Praise Song

'Poem selection' for the week -- “Praise Song”:

Praise the light of late November,
the thin sunlight that goes deep in the bones.
Praise the crows chattering in the oak trees;
though they are clothed in night, they do not
despair. Praise what little there's left:
the small boats of milkweed pods, husks, hulls,
shells, the architecture of trees. Praise the meadow
of dried weeds: yarrow, goldenrod, chicory,
the remains of summer. Praise the blue sky
that hasn't cracked yet. Praise the sun slipping down
behind the beechnuts, praise the quilt of leaves
that covers the grass: Scarlet Oak, Sweet Gum,
Sugar Maple. Though darkness gathers, praise our crazy
fallen world; it's all we have, and it's never enough.

-- Barbara Crooker


Fall Tree Of The Day:

No Idea Where I Am Going

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

-- Thomas Merton

SM Brunch 10: Mindfulness, Change, and Dream Peace

More Saturday Mornings Brunch:

Improve your character through mindful striving or let your character worsen through negligence and obliviousness.

-- Buddha

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The human mind is a lot like the human egg, in that the human egg has a shut-off device. One sperm gets in, and it shuts down so that the next one can’t get in. The human mind has a big tendency of the same sort. According to Max Plank, the really innovative and important new physics was never really accepted by the old guard. Instead, a new guard came along that was less brain-blocked by its previous conclusions.

-- Charlie Munger

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We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.

-- Sheryl Sandberg

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Going Too Far

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

-- T.S. Eliot

The Future

​Nobody knows the future. In the future, we look at the past to see what was going on in the present for an indicator of what will be going on in the future. But the reality still is, nobody knows the future. We can only wish we could have known it.

...although, sometimes, we're glad we didn't.

Leaders Letting Go

It is important to understand why letting go is so hard for so many leaders. Successful enterprises tend to be built by vigorous leaders with strong opinions and forceful personalities. If you make great sacrifices, pour all of your energy and the very best years of your life into creating an enterprise or an institution, it is impossible to not be profoundly attached to your creation. The combination of a forceful opinionated personality and great love for the institution, makes it difficult to watch as a successor dismantles part of your legacy. As every disgruntled and anxious employee seeks solace and support in you, it takes a great deal of restraint to not leap back into the fray.

The second reason is that, frequently, your identity becomes intertwined with the enterprise. It is entirely natural to wonder “who am I if I am not the CEO of X?” Will people still respect me and flock to me? How do I stay relevant? After years of being in the limelight, fading away gracefully is not easy for many leaders.

-- Ravi Venkatesan

By Hand

​I like writing by hand because it slows me down and it keeps me from writing at a pace faster than I can think.

-- John Irving

Write It Down

​Organic: When it happens or when you think about it, write it down; otherwise it tends to evaporate.

When I Became a Christian

'Poem selection' for the week -- "When I Became a Christian":

When I became a Christian I said, Lord, now fill me in,
Tell me what I’ll suffer in this world of shame and sin.
He said, Your body may be killed, and left to rot and stink,
Do you still want to follow me? I said Amen – I think.
I think Amen, Amen I think, I think I say Amen,
I’m not completely sure, can you just run through that again?
You say my body may be killed and left to rot and stink,
Well, yes, that sounds terrific, Lord, I say Amen – I think.

But, Lord, there must be other ways to follow you, I said,
I really would prefer to end up dying in my bed.
Well, yes, he said, you could put up with the sneers and scorn and spit,
Do you still want to follow me? I said Amen – a bit.
A bit Amen, Amen a bit, a bit I say Amen,
I’m not entirely sure, can we just run through that again?
You say I could put up with sneers and also scorn and spit,
Well, yes, I’ve made my mind up, and I say, Amen – a bit.

Well I sat back and thought a while, then tried a different ploy,
Now, Lord, I said, the Good book says that Christians live in joy.
That’s true he said, you need the joy to bear the pain and sorrow,
So do you want to follow me, I said, Amen – tomorrow.
Tomorrow, Lord, I’ll say it then, that’s when I’ll say Amen,
I need to get it clear, can I just run through that again?
You say that I will need the joy, to bear the pain and sorrow,
Well, yes, I think I’ve got it straight, I’ll say Amen – tomorrow.

He said, Look, I’m not asking you to spend an hour with me
A quick salvation sandwich and a cup of sanctity,
The cost is you, not half of you, but every single bit,
Now tell me, will you follow me? I said Amen – I quit.
I’m very sorry Lord I said, I’d like to follow you,
But I don’t think religion is a manly thing to do.
He said forget religion then, and think about my Son,
And tell me if you’re man enough to do what he has done.

Are you man enough to see the need, and man enough to go,
Man enough to care for those whom no one wants to know,
Man enough to say the thing that people hate to hear,
To battle through Gethsemane in loneliness and fear.
And listen! Are you man enough to stand it at the end,
The moment of betrayal by the kisses of a friend,
Are you man enough to hold your tongue, and man enough to cry?
When nails break your body-are you man enough to die?
Man enough to take the pain, and wear it like a crown,
Man enough to love the world and turn it upside down,
Are you man enough to follow me, I ask you once again?
I said, Oh Lord, I’m frightened, but I also said Amen.
Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen; Amen, Amen, Amen,
I said, Oh Lord, I’m frightened, but I also said, Amen.

