Who We Are

Our passion lies deep in who we are, not what we do.

- Simon Sinek

Fix My Mind

I’ve noticed…that to fix my mind, I have to engage my body.

Harvest of the Heart

This is the season of gathering in, the season of the harvest in nature. Many things that were started in the spring and early summer have grown to fruition and are now ready for reaping. Great and significant as is the harvest in nature, the most pertinent kind of in-gathering for the human spirit is what I call “the harvest of the heart.” 

Long ago, Jesus said that [people] should not lay up for themselves treasure on earth, where moths corrupt and thieves break in and steal, but that [people] should lay up for themselves treasures in heaven [Matthew 6:19–20]. This insight suggests that life consists of planting and harvesting, of sowing and reaping. We are always in the midst of the harvest and always in the midst of the planting…. 

Living is a shared process. Even as I am conscious of things growing in me planted by others, which things are always ripening, so others are conscious of things growing in them planted by me, which are always ripening. Inasmuch as I do not live or die unto myself, it is of the essence of wisdom for me conscientiously to live and die in the profound awareness of other people. 

The statement, “Know thyself,” has been take mystically from the statement, “Thou has seen thy brother, thou hast seen thy God.” 

-- Howard Thurman

4 Observations (from Others)

Saints always have a past and sinners always have a future.

-- Oscar Wilde

The more you are focused on time — past and future — the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is. 

-- Eckhart Tolle

For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing. 

-- Aristotle

What if scarcity is just a cultural construct, a fiction that fences us off from a better way of life? 

--- Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

Gov’t Shutdown

We elect officials to govern by serving the needs of 'the people’.

If they won’t do that (or even meet to try), they should give up their own paychecks; not force workers to keep things going without pay. 

And, then, there’s SNAP.  I’d be surprised how many people, who’ve never had to use the system, really even know what it is (outside the narratives that have been attached to it for political purposes).  Read a history of the program…here.

While most things government were started with good intention to address a public concern (that wasn’t being addressed otherwise), many are imperfect.  This is why we elect officials…to perfect them — make them better where they fail.

But, if these elected officials won’t do the work, then they need to get out of the way…so the public can be served.

The only reason they won’t (not to mention the even more nefarious things they’re allowing, like this) is they don’t think the public is paying attention — are they right? Are we?

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

Smartest Person In The Room

The smartest person in the room, I’ve learned, is usually the person who knows how to tap into the intelligence of every person in the room.

-- Scott Kelly

What I’m Wondering About

I’m wondering…what I’m wondering about and why. 

Every 3rd Monday (unless something comes up on a Monday), I post something about what I’m wondering about.  Usually, it’s about a ‘why’ or an ‘about’.

Why does this (or that) happen?

What is this (or that) about?

Today, I’m wondering about why the things that make my list…make my list in the first place.  Isn’t something influencing that most of the time?

Or, what about this — why does it seem like I don’t wonder about certain things (at all)?

Surely, there have to be some implications here (if not ramifications)….

Distort Numbers to Push Ideological Agendas

Beauty, Gratitude, and the Divine

Some years back I hit a skid in my personal life. Though I knew objectively that I had much to be grateful for, it was hard to acknowledge a sense of gratitude. It was difficult to notice the positive that was out there beyond the slog of getting through every day. But now and then, I’d feel the impulse to take out my phone and capture a slice of beauty. These fleeting glimpses of splendor broke through my horizon of pain and lifted me up…. 

These photos, taken on my way to the gym in the morning as the light was coming up over the F train overpass, or as the setting sun glinted through the trees above the electric wires at the end of the day … were about stumbling upon unexpected splendor, savoring random moments of grace in the midst of an overfilled, overcomplicated life. These were moments to stop and actually see the wonder around me despite the swirl of so much else going on, time to stop and breathe and slow down…. 

In teaching that we are to say one hundred blessings a day, the Talmud encourages us to take notice and not simply lurch unseeingly through our days…. Bringing photography back into my life was a visual version of this urging to truly perceive and experience the beauty of the world and not take any of it for granted…. Making these small photos on my phone … helped me find my way back to gratitude and a connection to God…. 

These photos have become part of a spiritual practice that grounds me and reminds me that not all is difficult, not all is complicated — that joy and amazement exist — if I take a moment to look. 

-- Rabbi Hara Person

3 Observations & A Question

It is good to take an inventory now and then — it’s surprising to discover what all has accumulated. 

