Storytelling

Of all the skills that I have developed in my life, storytelling may be one of my least developed (although, this one isn't terrible). This is, at the very least, unfortunate because storytelling may be among the most influential of skills.

Of the skills I have developed, a common theme throughout them is my interest in impacting people with what is true…especially about them. So, to have collected a variety of insights about the human condition, the inability to more effectively use them is a kind of sadness to me. Not to say that nothing is there in that regard, but the skill of translating truth into story form may be near the top regarding impact opportunity for truth. In fact, it has been far more utilized throughout the ages, than the more written versions we are so accustomed to now. I wish then I had taken more time to develop this craft, not for my sake as much as for my part (as a fellow human being), in transmitting the nature of human truth which, of course, involves the sublime and the spiritual as well.

As I reflect back on both the trajectory and course of my life and interests, I see a thru-line that could be described as an interest, if not gravitation, to the essence of truth, wherever it may be found. And, one of the more significant discoveries I’ve made is that for most people, their respective relationship with truth is not highly rational. It is experiential. It is emotional. It is psychological.

Many might contend with this assertion, especially those coming from the rational western-philosophical approach to such things. And, even those who would want to distance themselves from some of those domains, largely believe that the basis of their particular embrace of truth is what they think they know…in other words, rational. In fact, many in this subset would side-eye these other dimensions, as being inferior.

But, that is not my experience with or observation of many people. Many, if not all of us, believe what we believe because of the stories that surround what we believe. And, those stories makes sense to us because of our experiences those stories resonate with.

Stories have profoundly impacted me over the course of my life (in some cases even more than the truth they reflect). They are powerful, in large part, because they are so personal. They make the abstract relevant. Stories can both destroy ideas and concepts and, like nearly nothing else, legitimize and perpetuate them.  As we read each day, they can also accelerate them.

So, I'm left a bit with this, what stories am I telling (with an actual story, or just the way I live my life)?  Which ones do I need to tell more?

What Counts

What counts is not the things that happen, but what we do with them.

-- Annie Ernaux

How We Know

I'm wondering...about how we know who we are.

Do we, for example, know this ontologically? 

Or, do we know this much more practically, like through our experience (family, socially, work, etc.)?

Do we know it spiritually — through the trifecta of scripture, tradition, personal experience (arrange these in whatever order you like)?

Perhaps more significantly, what are the kinds of things that challenge our working understanding of who we are — particularly, the things that disrupt that understanding?

For example, how much of how we think about ourselves is based on what we think others think of us?  Do they like us?  Even more potently, do they enjoy us (…because, what if they don’t?)?  Where do the answers effectively leave us?

We wonder about these kinds of things from time to time, usually as time permits and often only theoretically. But, at other times, we wonder about such things when we discover something that feels like risks something about our self-understanding, especially in a personal way.  Then, the question takes on all kinds of dimensions (some good, some not).  So, what do we, in fact, use to answer it? 

This happened to me this last weekend; which is why, this week, I’m wondering…about who I really am and how I know that.

All You Have To Do

All my life, I have been enamored of the God-intoxicated ones. Those rarified souls who slip into ecstatic states and spontaneously utter poetry. The ones who exude deep stillness, embody equanimity, listen more than they speak. The initiated and the ordained, the monastics…. 

I wanted to be one of them. Until I didn't. 

I want you not to want that as well…. I want you to want to be exactly who you are: a true human person doing their best to show up for this fleeting life with a measure of grace, with kindness and a sense of humor, with curiosity and a willingness to not have all the answers, with reverence for life.  

You do not need to chant all night in a temple in the Himalayas. You don't have to be the newest incarnation of Mary Magdalene. It is not necessary to read or write spiritual books. You are not required to know the difference between Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism or memorize the Beatitudes. All you have to do to walk the path of the ordinary mystic is to cultivate a gaze of wonder and step onto the road. Keep walking. Rest up, and walk again. Fall down, get up, walk on. Pay attention to the landscape. To the ways it changes and the ways it stays the same. Be alert to surprises and turn with the turning of the seasons. Honor your body, train your mind, and keep your heart open against all odds. Say yes to what is, even when it is uncomfortable or embarrassing or heartbreaking. Hurl your handful of yes into the treetops and then lift your face as the rain of yes drops its grace all over you, all around you, and settles deep inside you.

-- Mirabai Starr

Observations & A Question

You can only outrun yourself for so long.

 

We use medication to address our symptoms (of our stress), when the whole while we could be addressing what’s causing our stress in the first place.