-- Adrian Plass

Leonard Cohen Dead at 82

Words of tribute like this seem only capable of falling short for the man, Leonard Cohen.  My wife knows how I feel about him...how many times have I asked her to listen to one of his songs with me, while tears fall down my cheeks.  She has a couple of song instructions for my own funeral.  

I remember binge-listening to Leonard's songs with a friend or two during a season of painting work I did some years ago.  He had an ability to write about life in a unique and powerful way -- at the highest level about the lowest of things. It's kind of weird to call someone you've never met a friend, so I don't know how to claim that status, but he was a kind of friend to me, even if he never knew it.  Many people feel the same.

Here is a link to a stream of the title track, "You Want It Darker", from his recently released 14th album.

One estimate of his Top 20 songs (with some pretty great descriptions in their own right) can be found here.  Surprisingly, perhaps to some people, "Hallelujah" isn't #1.  One of my favorites, "Anthem", is #14.  The point really isn't the ranking, but the songs themselves and the man, as reflected in this interview about Leonard's impact on his son, Adam.

To Not Find Out

How much of what we don't know about ourselves is due to having put or kept ourselves in a position to not find out

What if our ignorance is largely a consequence of our own choices?


You understand so little of what is around you because you do not use what is within you.

-- Hildegard of Bingen

Ernie Johnson: 2016 Election

If you don’t know who Ernie Johnson is, this will explain a lot.

Rough And Hardened

I'm grateful (Geri) for this image and thought:

​…the heart of this country does not beat in Washington, DC, nor does its soul lie in a seat of power, nor does its destiny lie in which party occupies which section of government.

No, those things all lie with…people like you and me, people who get up and go to work and love their tiny plot of Earth and whose hands are rough and hardened by loving and giving.


-- Billy Coffey, The Heart of this Land

Election Day: Unless It's Pushed

Government doesn’t move unless it’s pushed.

-- Yvon Chouinard

I've been contemplating the merits of this claim.

And, another thing; there is something a bit indescribable about all of us participating in one common choice on a day like today -- a mysterious kind of unity, in spite of all the divisiveness surrounding it.

I find myself wondering why we elevate this kind of choice, above others.  It doesn't take much to posit some ideas.  But, it strikes me that, though significant, it is our other choices, the ones we make day after day after day, that are more important.  Could it be that our divisions would be less if we focused more on these much more regular choices, than the one we tend to imagine as critical today...like choosing the right candidate for President?

Our choices matter; if we believed that, then perhaps government would not need so much 'pushing'.

Fanatics Do Not

​Wise people admit doubts; fools and fanatics do not.

-- Bertrand Russell

Still At Work

​God is the Creator, or perhaps as one song put it, the Creating One. And, because this is true, He is still at work...creating.

...among other things, an antidote to worry.

The Epidemic of Worry

We’ve had a tutorial on worry this year. The election campaign isn’t really about policy proposals, issue solutions or even hope. It’s led by two candidates who arouse gargantuan anxieties, fear and hatred in their opponents.

As a result, some mental health therapists are reporting that three-quarters of their patients are mentioning significant election-related anxiety. An American Psychological Association study found that more than half of all Americans are very or somewhat stressed by this race.

Of course, there are good and bad forms of anxiety — the kind that warns you about legitimate dangers and the kind that spirals into dark and self-destructive thoughts.

In his book “Worrying,” Francis O’Gorman notes how quickly the good kind of anxiety can slide into the dark kind. “Worry is circular,” he writes. It may start with a concrete anxiety: Did I lock the back door? Is this headache a stroke? “And it has a nasty habit of taking off on its own, of getting out of hand, of spawning thoughts that are related to the original worry and which make it worse.”

That’s what’s happening this year. Anxiety is coursing through American society. It has become its own destructive character on the national stage.

Worry alters the atmosphere of the mind. It shrinks your awareness of the present and your ability to enjoy what’s around you right now. It cycles possible bad futures around in your head and forces you to live in dreadful future scenarios, 90 percent of which will never come true.

Pretty soon you are seeing the world through a dirty windshield. Worry dims every sunrise and amplifies mistrust. A mounting tide of anxiety makes people angrier about society and more darkly pessimistic about the possibility of changing it. Spiraling worry is the perverted underside of rationality.

This being modern polarized America, worry seems to come in two flavors...continue here.

-- David Brooks

Forget the Field, Hit The Books

Corrosion

The things that break all at once aren’t really a problem. You note that they’ve broken, and then you fix them.

The challenge is corrosion. Things that slowly fade, that eventually become a hassle--it takes effort and judgment to decide when it’s time to refurbish them.

And yes, the same thing is true for relationships, customer service and all the 'soft' stuff that matters so much.

-- Seth Godin

Chicago Cubs Bury Curse With First World Series Title in 108 Years

What an amazing year, World Series, and Game 7!  More here....

And, a touching Michiana Chronicles story about some of the history behind the fans' chorus, "Go Cubs Go": A Toast to the Ultimate Cub Fan

I've Noticed: Myself or God?

I've noticed...that I ask God for help in order to know myself better, when I could be asking for help to know Him better.

...the two, in fact, are not mutually exclusive. But, one without the other is.

Different Kinds

​It probably goes without saying that there are different kinds of leadership. The question isn't so much which is wrong or which is right as it is what kind of leadership is needed at a particular place or point in time.