You should carry your own weight — so that you know what it takes and can help carry someone else’s, when they need it. 

Much of social media is more about insinuation than substance — we should see psychological trickery for what it is.

Does it seem like comfort is among our highest priorities (always trying to get something to make us a little more comfortable)?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

Sanctuary

‘Poem for the week' -- "Sanctuary":   

Sanctuary is 

as vital as breathing.

I find it in places 

secret to my soul: 

in the natural world, 

in the company of 

a trustworthy friend, 

in solitary or shared silence, 

in the ambience of 

a good poem or music. 

-- Parker Palmer

Stillness and Sanctuary

 

Within you, there is a stillness in a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time.

-- Herman Hesse

Looking

When is the last time you looked up for even a few minutes at a cloudless night sky?

When is the last time you looked endlessly at that portal in your hands?

Which do you feel better serves your needs?

I’m doing an experiment.  Like everyone else (I’m assuming), I don’t think I am addicted to one form of social media or another.  But, I am noticing the ease with which I rotate back to Instagram, for example, just to see the latest…skuttlebutt or anything else that might be entertaining.

I’ve decided to test myself a little bit on this by deleting the Instagram app on my phone.  What will I feel when I have that extra minute? Or, what will I feel in the evening when I’m too tired to do anything else, but am not ready for bed?  If I don’t have that to turn to (because it is so easy), what will I turn to? What if I have simply deluded myself into thinking that I’m not into something more than I think I am?

I know there is something psychologically appealing about keeping track of controversy. It feeds something in us.  Perhaps, we think we’re more in control of something, if we’re aware of it.  But, it’s hard not to notice how easy it is to go looking for it as well. 

Besides how it feels, what does it really feed? Is that something constructive or good or is that something else?

I know myself well enough that sometimes I have to build in things to check myself.

At the very least, I know that what I feel, based on what I’m looking at, can be quite different things (night sky versus social media, etc.). I think I need to find out if what I’m looking at is creating something in me that I’m not aware of.

Maybe you’ve already performed an experiment like this — what did you discover?

Accepting oneself does not preclude an attempt to become better.

-- Flannery O’Connor

What You Scroll

You become what you scroll. Choose accordingly. 

-- Shane Parrish

The Pain Around Me

I've noticed...that I absorb the pain around me.

Tool of Oppression or … ?

I have a feeling it should look more like this:

3 Observations & A Question

Full experience almost always seems to include (require?) the physical. 

When we don’t have some awe in our life, we are in more trouble than we know. 

In the end, you don’t ever really get away with anything…because the mark you left is the mark you left.

We do know that we have to care for more than ideas (you know, like our neighbors), right?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

You Think You're the First Person...?

Demonization

When I feed the hungry, they call me a saint. When I ask why people are hungry, they call me a Communist. 

-- Dom Hélder Câmara

Given the diet of our current public discourse, these labels hardly even register any more.  They seem tepid by comparison.  The ones in play now are far more…you fill in that blank.

And, yet, we are more aware than ever that nearly anything we say can (and will) be used against us in the court of…public opinion.  Ironically, demonization is alive and well. 

Fashionable or not, though, at some point we have to ask ourselves why demonization exists where it exists and what are the purposes it serves because, like a cancer, it is eating away at both the objects and subjects of it.

For one thing, it’s just so easy. It doesn’t involve real thinking. It doesn’t involve real work. It’s just far easier to point out what appears to be wrong than it is to do the work of promoting what is right (especially in the context of what may be wrong). Even if “what is right” is the pretense for it, what is right and being (or doing) good is clearly not the same thing right now.

Moral superiority inevitably seems to require the demonization of whatever it tries to subordinate. In other words, the bar is not the bar — the bar is simply the separation between us and others. Demonization is just a super handy way to do that and it lets us off a fairly serious hook. Part of what is insidious about it is its deception that makes us believe that it, in and of itself, is virtuous. If someone else is bad (now we use the term evil), it is simply easier to run with that conclusion than it is to work out what to do about it (not to mention remedy it).

Demonization is a beast that can never be fully satisfied — you just have to keep feeding it...because it feeds something in us.

Do we even need to say, then, that it is unhealthy...and unproductive?  Apparently, we do.  Because now it is so normalized that we’ve moved beyond the rhetorical nature of it to the manifestation of it.  Just a little historical review will indicate what a dangerous path this is, for all involved (the perpetrated upon AND the perpetrators).  It clouds both the mind and the spirit, so much so that it can become easy to no longer even detect it.

