Lord, increase my bewilderment

That is the entire prayer, as far as I have been able to discover. I came across it in a work of fiction by Kaveh Akbar, with no way to track it down. All Akbar said was that it came from Sufism, a mystical school of Islam. 

Lord, increase my bewilderment. 

What a petition! What a verb! To ask for more bewilderment, not less, from a higher power who must hear billions of prayers for more certainty, more conviction, more proof, more faith. I wrote the prayer down, then realized that wasn’t necessary. It was only four words long, with such good news in it that I memorized it before the ink dried. My increasing bewilderment wasn’t a problem after all. It was an answer to prayer. 

You would be right to ask what kind of bewilderment I mean, since there are many forms of it, including some that belong in a trash file, not a prayer…continue here for a rather beautiful read.

-- Barbara Brown Taylor

Books To Write?

For years now, I have been keeping a list of book titles or concepts that I have mused about writing.  

More realistically, these are just a collection of various ideas that have struck me, at any particular moment, for which either a concept or a catchy title has captured my imagination.

I actually kind of forgot about it, until this week when another title possibility popped across the screen of my mind:

The Corruption of Capitalism

Sometimes, given the span of time now involved, I forget what I was thinking at the time.  So, I started adding some cryptic notes for each to remind me later.  In this case, the thought base is:

A double entendre; more clearly than ever, capitalism in America has reached the edges of its impacts on the common good. In simplest form, the ability for people to make a product for a profit is not necessarily a bad thing. But, when the scale (think private equity) of what can be done outpaces what is good for all, an existential question emerges. Further, when that scale is so disproportionate to the simple concept, even the best of guardrails are inadequate to prevent the likelihood of corruption.

Whether or not I could develop this idea enough to fill a whole book remains to be seen.  But, it is fun (for me) to grab ideas in this way.

Here are some others I’ve collected along the way (without their respective explainers):

BE

Perspective:  Everyone Has One

Overrated: Toughness and Other False Virtues

What’s Your Favorite Color? Thoughts On Racism

The Strength of Tears

I Don’t Know What To Say: And Other Thoughts About Cancer

If It Doesn’t Matter NOW,  It Doesn’t Matter Later

Love Doesn’t Make Sense: If It’s Just About You

The Gospel Was Never About (Just) You or If They Aren’t In, You Aren’t Either

Richest

That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.

-- Henry David Thoreau

Perception of a Problem

The perception of a problem can be as bad as the problem itself.

-- Nathaniel Persily

Problems & Patience

Ever noticed…that half the problems seem to kind of go away with a little patience. 

Besides, it’s often our impatience that perpetuates or creates many of our problems. 

The trick, though, with the other 50%, is knowing when more than simple patience is needed.

Action From Stillness

From the beginning, the Christian life was shaped by the rhythm Jesus himself modeled—a life of action flowing from deep stillness. He withdrew to pray alone. He took his friends up the mountain to witness transfiguration. He sought the silence of the wilderness. Clearly, something transformative happened when Jesus stepped away, and those around him recognized that his outward life was rooted in his inward union with God. 

-- Adam Bucko

Anyone…?

Anyone…?!? This (or this, for that matter) certainly doesn’t feel descriptive of the Republican party any more.  So, what happened?

Somehow we’ve ended up with this:

...and, even worse, this (and we still don’t seem to think we have a serious problem on our hands? — it sure looks like it to me).  

Apparently, I’m not the only one:

3 Observations & A Question

You learn things when you talk to other people – which is one reason to do it. 

There are ideas and, then, there is what champions ideas.

Tradition and evolution are often in tension with each other — both are real and important.

Do you ever stop to actually consider what is dictatingl the script of the narrative promoted by various media?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question…

Liminal Space

Often I start a walk in the morning when it is still dark and finish when it is fully light.

That liminal space (a nearly imperceivable transition — hard to detect at any given moment, but obvious at each end) is somehow important for me.

It is both symbolic and a metaphor.

The brilliance of the stars before are imperceptible by the end. Not unlike much of life — something there the whole time, whether you can see it or not.  

We walk in between those realities.

Buoyant

This word crossed my mind recently:  buoyant.

I’m going to reflect on it here…because it doesn’t feel like it describes me recently (ever?).  I actually think it does, though, even if not lately.  So what gives?

First of all, I am drawn to the notion of buoyancy — not so much because of what rises to the surface as to what stays above the fray…to what can be seen when it isn’t submerged.  This aligns with features of my personality.  It is my nature to acknowledge what is, but even more to imagine what can be.

More core to my sense of self, is a tendency to lightness (as opposed to heaviness).  So, it is here that the metaphor grabs my attention.  Because I haven’t felt this, this naturalness, in some time.  I have, in fact, felt heavy in spirit.

It’s not hard to understand why — we, in so many ways, are under duress.  Anybody, not living in a critical awareness of denial, can acknowledge a pervasive sense of existential threat circulating above, beneath, and within us.  