Change happens most when stories animate lived experience.

So, will we help the poor, the sick, those in prison…or not?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question…

 

On The Lighter Side: People Can Do Stuff

On the Lighter Side:

Power

We've got a staggering relationship with power these days.

Perhaps this is nothing new....

But culturally, right now, we seem quite disconnected from a healthy perspective on where real (good) power comes from.  Our headlines continue to overflow with examples.  

During a conversation with the New York Times that was reported today, Trump said “the only thing that can stop me” is “my own morality. My own mind.”

Trump was responding to a question about checks on his power to attack nations around the world. But his response is increasingly relevant to his power domestically.

-- Robert Reich

Besides the banality represented by Trump, many of our leaders are forfeiting the opportunity to help us; both by neglect and by intention — both by what isn't said and by what is.   

Power is often motivated by some kind of end-game.  We will use it to get what we want and we will come up with nearly endless justifications for its use, to the point that we no longer recognize that it, in and of itself, becomes the driver (rather than whatever it is we are trying to secure).

Fear is usually at the core of power, but greed is right behind it.  And, this form of driver is grotesque from nearly any perspective of distance.

Real power, however, is manifest in the opposite direction.  It is not motivated by things like fear and greed.  It operates from something far deeper; the thing that we no longer even recognize in the lust that power inflames within us. 

Love.

Love is what we both lack and want more than anything else.  It is no strange irony that we will even resort to misuse of power to get it (even though that very misuse effectively forfeits it).  Somehow, though, we've ended up concluding things like our side must eradicate the other side to secure that love.  

We have, as a result, not eradicated the barrier to what we want as we had hoped, but the very ability to know what it is.  Power, in this state of things, is no longer liberating, but enslaving.  It not only damages those impacted by its implementations, but it renders us unable to even consider its ramifications on ourselves. 

While we can legitimately blame our leaders for this, this ultimately is on us.  Too often, they are no better than we are (even if they should be).  If we don't understand these things, how can we require them to?  We have to understand, and live from, real (good) power, collectively and individually — the power of love.

You Want To Live With

You build your mind, so make it into something you want to live with.

-- Marilynne Robinson

Let Others

It's better to endure the discomfort of the truth now, than to suffer the discomfort of the lie later.

-- Simon Sinek

Donald Trump Wants You to Forget This Happened

Donald Trump Wants You to Forget This Happened — stories of actual people involved.

A broader telling...here.  

You really can't 'un-see' it, even when they try to re-write it (not kidding).

Unbelievably, this was only the beginning of a take-over that has been being put in place for some time...every day makes it more and more where this is heading.

Conscious Effort

I’ve noticed…that sometimes it takes conscious effort for me to notice what is happening inside myself.

More Available to God

A Rule of Life is not a rigid checklist or a spiritual productivity plan. It’s not about doing more for God. It’s about ordering our lives so we can be more available to God. 

-- Rich Villodas

 
That is about as succinct as it can get, but this seems quite pertinent as well:

Losing My Religion

Rich and Powerful

An Economist/YouGov poll released on December 30 showed that 80% of Americans believe that “political institutions have been captured by the rich and powerful,” 82% believe that “elites are out of touch with the realities of everyday life,” and 74% believe that “leaders who come from ordinary backgrounds better represent people like me.”

-- Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American 

You don't even need to be the suspicious type to see this...

We all (most of us anyway) know why; which makes this all the more interesting:

‘I Was Just So Naïve’: Inside Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Break With Trump

So:

Why Does Trump Get Away With It? 

A couple of excerpts:

Trump really believes that his strategy of chaos and distraction will allow him to 'get away with it' — given the above, he's probably right (at least in the short-term...which is all he really cares about).

4 Observations (from Others)

What can I do in the next three to five years, that I will respect looking back from my deathbed?

-- Ron Shaich

 

 

The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline.

-- David Foster Wallace, This Is Water

 

The patience you need for big things, is developed by your patience with the little things.

-- Kevin Kelly

 

 

Learning how to live a quiet life is an important art, especially in a world that carelessly assaults us with noise.

 

-- Thomas Moore, The Eloquence of Silence

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

We look with uncertainty

'Poem for the week' -- "We look with uncertainty":   

Let Everything Happen To You

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.

-- Rainer Maria Rilke

Such a recommendation may be really be a lot about things like RELEASE.

This perspective might enable us to embrace these recommendations:

Living in the Light of God’s Love

How about a question, then, for the new year?

To explore this further:

Ask Yourself These 7 Questions