Councils

'Poem selection' for the week -- "Councils".  If only we could; if only we would do the following...especially during this particular political environment:

We must sit down
and reason together.
We must sit down.
Men standing want to hold forth.
They rain down upon faces lifted.

We must sit down on the floor
on the earth
on stones and mats and blankets.
There must be no front to the speaking
no platform, no rostrum,
no stage or table.
We will not crane
to see who is speaking.

Perhaps we should sit in the dark.
In the dark we could utter our feelings.
In the dark we could propose
and describe and suggest.

In the dark we could not see who speaks
and only the words
would say what they say.

Thus saying what we feel and what we want,
what we fear for ourselves and each other
into the dark, perhaps we could begin
to begin to listen.

Perhaps we should talk in groups
small enough for everyone to speak.

Perhaps we should start by speaking softly.
The women must learn to dare to speak.

The men must bother to listen.

The women must learn to say, I think this is so.

The men must learn to stop dancing solos on
the ceiling.
After each speaks, she or he
will repeat a ritual phrase:

It is not I who speaks but the wind.
Wind blows through me.
Long after me, is the wind.

-- Marge Piercy

Going Up the Down Escalator

As Christianity evolved in the centuries following Jesus’ death and resurrection, it naturally drew ideas from the surrounding Mediterranean culture. Roman and Greek mythology and philosophy used a great deal of Promethean, heroic, ascent images. The ego is naturally attracted to heroic language. To the ego, heroism feels like the way to go to God. No wonder Christian martyrs were immediately canonized. We placed our focus on the heroic instead of the transformative, on achieving rather than serving.

If the Promethean is heroic expression, stoic spirituality is heroic repression. We thought depriving ourselves or doing something contrary to nature, will, or body would somehow please God, whereas it only made us feel “strong” and significant. Jesus never advocates either asceticism or heroism. In fact, Jesus says, “John the Baptist came along fasting and living an ascetic life and you were upset with him. Now I come along eating and drinking and you don’t like me either” (see Matthew 11:18-19). Jesus is neither a rigorist nor a legalist. He is scandalously free from these ego games!

We must acknowledge that much of Christian spirituality comes from other sources than Jesus’ teaching. That’s not necessarily wrong, but we have to admit when we’re listening to Western culture rather than Jesus. The ideas and practices we usually associate with religion are not at all what Jesus emphasizes. Jesus is the most unlikely founder of a religion. Religion normally begins by making a distinction between the pure and the impure, the good and the bad. Yet Jesus does the opposite: he finds God among the impure instead of among the pure! He entertains the lost sheep instead of comforting those who think they are not lost.

Humans are so hardwired to think dualistically, to divide the pure from the impure, that in spite of Jesus’ clear example and teaching, Christianity went right back to the same old pattern. The ego desperately wants to feel pure, saved, moral, significant, and superior. We cannot allow God to come down to us, which is the meaning of the Incarnation (see Philippians 2:5-8); we think we’ve got to go up to God. We’re usually going up the down escalator! And we miss Jesus on the way—as he de-escalates into our so very ordinary world.

-- Richard Rohr

The Power of A Dinner Table

Kathy Fletcher and David Simpson have a son named Santi, who went to Washington, D.C., public schools. Santi had a friend who sometimes went to school hungry. So Santi invited him to occasionally eat and sleep at his house.

That friend had a friend and that friend had a friend, and now when you go to dinner at Kathy and David’s house on Thursday night there might be 15 to 20 teenagers crammed around the table, and later there will be groups of them crashing in the basement or in the few small bedrooms upstairs.

The kids who show up at Kathy and David’s have endured the ordeals of modern poverty: homelessness, hunger, abuse, sexual assault. Almost all have seen death firsthand — to a sibling, friend or parent.

It’s anomalous for them to have a bed at home. One 21-year-old woman came to dinner last week and said this was the first time she’d been around a family table since she was 11.

And yet by some miracle, hostile soil has produced charismatic flowers. Thursday dinner is the big social occasion of the week. Kids come from around the city. Spicy chicken and black rice are served. Cellphones are banned (“Be in the now,” Kathy says).  Continue here....

-- David Brooks

Right Question

When something is simple but difficult to achieve, the right question to ask isn’t, “What can I learn to help me get better?” It’s, “What belief is getting in my way that I should let go of?”

-- Morgan Housel

Seasons

Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.

-- Yoko Ono

Losing Our Illusions

A few years ago, my wife and I spent a week hiking on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, returning to a comfortable room at the lodge each night for what I fondly call “roughing it.” As we set out on our day hikes, we’d often see kids messing around at the edge of the Canyon where it would be easy to slip, fall, and die. If their parents were watching, they weren’t saying anything, and the kids responded to our warnings with the gimlet eye.

When we met a park ranger on the trail, I told him I was baffled by this parental neglect. He shook his head and said,

I’m not sure it’s outright neglect. A surprising number of folks think of the Canyon as a theme park, a fantasy land that may look dangerous but isn’t, where hidden nets will save you from injury or death. Every day I have to remind some people that the Canyon is real, and so are the consequences of a fall of hundreds of feet. I guess some people prefer illusions to reality — even though illusions can kill you.