But, there is another reality I feel aware of as well.  For the better part of my adult life, I have been around people who trend in the opposite direction.  This has provided much opportunity for me to consider life from the perspective that doesn’t automatically start from a point of positivity.  It has enabled me to consider deeply the powerful role of suffering in life.  And, I am so grateful for that awareness.

However…

I am also increasingly aware that along with this awareness has come the perception that being light (buoyant) is…shallow.  You are considered a deeper person if you embrace the heavier parts of things.  And, deeper is often conflated with…better.  In other words, there is often an air of superiority that has been aggregated with heaviness. One can fairly easily detect an inferiority attached to those who aren’t. A lighter spirit is, among other things, a less thoughtful one.

But, what if the opposite is actually more true (or, what if we just disposed of the notion of more, or better, altogether)?  What if lightness was actually a calculated response to the realities of the heavier things of life? What if it was a choice?

As I have traveled across the domains of this terrain, I increasingly desire to be more like…buoyant. Buoyant in spirit. One that acknowledges the travails of human existence, but also who rises above them, both in terms of personal aspiration, as well as in a calling forth of others to do the same.

…by the spirit with which we choose to carry ourselves.

That You Overlook

Never be so focused on what you're looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.

-- Ann Patchett

Wrong Lessons

The problem with success is that it teaches you the wrong lessons. What worked yesterday becomes religion, and religions don't adapt. 

-- Shane Parrish

Technology

I'm wondering...about technology and the displacement of manual labor. When you look across time, this is not really a new thing.

The implications of that displacement only seem to be growing and sometimes this dynamic seems to outpace the implications. It seems clear that there are more than we know or are prepared to handle.

Equanimity

The word “compassion” comes from the Latin roots com and pati which mean “to suffer with.” We add the suffering of others to our own, a gift at the heart of being human. How can we be moved by the sorrows of others without becoming flooded, drained, or burned out?

To sustain compassion, we need equanimity, a kind of inner shock absorber between the core of your being and whatever is passing through awareness.… With equanimity, you can feel the pain of others without being swept away by it—which helps you open to it even more fully.…

As you face the enormity of the suffering in this world, you might feel flooded with a sense of despair at the impossibility of ever doing enough. If this happens, it can help to take some kind of action, since action eases despair.…

Think about the people in your life, including those you don’t know well. Could you make a difference to someone? Seemingly little things can be very touching. Consider humanity in general as well as nonhuman animals, and see if something is calling to you. Not to burden you, but to push back against helplessness and despair.…

Also, take some time to reflect on what you have already done to help others and on what you are currently doing. Imagine how all this has rippled out into the world in ways seen and unseen. The truth of what you have given rests alongside the truth that there is still so much suffering, and knowing the one will help your heart stay open to the other.

-- Rick Hanson

3 Observations & A Question

It’s often less satisfying after little effort.

Independence is often less than it’s cracked up to be.

Like it or not, we need each other.

What is time anyway?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question…

The Smile of Innocence

'Poem for the week' -- "The Smile of Innocence":   

There is a smile of bitter scorn,
    Which curls the lip, which lights the eye;
 There is a smile in beauty’s morn,
    Just rising o’er the midnight sky.

There is a smile of youthful joy,
    When Hope’s bright star’s the transient guest;
There is a smile of placid age,
    Like sunset on the billow’s breast.

There is a smile, the maniac’s smile,
    Which lights the void which reason leaves,
And, like the sunshine through a cloud,
    Throws shadows o’er the song she weaves.

There is a smile of love, of hope,
    Which shines a meteor through life’s gloom;
And there’s a smile, Religion’s smile,
    Which lights the weary to the tomb.

There is a smile, an angel’s smile,
    That sainted souls behind them leave;
There is a smile that shines through toil,
    And warms the bosom though in grief;

And there’s a smile on Nature’s face,
    When Evening spreads her shades around;
A pensive smile when twinkling stars
    Are glimmering through the vast profound.

But there’s a smile, ’tis sweeter still,
    ’Tis one far dearer to my soul;
It is a smile which angels might
    Upon their brightest list enroll.

It is the smile of innocence,
    Of sleeping infancy’s light dream;
Like lightning on a summer’s eve,
    It sheds a soft and pensive gleam.

It dances round the dimpled cheek,
    And tells of happiness within;
It smiles what it can never speak,—
    A human heart devoid of sin.

-- Lucretia Maria Davidson

Sedona & Page AZ

Sedona and Page, AZ

You’d think this is some kind of AI fake, but it’s not (no editing involved).  

More pics…here.

Listen To What It Has To Say

You will never be ale to escape from you heart.  So it’s better to listen to what it has to say.

-- Paulo Coelho

Work Doesn't Work

Work doesn't work without play.

-- Shonda Rhimes

Rhythms

I've noticed…that it’s nearly impossible (for me) to maintain rhythms in life perpetually, almost as if most rhythms need to be broken now and then — but initiating rhythms in life also seem very important.

Columbus Day

Columbus Day — a history…here.

God's Power Is Not Dominion

Only very gradually does human consciousness come to a selfless use of power, the sharing of power, or even a benevolent use of power—in church, politics, or families.

