill We Climb", Excerpt:

Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:

That even as we grieved, we grew

That even as we hurt, we hoped

That even as we tired, we tried

That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious

Not because we will never again know defeat

but because we will never again sow division

-- Amanda Gorman

We Share An Ecosystem

We share an ecosystem.

The operative word here is share.  Contrary to popular opinion, we are not independent after all.  

And, ecosystems can be damaged (we, in fact, are damaging it—perhaps even irreparably).  We all lose when we seek consumption as a priority over coexistence, over collective cooperation.

The good news is that primal to the energy of all ecosystems is something built in that is greater than the damage that can be done.  It will, with enough time, grow back—learn to live again.  It may, however, not be the same.  It may also be without some things (extinction); things that are more than just simple, unfortunate losses.  But, it will eventually grow back (even if we're not here to see it or are killed in the process), because everything evolves, as a function of creation itself.

While I am primarily referring to basic biologies, I think this also applies to our humanity—our governance (yesterday seems kind of significant, in that regard), our histories, our diversities...all of our relationships with life.

We don't, in fact, ride above life, in some theoretical way from it; we only ride fully immersed in it.

We share an ecosystem.

Inauguration Day: What Do You Hear Today?

As much as you are able to set aside the narratives that surround the politically-based perspectives of these days, compare the two inaugural addresses of President Trump, four years ago, and Joe Biden today.  What do you hear?  At face value, what is unique to the basic message of each?

One surrounding question may be something like, "Yeah, but what will actually be different?"  Speeches are fine (sometimes even great), and often don’t end up being very mirrored by reality, but they do engage how power will be used and reveal the assumptions that fuel it.

So, I ask again, what do you hear today?  

So much of what we actually hear is predicated on where we think what is being said is coming from.  But, this highly mitigates our ability to listen.  Acknowledging this and pursuing active listening, what do you hear today?  What words are being used?  What is important to you about what is being said?

What do you hear today? 

Some of what was said on other Inauguration Days (who said them? click link):

Morning Brew

LT: As Human

Great leaders don't see themselves as great; they see themselves as human.

-- Simon Sinek

  ...and that changes everything about it.

MLK Day: Endure Suffering

To our most bitter opponents we say: We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Truth over power: It is past time for the church to speak plainly about the election

 

We can be sure some who stormed the Capitol claimed allegiance to the Christian faith.

Banners proclaiming “Jesus saves” appear next to those bearing the name Trump in the images of the protest and ensuing occupation of the Capitol. All were not Christians, but we know the most faithful supporters of President Trump over the years have been conservative white believers.

They claimed supporting the president was about making America great again. This was always problematic, because the moment one makes an unqualified appeal to a bygone America, one harkens back to an even further racialized and stratified America. They are not easily separated. American nostalgia often threatens Black and brown freedom. Therefore, it was no surprise to see pro-Trump rioters flying Confederate flags as they invaded the halls of the Capitol.

Black people have known what this was really about from the beginning. The ongoing protest of the election is not about a search for truth; it is an attempt to shape truth to suit the desires of the powerful.

The Gospel of John records a scene in the last days of Jesus’ life. In it Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, asks if the claims about Jesus being king are accurate and by implication seditious. Is Jesus a friend of Rome or its enemy?

...

President Trump (rhetoric) wasn’t making a legal or a factual argument. He was using his power to put a thumb on the scales. Therefore, the ongoing support of these unproven theories of election fraud by some white conservative Christians does not simply weaken the church’s witness by making it partisan. It weakens our witness by aligning truth with power — a classic error that has always led to ruin.

Whenever truth bends to power, the poor and the marginalized inevitably suffer.  Continue here....

-- Esau McCaulley

Randoms...

There are ideas.  Then, there is the organization of ideas around the relationship between them.  And, then, there is the presentation of ideas for the efficacy of them.

The creative challenge is to translate what we know and believe in the context where we live; because actually it may work more the other way around.

It seems that when you spend less time with people, you feel more control over your life, but also less connected to life.

What If...spiritual disciplines aren't really as much about achievement as they are about awareness, about access to reality? 

Prior Randoms...