The ranger named a problem larger and more pervasive than the fantasy that the Grand Canyon is Arizona’s Disneyland. We Americans prefer illusions to reality at every level of our common life, even though illusions can kill us. Why? Because indulging our illusions comforts us — especially when they’re supported by a culture that loves to play “let’s pretend.”

That culture goes back at least as far as 1776 when America proclaimed the “self-evident” truth that all people are created equal — then proceeded to disenfranchise women, commit genocide against Native Americans, and build an economy on the backs of enslaved human beings. Today, our culture of illusions threatens to take us over the edge, not only on basic issues of justice but in critical sectors of our society like education, religion, and politics.  

-- Parker Palmer

For a thoughtful description of each sector, continue here...

I Used To Think: Meaninglessness

I used to think...that meaninglessness was unnecessary.  Now I know it is when we feel meaninglessness that we often end up seeking, and finding, true meaning.

Flow

​Two different people recently mentioned to me something I said to them a while ago...both, of which, I had forgotten even saying. My initial instinct was to try to remember more about the situation, followed by the next impulse to try to find a better way to remember such things.

It seems like this kind of effort, though, is not really sustainable or even possible (at least for me). I suspect the point is that what I do need to do is continue to learn to say things in the moment -- to flow with God's Spirit within me...not to try to keep track of things.

SW MI, 2016

More pics here....

Jesus' Invitation: Follow Me

I have found the phenomenon of male initiation in every culture and on every continent until the modern era. Something that universal—and so uniform in its goals—was surely fulfilling a deep human and social need. It was deemed necessary for cultural and personal survival, it seems. Throughout history, men were more often in positions of power and privilege, whereas women were often unfairly subjugated. Women, therefore, more naturally learned the path of descent (self-emptying) through their “inferior” position to men.

We recognize in initiation universal patterns of wisdom that need to be taught to the young male in his early “tower building” stages. This was the rather universal conclusion: Unless the male is led into journeys of powerlessness, he will invariably misuse power. He becomes a loose cannon in the social fabric, even dangerous to the family, always seeking his own dominative power and advancement to the neglect of others. The human inclination to narcissism has to be exposed, humbled, and used for good purposes.

Jesus clearly taught the twelve disciples about surrender, the necessity of suffering, humility, servant leadership, and nonviolence. They resisted him every time, and so he finally had to make the journey himself and tell them, “Follow me!” But Christians have preferred to hear something Jesus never said: “Worship me.” Worship of Jesus is rather harmless and risk-free; following Jesus changes everything.

The clear message of Jesus’ teaching has not been taught with much seriousness in most churches. Simplicity, humility, and “descent” were never expected of the clergy—certainly not of the higher clergy—and, therefore, how could we ask it of the rest of the church? Jesus was training the leaders because they could only ask of others what they themselves had done first. Once we saw the clerical state as a place of advancement instead of downward mobility, once ordination was not a form of initiation but a continuation of patriarchal patterns, the authentic preaching of the Gospel became the exception rather than the norm.

I have often thought that this “non-preaching” of the Gospel was like a secret social contract between clergy and laity, as we shake hands across the sanctuary. We agree not to tell you anything that would make you uncomfortable, and you will keep coming to our services. It is a nice deal, because once the Gospel is preached, I doubt if the churches would be filled. Rather, we might be out on the streets living the message. The discernment and the call to a life of service, to a life that gives itself away instead of simply protecting and procuring for itself in the name of Jesus, is what church should be about. Right now, so much church is the clergy teaching the people how to be co-dependent with them. It becomes job security instead of true spiritual empowerment. Remember, anyone—male or female—who has not gone on journeys of powerlessness will invariably abuse power.

The way up is down.

-- Richard Rohr

The White Flight of Derek Black

Their public conference had been interrupted by a demonstration march and a bomb threat, so the white nationalists decided to meet secretly instead. They slipped past police officers and protesters into a hotel in downtown Memphis. The country had elected its first black president just a few days earlier, and now in November 2008, dozens of the world’s most prominent racists wanted to strategize for the years ahead.

“The fight to restore White America begins now,” their agenda read.

The room was filled in part by former heads of the Ku Klux Klan and prominent neo-Nazis, but one of the keynote speeches had been reserved for a Florida community college student who had just turned 19. Derek Black was already hosting his own radio...for the rest of an important story, continue here.

-- Eli Saslow

Thanks, Jim, for pointing out this essay to me.

Humility: More Possible

Organic:  It often seems that genuine humility is more possible after a genuine kind of arrogance.

Truth Comes

I think 99 times and I find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me.

-- Albert Einstein

Perhaps, much of our 'thinking' effort is really noise....

I've Noticed: Different Question

I've noticed...that catalysts for change in me have been things that make me ask different questions...than the ones I normally carry around with me.

Adversity

Adversity changes your questions.

Autumn

'Poem selection' for the week -- "Autumn":

I want to mention
summer ending
without meaning the death
of somebody loved

or even the death
of the trees.
Today in the market
I heard a mother say

Look at the pumpkins,
it's finally autumn!
And the child didn't think
of the death of her mother

which is due before her own
but tasted the sound
of the words on her clumsy tongue:
pumpkin; autumn.

Let the eye enlarge
with all it beholds.
I want to celebrate
color, how one red leaf

flickers like a match
held to a dry branch,
and the whole world goes up
in orange and gold.