God’s power is not domination, threat, or coercion. All divine power is shared power and the letting go of autonomous power ft.

-- Richard Rohr

3 Observations & A Question

You can make a shit-load of money selling fear…if either of those is your goal.

When you want to know, you will start to know.

Many of us are spending most of our time just trying to keep up…until it dawns on us how unsatisfying that is.

If you could go anywhere, where would you go?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question…

In Reality

From a week ago:

 

The statement said the National Guard soldiers “are under federal command and control in a Title 10 status.” The section of the legal code to which the announcement pointed was the one permitting the president to call into federal service members of the National Guard whenever the U.S. is invaded or in danger of invasion by a foreign nation, there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the U.S. government, or the president cannot execute the laws of the United States with the power of regular law enforcement.

It is this power under Title 10 that White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller yesterday claimed was “plenary,” or absolute. The idea that exceptions to the rule of law reveal who is really in charge of the government was central to the political philosophy of German political theorist Carl Schmitt, who joined the Nazis and whose work is increasingly popular among the radical right in the U.S. these days. Since taking office in January, Trump has declared at least eight national emergencies that the administration has used to justify the use of emergency powers.

As J.V. Last of The Bulwark laid out clearly last night, there is no crisis in Chicago that makes it necessary for the administration to send in National Guard troops. Last points out that any instability in Chicago has been caused by the administration’s surge of federal agents into the city, where they shot and killed Chicago resident Silverio Villegas González; raided and ransacked an apartment building, leaving residents—including U.S. citizens and children—bound outside for hours; shot an unarmed woman, Marimar Martinez; and aimed a weapon at a resident who was simply recording what the agent was doing, In each case, the government initially insisted the federal agents either were under attack or were rounding up “the worst of the worst,” but subsequent information has showed the federal agents were the aggressors in each situation. Continue here….

-- Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American

We have to become increasingly aware (if not active) collectively that this, in reality, is what is really happening (corroborated over and over by multiple sources).

Sickness

Sometimes I wonder if I’m too abstract — let's see: 

You can’t because you are sick. You only can, when you’re healthy. 

You can’t because you don’t know how and you don’t know how because you’ve never done it. The only way you can do it is to learn how to do it and the only way you learn how to do it, is by actually doing it...a self–reinforcing circle. 

We are sick because we don’t do it. 

We can only break free from our systems of sickness by doing another system — not by simulating the other system, but by actually doing the other system. 

They say you can’t keep doing the same things over and over and expect different results. 

We won’t become healthy again, free of our sickness, until we start living differently. 

What things come to mind, as you read the above? 

Is this too abstract (like WTH are you even talking about)? Or, do you have a pretty good idea of what I’m referring to?

Need a clue?  How about a meditation?

Despair

Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.

-- J.R.R. Tolkien

Those Who Join It

If a movement is to have an impact, it must belong to those who join it — not those who lead it.

-- Simon Sinek

Plural

Ever noticed…that everything in the Lord’s prayer is plural?

It seems like most of recent-era evangelical Christianity has never noticed that…at least in the political context.

Yesterday's post speaks amazingly well to this neglected notion of our sense of community.

The Language of God: Refugia

I can’t recommend this Language of God discussion with Debra Rienstra enough….

4 Observations (from Others)

Love knows what we can do. Let’s begin. Perhaps God is only waiting for our kind intention. 

-- Brother Lawrence

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us. 

-- Alexander Graham Bell

Often times it is the fear of being found out or the actual experience of being found out that alerts us to what lies beneath. It actually places us on the path of self-discovery. 

-- Ruth Haley Barton

It is in the process of embracing our imperfections that we find our truest gifts: courage, compassion, and connection. 

-- Brené Brown

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

On The Lighter Side: Same Playbook

On the Lighter Side:

A little less ‘lighter’:

Morning Brew

Um, now that we’re no longer anywhere near a ‘lighter’ (humorous) post for the day, how about this horrifying example of how NOT true Bondi's post is…here.

Pain & Truth

We’ve all been hurt — many times at relatively early stages in our lives.  The point isn’t nearly as much whether that is true, as it is how it is true, what was set in motion because of it, and what conclusions we’ve reached as a result. 

Perhaps related, what does it mean when we can't accept a version of truth other than the one we have heard about? That the only version of truth which can be true is the one we've heard (especially as kids)? Besides, do we really think that what we have processed is all that can be...true? 

Fuse these two thoughts and you’ve got something to consider for a while. At the very least, the combination seems to result in a lack of real healing and, therefore, growth. And, without that, we are left with a rather stunted capacity to see anything other than the way we have constructed the world in our minds. 

This is particularly frightening when you consider how it impacts our ability to understand others (how can you, if you don’t really even understand yourself?), not to mention care for them.

The mixture of pain and truth can be a vital recipe for ultimate growth and collective understanding of humanity.  It can also be the exact opposite….

Start Giving Away

Whatever you want emotionally, you have to start giving.

 

-- Mary Karr