Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Life would be so wonderful if we
only knew what to do with it.
- Lovisa Gustafsson, born on this
day, 1905, in Sweden
Oh, I have been thinking about Lovisa’s words. They have made me understand something. They have made me understand today (have I said this before?) - understand? more, feel - how precious and how urgent and how glorious is this earthly life of ours!
What is the Past? I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember the Past or my Past very well. Especially if there was one before I was born. And once it’s Past, it’s Past, right? And many have said, you can’t change it; it’s done. And the Future, well, most of us don’t think about the Future. We just assume that there is one! Tomorrow is another day. But I’ve had enough (three is enough!) experiences of almost dying that I know you can’t really count on tomorrow arriving and finding you alive - though I think it’s “human” to make that assumption, make plans. Lovisa however did say, “There seems to be a law that governs all our actions so I never make plans.”
What we have is Right Now. Now is the moment to care, to understand, to repent, to love, to unburden, to give generously, to believe in yourself and others - to do all the things that advance our humanity in the image of the Divine Lover. This earthly Life is the “bird in hand”, to be made the most of. If we don’t, there is no bridge between the Past and the Future (including Afterlife) - hence, no connection.
The Past can be fascinating, but is done. The Future is a Mystery, though we often have great fantasies about it. Live every day, boldly and fully. From what I have learned in 62 years, I know what to do with it. I hope you do!
Lovisa Gustafsson? Greta Garbo.
Brian+
Monday, September 17, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, September 17, 2007
Its door opens near. It's a shrine
by the road, it's a flower in the parking lot
of The Pentagon, it says "Look around,
listen. Feel the air." It interrupts
international telephone lines without a tune.
When traffic lines jam, it gets out
and dances on the bridge. If great people
get distracted by fame they forget
this essential kind of breathing
and they die inside their gold shell.
When caravans cross deserts
it is the secret treasure hidden under the jewels.
Sometimes commanders take us over, and they
try to impose their whole universe,
how to succeed by daily calculation:
I can't eat that bread.
- William Stafford
About 7:00am, I would set out from the little apartment about two thirds the way up into the old town. Menton, the city of lemons! The apartment was in a little cave cut out from the rock, with a heavy wooden door, handcarved, sometime in the 17th century. The apartment, I was told, was over 500 years old.
In the warm morning air, I walk past the open church to the the bakery. Buy a baguette, warm from the wood-fired oven, pop it into my string bag on my back. A walk down to the lower town, lazily, wandering through the narrow streets, enjoying the geraniums in their wall clay pots, and the birds singing in their wooden cages hanging from the windows. Next, the fruit vendor. A lime and a peach, warm from the early morning sun. On to the market for a small terrine de lapin (rabbit). And a small cut of butter wrapped in butcher’s paper. My trusty Swiss Army knife hanging from my belt – those were the pre-terrorist days.
The beach. Plunk down my little folding chair, put my straw mat under my feet on the pebbles. Watch the light brighten on the sea. Eat slowly, a slice of warm bread, butter, a slice of rabbit terrine, a little lime squeezed. Strong coffee from the man on the sidewalk by the beach. A book, hat. Walk the shore. Napping. Oops - time for lunch!
“It’s a flower in the parking lot ….. Look around ….. Listen ….. Feel the air ….. dance on the bridge ….. breathe ….. (don’t) die in your golden shell.” When commanders, of whatever kind, try to impose their killing issues of whatever kind, say simply:
“I can’t eat that bread”.
Brian+
Its door opens near. It's a shrine
by the road, it's a flower in the parking lot
of The Pentagon, it says "Look around,
listen. Feel the air." It interrupts
international telephone lines without a tune.
When traffic lines jam, it gets out
and dances on the bridge. If great people
get distracted by fame they forget
this essential kind of breathing
and they die inside their gold shell.
When caravans cross deserts
it is the secret treasure hidden under the jewels.
Sometimes commanders take us over, and they
try to impose their whole universe,
how to succeed by daily calculation:
I can't eat that bread.
- William Stafford
About 7:00am, I would set out from the little apartment about two thirds the way up into the old town. Menton, the city of lemons! The apartment was in a little cave cut out from the rock, with a heavy wooden door, handcarved, sometime in the 17th century. The apartment, I was told, was over 500 years old.