--  Linda Pastan

Holiness Illustrated

SM Brunch 9: Moral Legislation, Enabling the Media, and Leaping

More Saturday Mornings Brunch:

Many flowering plants won't bloom again if you leave the dead-heads unpruned.  How far would an analogy of this extend?

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Blame for the descent of public discourse can largely be placed at our own feet, because we are buying what the media is selling.  TURN IT OFF and we will stop enabling the media to profit from our voyeuristic tendencies.  And, candidates might actually start genuine discourse again, since they, too, are selling what they think we're buying.

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C.S. Lewis was wary of "morals legislation". For example, during a period when the criminalization of homosexuality was considered by many to be justified, Lewis asked, "What business is it of the state's?"  Nor did he believe it was the duty of government to promote the Christian ideal of marriage:

A great many people seem to think that if you are a Christian yourself you should try to make divorce difficult for everyone. I do not think that. At least I know I should be very angry if the Mohammedans tried to prevent the rest of us from drinking wine. My own view is that the churches should frankly recognize that the majority of the British people are not Christians and, therefore, cannot be expected to live Christian lives.

-- C.S. Lewis

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Non-Violence

If your ego is still in charge, you will find a disposable person or group on which to project your problems. People who haven’t come to at least a minimal awareness of their own dark side will always find someone else to hate or fear. Hatred holds a group together much more quickly and easily than love and inclusivity, I am sorry to say. René Girard developed a sociological, literary, and philosophical explanation for how and why the pattern of scapegoating is so prevalent in every culture.

In Leviticus 16 we see the brilliant ritualization of what we now call scapegoating, and we should indeed feel sorry for the demonized goat. On the Day of Atonement, a priest laid hands on an “escaping” goat, placing all the sins of the Jewish people from the previous year onto the animal. Then the goat was beaten with reeds and thorns, and driven out into the desert. And the people went home rejoicing, just as European Christians did after burning a supposed heretic at the stake or American whites did after the lynching of black men. Whenever the “sinner” is excluded, our ego is delighted and feels relieved and safe. It sort of works, but only for a while. Usually the illusion only deepens and becomes catatonic, blind, and repetitive—because of course, scapegoating did not really work to eliminate the evil in the first place.

Jesus came to radically undo this illusory scapegoat mechanism, which is found in every culture in some form. He became the scapegoat to reveal the universal lie of scapegoating. Note that John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin [singular] of the world” (John 1:29). It seems “the sin of the world” is ignorant killing, hatred, and fear. As Blaise Pascal so insightfully wrote, “People never do evil so completely and so cheerfully as when they do it with a religious conviction.”  We see this in much of the United States in our own time, with churches on every corner.

The Gospel is a highly subversive document. It painstakingly illustrates how the systems of both church and state (Caiaphas and Pilate) conspired to condemn Jesus. Throughout most of history, church and state have sought plausible scapegoats to carry their own shame and guilt. So Jesus became the sinned-against one to reveal the hidden nature of scapegoating, and we would forever see how wrong power can be—even religious power! (See John 16:8-11 and Romans 8:3.) Finally Jesus says from the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing” (Luke 23:34). The scapegoat mechanism largely operates in the unconscious; people do not know what they are doing. Scapegoaters do not know they are scapegoating, but they think they are doing a “holy duty for God” (John 16:2). You see why inner work, shadow work, and honest self-knowledge are all essential to any healthy religion.

The vast majority of violence in history has been sacralized violence. Members of ISIS probably believe they are doing God’s will. The Ku Klux Klan used the cross as their symbol! With God on your side, your violence becomes necessary and even “redemptive violence.” But there is no such thing as redemptive violence. Violence doesn’t save; it only destroys in both short and long term.

Jesus replaced the myth of redemptive violence with the truth of redemptive suffering. He showed us how to hold the pain and let it transform us, rather than pass it on to the others around us. Spiritually speaking, no one else is your problem. You are first and foremost your own problem. There are no bad goats to expel.

-- Richard Rohr

Rapture

People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That’s what it’s finally all about….

-- Joseph Campbell

I Used To Think: Open Mind

​​I used to think...that I had an open mind. Now I know that I need to be much more aware of things that close it. For example, what are the elements of prejudice that close my mind in undetected ways?

The Voice of Silence

It is appropriate, even necessary, to let silence speak to us. For it is out of silence sometimes that we can hear...a unique voice we otherwise might not hear. Silence provides us a opportunity to hear our thoughts, to hear our selves.  It gives us a chance to center ourselves and consider the kind of person we want to be, the kind of person we need to be, the kind of person we can be.

My Childhood Home I See Again

'Poem selection' for the week -- "My Childhood Home I See Again":

My childhood home I see again,
And sadden with the view;
And still, as memory crowds my brain,
There's pleasure in it too.

O Memory! thou midway world
'Twixt earth and paradise,
Where things decayed and loved ones lost
In dreamy shadows rise,

And, freed from all that's earthly vile,
Seem hallowed, pure, and bright,
Like scenes in some enchanted isle
All bathed in liquid light.

As dusky mountains please the eye
When twilight chases day;
As bugle-notes that, passing by,
In distance die away;

As leaving some grand waterfall,
We, lingering, list its roar—
So memory will hallow all
We've known, but know no more.

Near twenty years have passed away
Since here I bid farewell
To woods and fields, and scenes of play,
And playmates loved so well.

Where many were, but few remain
Of old familiar things;
But seeing them, to mind again
The lost and absent brings.