Demonization leads one to believe that the devouring will only continue in the intended direction.  It misses the nature of its beastliness — that it doesn't really discriminate that well and that it will simply turn on the feeders themselves, in the end.

Be aware of what you are really hungry for, lest you end up eating something that will in turn eat you.

Just one example to consider...here.

Your Instincts

I learned you have to push away the demand people’s expectations by believing in your instincts.

-- Stefano Pilati

Question Yourself

Question yourself, yes, but don't doubt yourself.  There's a difference.

-- Charmaine Wilkerson

Musculature for Grief

Ever noticed…how little musculature we have as a society for grief?

And, we can’t figure out why we’re so anxious….

Among other things, we don’t want to take the time to grieve — opting, in effect, for retribution and revenge instead.

We even elect leaders who will do that for us now.

Let’s stop blaming them and look in the mirror.

Through Friendships

It was only later, through friendships with Christian men and women who truly embody the spirit of understanding and compassion of Jesus, that I have been able to touch the depths of Christianity.  

-- Thich Nhat Hanh

Be honest — what of Christ has really impacted you outside the context of deep Christian friendship?  We aren’t changed by information (theology) as much as we think.

It is in relationships that reality is embodied, where truth is experienced…where Christ is truly revealed.

3 Observations & A Question

Prayer, for me, is increasingly like on-going dialogue.

Good power seems to be far less something that you have than it is something you access.

Ultimately, we have to accept that healing is something we can't rush.

In a number of ways, isn’t a warrior mentality primarily juvenile in nature (if not in substance)?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

Options for the future

From Michiana Chronicles: 

We stood on the beach skipping stones into Lake Michigan, the Beach House Blowout at our backs. A steady wind in our faces, rolling waves singing across the pebbled apron at Indiana Dunes State Park. 

A timeless and irreplaceable jewel, this day stretched out in lazy solitude under a white-blue sky. Across the lake, at 10 o’clock, silhouette stalks of the Loop on the horizon. 

But then a disorienting sound – faint but closing fast and now exploding everywhere all at once. The heavy thwap of helicopter rotors, dozens of them, the swelling, deafening sounds of violins, trumpets, French horns! 

From behind the dunes they burst over the trees – ancient, olive drab Hueys – so close we could see the faces of the door gunners, the glint off pilots’ aviators. 

This howling swarm moved in a menacing...continue here.

-- Brett McNeil

Our Conscience

My longer posts each week seem to rotate between something happening in the world around us (more often political stuff lately) and something more sublime (why do we have to force ourselves away from our media-diet of controversy (which we say we hate, but do we really? — after all, we all know by now that we actively perpetuate it…).  Given that cadence, I guess it's time for...the former (ugh).

Honestly, I've not been immune from what the sucking-us-down has been doing to all of us.  It does, ironically, seem conspiratorial (conspiring against us).  How do we engage, and not stick our head in the sand (pretending what is happening isn't), without becoming incapacitated by it all?

The range and depth of issues is confounding; impossible to both enumerate or itemize.  Why should we even have to?  But, what happens if we don't (maybe the exact opposite of what we tend to think; but, who knows?)?

It’s like watching a ship take on water.  But, you feel it a little differently if you’re on that ship.  You feel stupid, angry, and most of all…helpless. “Do something!” we scream (at ourselves in the mirror).  We know panic doesn’t help, but we’re increasingly desperate for an effective alternative.  And, if we’re honest, we all have this sinking feeling that we’re aiding-and-abetting things somehow. 

How does one, then, resist what truly needs to be resisted?  We don’t know how, in part, because we still haven’t collectively re-agreed on the what.  So, what should be resisted?  We need a better answer than the easy one of simply saying, “the other side”.

We have to find out though.  We must find a way to identify it.  The ship is going down and we’re going with it.  Our very survival is being pressed now into differentiating between a basic understanding of what is good and bad and what is being co-opted as being so (yet another horrifying example here…yes, go ahead, add 1 more thing to the controversy column).  In other words, we are having to rediscover what really is at the core of our individual and collective conscience.  Perhaps the silver-lining is that this is long overdue...and is now happening (or starting to).  What do we really want collectively?  What do we really need collectively?

Our resistance is not predicated on how likely it will be to alter the conscience of the oppressor. We resist to retain our own conscience. And to awaken all others who are still in possession of their own souls.  

-- Cole Arthur Riley

Loyalty To

Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world — and never will.