This Week's Miscellany

AXIOS

AXIOS

AXIOS

My Song

'Poem for the week' -- "My Song":

I sang me a song, a tiny song, 

   A song that was sweet to my soul,

And set it a-float on the sea of chance

   In search of a happy goal.

I said to my song: “Go on, go on

   And lodge in a tender spot

Of some human soul where the fires of hate

   And selfishness are not.”

My song went on but a little space

   And hied it back to me;

And fell at my feet in a sorry plight—

   The victim of cruelty.

I gazed a moment and quickly saw

   Just how it had come about,

A cruel critic had caught my song

   And probed the soul of it out.

O, poor indeed is the human mind

   (And why was it ever wrought?)

That can thrive on husk in the form of words,

   And not on a sturdy thought.

-- Joseph Seamon Cotter Sr.

As They Are

Most of us do not see things as they are; we see things as we are.

We see the things we want to see, the things that confirm our assumptions and our preferred way of looking at the world.

-- Richard Rohr

Approval System

Groups often operate an approval system—some formal, some not.  Being in a group almost always means that, at some point, you will feel the need to validate the ideals of the group.  That's OK...to a point.  

But, inevitably, if you do (or say) something that appears to call that validation into question, the group will almost automatically react and start to isolate you—perhaps without even knowing it—until you re-establish your validation or are effectively marginalized from it.  

Unfortunately, I really can't think of a type of group—political parties, businesses, clubs, churches, neighbors, even families—where the system of approval is not in force.  It seems to be just part of the DNA of groups.  A sad, and often painful, reality.  But, a reality nonetheless.  Even though it often actually isn't, it can feel lethal.  I've experienced this in fresh ways over the last few years.  

Very few groups seem truly interested in much of what is outside of their own ideals.  But, sooner or later, groups must reckon with what is beyond them.  Because what is beyond them is a part of what is next for any group to grow, if not persist.  It must embrace the realities of what is around it, or it just isolates itself further and further until it withers and dies off.  The context around all groups is always dynamic and evolving, a reality which, in fact, enables groups to continue to be vibrant and make contribution to the world around it. 

Approval is too often an inhibitor to the important need for growth in groups.

Addictive Quality

Focus seems to have an addictive quality to it.

There is something about focusing (depending on the object) that seems to foster fear.

When combined, what do these two observations reveal about the tendencies of addiction?

Best Way to Stop?

I’m wondering...is the best way to stop doing something to start doing something else?

In general, is starting more important than stopping anyway?

We Belong To Everyone Else

The power of the stars is nothing compared to the energy of a person whose will has been freed . . . and who is thus enabled to co-create the cosmos together with God. God’s top priority is the creation of a world in which the goods of the earth are equitably distributed, where no one is forgotten or left out, and where no one can rest until everyone has enough to eat, the oppressed have been liberated, and justice and peace are the norm among the nations and religions of the world. Until then, even the joy of transforming union is incomplete. The commitment to the spiritual journey is not a commitment to pure joy, but to taking responsibility for the whole human family, its needs and destiny. We are not our own; we belong to everyone else.

-- Thomas Keating

So...why do I have the distinct impression that most of the people I know, who call themselves Christians, don't seem to believe this?  Some might say, 'sure I do...'.  But, when I hear them talk, much of what they talk about seems to directly contradict the above.

They talk about what they know, especially about what is wrong, and what or who will keep us safe from others.  It most definitely is not about our belonging to them—it is about belonging to ourselves and the champions we select to keep it that way.  What happens to others is really their problem, unless they are willing to become like us.

Jesus was always inviting others in, especially those who were not considered to be the good people.  His goal seemed to be the redemption of everyone and he asked us to take up our cross and be about the same thing.

Randoms...

Truth was not meant to be a weapon.

The way to create or maintain a conversational mode is to talk more about what you are for, what you are interested in, than what you are not or what you are against.

What a sad thing it is when we end up operating from the conclusion that our pain is worse than the pain of others.

Do we live much of our lives in fear of the most full expression of who we are or of what we want?

Prior Randoms...

This Week's Miscellany

AXIOS

 

AXIOS

The Morning

Morning Brew

If—

'Poem for the week' -- "If—":

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

-- Rudyard Kipling

Inflammatory Language

Yesterday:

“Let’s have trial by combat.”