The friends I left that parting day,
How changed, as time has sped!
Young childhood grown, strong manhood gray,
And half of all are dead.

I hear the loved survivors tell
How nought from death could save,
Till every sound appears a knell,
And every spot a grave.

I range the fields with pensive tread,
And pace the hallow rooms,
And feel (companion of the dead)
I'm living in the tombs.

-- Abraham Lincoln

Way, Truth, Life

​I am the way, the truth, the life.

-- John 14:6

Could it be said like this?  "I am the way, to the truth, which gives you life."

I have often read this in terms of discreet items, an attempt to include 3 broad domains.  This may well be the case.  But, I wonder more now whether these really are 3 integrated areas, one each leading to the other...all, a part of a larger whole.

Do You Think It's Possible?

It could be that possibility has always been a collision between our limitations and our imagination.

Unfilled

We must deepen our respect for an unfilled thing, in part by not always filling it, especially where time is involved.  Embracing, even seeking space, is vital if we want to become (or remain) whole.

Bearings

We seem to so need our bearings, don't we? Geographically, we want to know where we are.  In our jobs, we want to know how we're doing.  Regarding our pain, what do we need to do or understand to medicate or fix the problem.  How are we perceived by others...and on and on it goes. We often look outward for direction, for light...to try to figure out where we're at, how we're doing.

Where we look is important. While we tend to look outward, perhaps we should more often look inward, where our true source of light is, for our sense of who we are and where we're going...to maintain 'our bearings'.

I've Noticed: Anger

​I've noticed...that my anger is often connected to where I feel or fear rejection.

One Thing I Dread

There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.

-- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Ars Poetica

'Poem selection' for the week -- "Ars Poetica":

To have
even a
lotto chance

of getting
somewhere
within yourself

you don’t quite know
but feel

To cling
to the periphery
through the constant

gyroscopic
re-drawing of its
provinces

To make
what Makers make

you must set aside
certainty

Leave it
a lumpy backpack
by the ticket window
at the station

Let the gentleman
in pleated khakis
pressed for time

claim it

The certainty
not the poem.

-- Leslie McGrath

No Despair

The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair. But it does not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things; or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not.

-- Thomas Merton

Being & Doing

I have been having some dialog with a friend about being and doing:

Dana:
Regarding our conversation yesterday on doing and being, I have been thinking about this observation for some time now:

The difference between
    who you are and
  who you want to be
is what you do.

Thoughts?

Gracelyn:
I am curious to hear what your interpretation of what this means.

My initial thought is that I already "do" too much. When I relate or move in a way that isn't who I want to be, I think I need to work harder to change the behavior or the parts I don't like. I so quickly label the behavior as negative and try to shut it down instead of being curious about it and taking it to God... the only One who ultimately has the power to truly change me.

Maybe that is what it is saying...sometimes for a behavior to become routine, it is necessary to be very purposeful about it, and eventually it becomes more of a reflex.

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts.

Dana:
Am I struck by the mixture of the human and divine realities.  Humanly, I do observe a deep connection between what we do and what we become...both good and bad.  Historically, it seems we move in and out of activity vs non-activity for a variety of reasons -- sometimes we talk too much and don't do enough, while at other times we do too much without really thinking about what we're doing or why we're doing it.

From a divine point-of-view, who I want to be as achieved by my own effort seems to always fall so far short.  So, we discover that it is really God who largely helps us become what we cannot seem to be on our own.

But, it seems that choosing a one-or-the-other approach in these kinds of things misses something significant.  The best way I've found to bridge the gap is to describe a kind of cooperation we must embrace with the work God is doing.  We do seem to need to participate somehow...rather than just sit there and assume we can't do anything anyway because God has to do 'it' (anyway).  I kind of like that word, cooperation, because it is something in the end that I must choose to join, to submit to.  And, in this way, I do believe that being active (cooperating) in the process is what moves us toward who we really want to be, something that is often a process, of discovery.

What do you think?

White & Western

I was driving with a tall, strong Tongan man. He told me how much he was struggling being in America, especially with the sense of loss of his roots and those things most precious. He told me how he was working hard to adapt to the white man’s world as best he could.  

I, this little white man, hugged this towering Tongan while he cried.  I told him, “We don’t need you to become white and Western. You are a king of the earth, and we need your glory to bring light to who we all are together."  Continue....

-- Wm. Paul Young

10 Things Mentally Strong People Won't Do

10 Things Mentally Strong People Won't Do:

1. They don’t dwell on mistakes.
2. They don’t hang around negative people.
3. They don’t stop believing in themselves.
4. They don’t wait for an apology to forgive.
5. They don’t feel sorry for themselves.
6. They don’t hold grudges.
7. They won’t let anyone limit their joy…
8. …and they don’t limit the joy of others.
9. They don’t get lazy.
10. They don’t get negative.

Continue...

-- Travis Bradberry

Core Design, Incomplete

​Almost all leadership comes out of a person's core design and is, at the same time, incomplete.  So, leadership requires leaders...not just a leader.

I Used To Think: Responsibilities

​I used to think...that the best stuff was received when I took care of my own responsibilities. Now I know that our greater joy comes from what we join, from Who we join.

Liberties

After watching the first debate of the presidential debate season, the following seems significant...as it spans both when it was written and our current context:

Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Endymion

Walking our dogs in the dark recently; the skies...well Longfellow says it so well!