-- Mark Twain

The Good Life

The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.

-- Carl Rogers

AI

I’m wondering…about AI — mostly about where meaning and morality fits in (or doesn’t).  

Just because LLM’s can make new connections to an unfathomable degree and at an unprecedented rate doesn’t mean that they're real (or substantive).  None of this happens without a rate of an investment that we’ve never seen before.  Investment is predicated on the possibility of return.  Perhaps we need to evaluate more carefully what that return actually is — we are, after all, funding this through our societal choices.

Too often, we throw up our hands on such things and say, in effect, “but what can we do about it?”  Well, other societies aren’t caving in as easily.  They are doing something about it, by getting at the values they have as a group.  So, why aren’t we?

Just because you can make money at something, doesn't mean you should.  Sometimes I wonder how much our love of money has stunted our growth and development as a society (no to mention as individuals).  

Many of our leaders have just caved in to our appetite for consumption, regardless of the implications.  Given the amount of money involved now, is AI just one more example?

Small, Dark, and Negligible

While I am looking for something large, bright, and unmistakably holy, God slips something small, dark, and apparently negligible in my pocket.  

-- Barbara Brown Taylor, Learning to Walk in the Dark

4 Observations (from Others)

A crowded mind leaves no space for a peaceful heart. 

-- Christine Evangelou

It is more important to find the truth than it is to know the truth. 

-- John Cleese

If something is true, no matter who said it, it is always from the Holy Spirit. 

 -- Thomas Aquinas, De Veritate

If the truth will set us free, why are we so committed to trying to control for it?

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

Wealth Transfer

The Wall Street Journal explained that there were 927 American billionaires in 2020 and 1,135 in 2024. Together, they are worth about $5.7 trillion. The 100 richest of the set control more than half of the total at about $3.86 trillion. As the number of billionaires grew, “supply side” economic policies in the U.S., designed to concentrate wealth at the top of the economy among investors rather than on the “demand side” made up of consumers, hollowed out the middle class. From 1975 to 2018, at least $50 trillion moved from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. 

-- Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American

On The Lighter Side: Dead Yet?

 On the Lighter Side:

Stars / Love \ God

I looked up early this morning at the still nighting sky.  

The stars were stunning.

I was reminded that they always are and that the only thing that really changes is my perception of them.  They're sitting there all the time; shining or doing their thing (whatever that is).

Invariably now, when I put myself in a position to see them and then contemplate their significance, my thoughts drift towards…love.  Is that cultural conditioning?  Or, is that something innately existential?  Many have debated the question over time.  So, if nothing else, I'm not the first to wonder about it (not to mention what really changes whatever I end up concluding?).

Something (Someone?) put such things in place, even as the nature of their 'place' is always evolving.  The span of time involved so far exceeds both my experience and understanding of it, my conclusions are somewhat irrelevant (at least on that scale).  It makes a lot of sense (even beyond rationality) to me that such a thing means something.  The traditions of understanding that nature is the primal representation of spirituality is not hard for me to accept (even if I tend to forget it at times).

Further, the connection between nature and that Being described as love does not feel inappropriate or even a stretch.  It would seem that Being would have a motive when creating something beautiful — true at both human and divine levels, isn't it?  A motive to do that would be what we might characterize as...loving.  The meaning involved would seem to necessitate communication;  portrayal, offering, invitation, acceptance.  

Doesn't nature seem to do this?  Obviously, there are deviations from a constant state of this (how else can you fit things like earthquakes or other 'natural' disasters into this equation of understanding?).  But, the overall pattern seems to be beauty, harmony, inter-relatedness, dependence, care, respect, work, enjoyment...and on and on.  This all could be described in a variety of ways (and has been), but it holds water for me to also describe it as love.

I'm going to a funeral today.  Why (am I going)?  

I suspect it is related to all this because the life lived, in the context above, was caught up in the meaning of this beauty.  He tried to capture it.  He wanted to embody it.  Many benefitted because of it; we were drawn into each of the three dimensions I'm describing here.  Nature, love, God.  I want to honor that and the person who was involved and who lives on, despite his physical passing.

Perhaps my body lifted my head this morning (usually I'm looking down, trying to avoid falling in the dark).  Perhaps it said something like, see what persists (and surrounds) in all the living and dying we do on this earth.  Notice it.  Appreciate it.  Perpetuate it.

Nature does it, in my opinion, because it represents Something (God) who does it, so that we can do it, too.