-- Rudy Giuliani

Language is power.  

And, power is a continuum—in other words, one form of power seems to beget another.

Since power is often fueled (originated / maintained) by ideas, language is often a catalyst for ideas related to it.

It stands to reason then, that inflammatory language has effect (just like any other form language does—wouldn't it be nice, if not more helpful right now, to see what other forms of language and power look like?).

What you say matters, especially as a leader; because it affects what others do.  So does silence, by the way...as appalling as inflammatory language is, not addressing it and letting it be is just as bad (where, for example, has this kind of thing been throughout all of this?).

On the power continuum, language and action are not too far apart.

After yesterday, do we need any more examples to illustrate the point?  When someone, like President Trump, says "We love you..." to those directly involved in insurrection, he is using power.  He has been using this form of power, all the way along, to incite action.  And, we now have an even more full view of the capacity for that language to influence how power is used.

We desperately need new language (not to mention power).

Experience > Imagination > Capacity

What we are capable of seems to be largely born from what we are able to imagine. And, what we are able to imagine...from what we have experienced.

This cuts both ways, for the good and the bad—kind of painful when you let that sink in a bit.

Seek good experience whenever you can.  And, recognize that whatever your current experience is (good or bad), your imagination can be enhanced from it.  At the end of the day, what else is there really to do in life?  This only enhances your capacity to give life.

(I might have expected to end the above with 'live life', instead of 'give life'—but then realized, aren't they really the same thing?).

When Character Is Lost

When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.

-- Billy Graham

This stands all by itself. 

But, it seems strangely more significant, in light of the events of these days, including those today (Georgia senate-seat runoff vote, among the many).  Character is something bigger, more profound—than simply what is or isn't technically legal.  It has to do with a deeper sense of what is fundamentally right or wrong, for the greater good of all things—our fellow-man, the earth, our sense of God.

While it has everything to do with the person, character is primarily focused on others, rather than simply oneself.  It seeks the power of love, rather then hate; of sacrifice, rather than advantage; of acceptance, rather than judgment.

I can't stop hearing an echo of MLK's perspective on the quality of character....

What character is after is something that legislation can never fully get to.  Because, in the end, without a base of character, nothing really works—and all may just be lost.  

I Can't Fully Experience You

I've noticed...that I cannot fully experience you, because of your ego.

Is the same is true of me?  

Of course, it is.

In other words, our experience of each other is limited (often by how the ego works in all of us).

Q: So, now what?

A: Vulnerability is like kryptonite to the ego.

Traveling Close

What better way to 'travel close' than in the nature of the world God created?

January snow pics here...such randomness and precision all rolled together!

A Toast

'Poem for the week' -- "A Toast":

To your voice, a mysterious virtue,
to the 53 bones of one foot, the four dimensions of breathing, 

to pine, redwood, sworn-fern, peppermint, 
to hyacinth and bluebell lily, 

to the train conductor’s donkey on a rope,
to smells of lemons, a boy pissing splendidly against the trees. 

Bless each thing on earth until it sickens, 
until each ungovernable heart admits: “I confused myself 

and yet I loved—and what I loved 
I forgot, what I forgot brought glory to my travels, 

to you I traveled as close as I dared, Lord.”

-- Ilya Kaminsky 

This seems both too low and too high (simultaneously) in the aspiration of human honesty.  Could we not do more?  Perhaps, this is all we can ever even hope to do.  Is it not true that we travel...as close to God as we dare?

Ah, but may God increase our understanding of how close we already are.  

Alternative to the Dominant Culture Around Us

A word, as we both pass and enter years:

The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us. . . .

-- Walter Brueggemann

What is happening to us?  How do we relate to it?

This Week's Miscellany

The Morning

AXIOS

AXIOS

2021: Full of Hope and Fear...and Love

I am actually full of hope, even optimistic, about the future because of the greatness of the story of true reality.

Let’s be honest...I am also a little fearful of how bad (more painful) it could get along the way — collectively and personally.

But, it strikes me that such human honesty is a decent position from which to start another new year.  Because being more fully human is divine movement.

The greatest honor we can give Almighty God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of his love.

-- St. Julian of Norwich