'Poem selection' for the week -- "Endymion":

The rising moon has hid the stars;
Her level rays, like golden bars,
       Lie on the landscape green,
       With shadows brown between.

And silver white the river gleams,
As if Diana, in her dreams,
       Had dropt her silver bow
       Upon the meadows low.

On such a tranquil night as this,
She woke Endymion with a kiss,
       When, sleeping in the grove,
       He dreamed not of her love.

Like Dian’s kiss, unasked, unsought,
Love gives itself, but is not bought;
       Her voice, nor sound betrays
       Its deep, impassioned gaze.

It comes,—the beautiful, the free,
The crown of all humanity,—
       In silence and alone
       To seek the elected one.

It lifts the boughs, whose shadows deep,
Are Life’s oblivion, the soul’s sleep,
       And kisses the closed eyes
       Of him, who slumbering lies.

O, weary hearts! O, slumbering eyes!
O, drooping souls, whose destinies
       Are fraught with fear and pain,
       Ye shall be loved again!

No one is so accursed by fate,
No one so utterly desolate,
       But some heart, though unknown,
       Responds unto his own.

Responds,—as if with unseen wings,
A breath from heaven had touched its strings
       And whispers, in its song,
      “Where hast though stayed so long!”

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Disconnection

I’m convinced that beneath the ugly manifestations of our present evils—political corruption, ecological devastation, warring against one another everywhere, hating each other based on race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation—the greatest dis-ease facing humanity right now is our profound and painful sense of disconnection. We feel disconnected from God, certainly, but also from ourselves, from each other, and from our world. Our sense of this fourfold isolation is plunging our species into increasingly destructive behavior and much mental illness.

Our sense of disconnection is only an illusion. Nothing human can stop the flow of divine love; we cannot undo the eternal pattern even by our worst sin. God is always winning, and God’s love will win. Love does not lose, nor does God lose. Nothing can stop the relentless outpouring force that is the divine dance.

-- Richard Rohr

SM Brunch 8: Something Bigger, Strict Confines, Feel Like It, and Getting Robbed

More Saturday Mornings Brunch:

We all want to know that the other person believes in something bigger than themselves.

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As I grew older, I understood that instructions came with this voice. What were these instructions? The instructions were never to lament casually. And if one is to express the great inevitable defeat that awaits us all, it must be done within the strict confines of dignity and beauty.

-- Leonard Cohen

Recently celebrating his 82nd birthday, the title track from his latest album can be streamed from a link here.

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​We don't have to 'feel like it' first, before we are ready to give something...to serve someone else.

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Work, Food, and Play

​Work, food and play, when done together with others, is like mortar for our faith — they hold its bricks in place.

Being Human -- Without Capes

We need to be human again.  Only then can we be something more than we typically expect of ourselves.

I've Noticed: Weeds

I've noticed...that there are all kinds of weeds that grow in my relationships when I don't spend time in them.

Words: Sometimes...

​Sometimes words and ideas seem to lose all their weight and substance, becoming even vaporish, while at other times, they seem strong enough to uphold the ideals of the whole world.

So, what is it that makes it one way or the other?

Every Riven Thing

'Poem selection' for the week -- "Every Riven Thing":

God goes, belonging to every riven thing he's made
sing his being simply by being
the thing it is:
stone and tree and sky,
man who sees and sings and wonders why

God goes. Belonging, to every riven thing he's made,
means a storm of peace.
Think of the atoms inside the stone.
Think of the man who sits alone
trying to will himself into a stillness where

God goes belonging. To every riven thing he's made
there is given one shade
shaped exactly to the thing itself:
under the tree a darker tree;
under the man the only man to see

God goes belonging to every riven thing. He's made
the things that bring him near,
made the mind that makes him go.
A part of what man knows,
apart from what man knows,

God goes belonging to every riven thing he's made.

-- Christian Wiman

Prayer: Paying Attention

​Prayer is a lot of things, not the least of which is being attentive to God,  paying attention to the real things of life (Col 4:2).  It is a listening. to him, as much as a speaking to him..like learning the language of intimacy with God.

SM Brunch 7: Entertaining, Damage, Getting Even, and Slow Motion

More Saturday Mornings Brunch:

...always a great trip when we go to the 'Big House'.  More pics here....

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Someone can be entertaining, but not necessarily enjoyable.

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​​We damage our kids...when we think they can no longer hear the voice of God.

-- Rabbi

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​Getting even has never healed a single person.

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Win Hearts Before Minds

Great leaders are those who trust their gut. They are those who understand the art before the science. They win hearts before minds.

-- Simon Sinek

How Bad?

How bad do you want it?  How easily will you quit your pursuit of it?

I Used To Think: Certainty

​I used to think...that certainty was essential.  Now I know that, although clarity is so compelling, the more comfortable we can become with ambiguity (uncertainty), the better off we'll be.

When They Hire

​Reliability, initiative, and sensitivity to others are keys to good work -- what people want when they hire someone.

Focus, ingenuity, and humanity -- would be a wonderful surprise.

Hothouse

'Poem selection' for the week -- "Hothouse":

A rose, rose. A violet, violet. A jade, jade.
No. The architecture of each, a refusal.

Rose is not rose nor violet violet nor jade jade.
But each is what it is, not what it seems.

What each seems is what of each gets seen.
Though what we see isn’t the thing seen.

The petals of the rose are violet and jade.
Thus the petals of the rose look, to us, rose.

The shape of the violet absorbs all but violet.
The violet we see is the violet a violet rejects.

A rose is a rose is a rose, but not as a rose.
Jade is the name of jade, not the jade named.

-- Raymond McDaniel

From the Author:

“I think it’s beautiful and weird and dangerous that we name things according to what we see as their attributes (and attribute things according to names). ‘Hothouse’ is from a book about how we see, and everything that interferes with seeing.”

H+P+L=J

Hope + Peace + Love = Joy

Time Like This

It seems to me that I have greater peace… when I am not 'trying to be contemplative,' or trying to be anything special, but simply orienting my life fully and completely towards what seems to be required of a man like me at a time like this.

-- Thomas Merton

This week I have felt the encroachment of perfectionism and self-consciousness. I need this reminder to be willing to be who I am, not someone I am not.

Object Outside

Joy can only be real only if people look upon their life as a service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.

-- Leonard Tolstoy

Fury

​Even the most docile, reserved, or self-controlled of men can have a great fury.

I've Noticed: Looking At

I've noticed...that I shouldn't be more interested in looking at someone else than I am at looking at myself.

Just A Theory

​A budget is just a theory, without any specific mechanisms to follow it.

The Inward Morning

'Poem selection' for the week -- "The Inward Morning":

Packed in my mind lie all the clothes
   Which outward nature wears,
And in its fashion’s hourly change
    It all things else repairs.

In vain I look for change abroad,
    And can no difference find,
Till some new ray of peace uncalled
    Illumes my inmost mind.

What is it gilds the trees and clouds,
    And paints the heavens so gay,
But yonder fast-abiding light
    With its unchanging ray?

Lo, when the sun streams through the wood,
    Upon a winter’s morn,
Where’er his silent beams intrude
    The murky night is gone.

How could the patient pine have known
    The morning breeze would come,
Or humble flowers anticipate
    The insect’s noonday hum,—

Till the new light with morning cheer
    From far streamed through the aisles,
And nimbly told the forest trees
    For many stretching miles?

I’ve heard within my inmost soul
    Such cheerful morning news,
In the horizon of my mind
    Have seen such orient hues,

As in the twilight of the dawn,
    When the first birds awake,
Are heard within some silent wood,
    Where they the small twigs break,

Or in the eastern skies are seen,
    Before the sun appears,
The harbingers of summer heats
    Which from afar he bears.

-- Henry David Thoreau

Process of Subtraction

God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction.

-- Meister Eckhart

It is what has been added that is the problem...another example of the inverseness of spirituality.

Mass Hypnotic Trance

We cannot attain the presence of God because we’re already totally in the presence of God. What’s absent is awareness. Little do we realize that God is maintaining us in existence with every breath we take. Each time you take another breath, realize that God is choosing you again and again—and yet again (Ephesians 1:4. 9-11). We have nothing to work up to or even learn. We do, however, need to unlearn some things, and most especially we must let go of any thought that we have ever been separate from God.

To become aware of God’s presence in our lives, we have to accept what is often difficult, particularly for people in what appears to be a success-driven culture. We have to accept that human culture is in a mass hypnotic trance. Plato already said this, as most religions do at the higher levels. We are sleep-walkers, “seeing through a glass darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Wisdom teachers from many traditions have recognized that we human beings do not naturally see; we have to be taught how to see.

That’s what religion is for, to help us let go of illusions and pretenses so we can be more and more present to what actually is. That’s why the Buddha and Jesus both say with one voice, “Be awake.” Jesus talks about “staying watchful” (Matthew 25:13, Luke 12:37, Mark 13:33-37), and “Buddha” literally means “I am awake” in Sanskrit. Jesus says further, “If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light” (Luke 11:34).

We have to learn to see what is already here. Such a simple directive is hard for us to understand. We want to attain some concrete information or achieve an improved morality or learn some behavior that will make us into superior beings. We have a “merit badge” mentality. We worship success. We believe that we get what we deserve, what we work hard for, and what we are worthy of. It’s hard for Western people to think in any other way. But any expectation of merit or reward actually keeps us from the transformative experience called grace.

Experiencing radical grace is like living in a different world. It’s not a world in which I labor to get God to notice me and like me. It’s not a world in which I strive for spiritual success. It’s not a cosmic game of crime and punishment. Unfortunately, many of the world’s religions at the lower levels do teach that, even if indirectly. Many religious people are afraid of gratuity. Instead, we want God for the sake of social order, and we want religion for the sake of social controls. God cannot be seen through such a small and dirty lens.

-- Richard Rohr

Modern Lighting

Modern lighting technology has resulted in the loss of the stars, which throughout human history had been a source of philosophic wonder and a constant reminder of the limitations of what we know. The cultural value of the starry night is that it confronts us with the reality that our powers over nature and our insights into its inner workings are really quite limited, not only in themselves but also against the backdrop of other kinds of knowledge. Sure, our telescopes see farther than our eyes ever could, but our natural vision is now restricted mostly to the small sphere over which we have control.  Continue here....

-- Jacob Hoerger

Calibrate Reality

​Nothing helps calibrate reality [more] than the honest perceptions of those who work closest to you.

-- Jay Samit