In the warm morning air, I walk past the open church to the the bakery. Buy a baguette, warm from the wood-fired oven, pop it into my string bag on my back. A walk down to the lower town, lazily, wandering through the narrow streets, enjoying the geraniums in their wall clay pots, and the birds singing in their wooden cages hanging from the windows. Next, the fruit vendor. A lime and a peach, warm from the early morning sun. On to the market for a small terrine de lapin (rabbit). And a small cut of butter wrapped in butcher’s paper. My trusty Swiss Army knife hanging from my belt – those were the pre-terrorist days.
The beach. Plunk down my little folding chair, put my straw mat under my feet on the pebbles. Watch the light brighten on the sea. Eat slowly, a slice of warm bread, butter, a slice of rabbit terrine, a little lime squeezed. Strong coffee from the man on the sidewalk by the beach. A book, hat. Walk the shore. Napping. Oops - time for lunch!
“It’s a flower in the parking lot ….. Look around ….. Listen ….. Feel the air ….. dance on the bridge ….. breathe ….. (don’t) die in your golden shell.” When commanders, of whatever kind, try to impose their killing issues of whatever kind, say simply:
“I can’t eat that bread”.
Brian+
Friday, September 14, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, September 15, 2007
I don't expect you'll hear me writing any poems
to the greater glory of Ronald and Nancy Reagan.
- Robert Penn Warren, first Poet Laureate
of the United States, and Pulitzer Prize winner,
died on this day in Stratton Vt., 1989, age 84
So, I am a weak human being who cannot resist a great line! For my sheer delight, I request pardon of Nancy, and of Ronald - wherever he may be. I shall refrain from speculating.
Here are some poetic words from Warren:
But I had forgotten to mention an upland
Of wind-tortured stone white in darkness, and tall, but when
No wind, mist gathers, and once on the Sarré at midnight,
I watched the sheep huddling. Their eyes
stared into nothingness. In that mist-diffused light their eyes
Were stupid and round like the eyes of fat fish in muddy water,
Or of a scholar who has lost faith in his calling.
Their jaws did not move. Shreds
Of dry grass, gray in the gray mist-light, hung
From the side of a jaw, unmoving.
You would think that nothing would ever again happen.
That may be a way to love God.
(Here is to be found the entire poem: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15311
I feel like one of those sheep, when I ponder the Mystery called “God”. I suspect that this what the shepherds “abiding in the fields” in the Christian myth/truth story looked like – “shreds of dry grass …. unmoving” ….. “their eyes stared into nothingness”. I have, for many many years, pooh-poohed the image of sheep for human beings - dumb creatures paying no attention, too stupid to see danger, etc.
But, but …… What else should we be like except these awed sheep, unable to utter word, shift an eye, or move a jaw, in the presence of the power of Holy Love?! Is there anything more stunning than Unconditional Love flowing from the star-lit heavens, pointing to the indwelling God within each of us?? If we catch even a fleeting glimpse of this reality, would we not stand in utter amazement, struggling with unbelief to believe? Oh, it’s true. It’s true. Each human heart is a lowly manger. And in it, “God” is born. Look inside your heart, look deeply, free from prejudice, guilt, or self-judgment. There is your True Self. When you have recovered from your immobility - CHEER!
Brian+
I don't expect you'll hear me writing any poems
to the greater glory of Ronald and Nancy Reagan.
- Robert Penn Warren, first Poet Laureate
of the United States, and Pulitzer Prize winner,
died on this day in Stratton Vt., 1989, age 84
So, I am a weak human being who cannot resist a great line! For my sheer delight, I request pardon of Nancy, and of Ronald - wherever he may be. I shall refrain from speculating.
Here are some poetic words from Warren:
But I had forgotten to mention an upland
Of wind-tortured stone white in darkness, and tall, but when
No wind, mist gathers, and once on the Sarré at midnight,
I watched the sheep huddling. Their eyes
stared into nothingness. In that mist-diffused light their eyes
Were stupid and round like the eyes of fat fish in muddy water,
Or of a scholar who has lost faith in his calling.
Their jaws did not move. Shreds
Of dry grass, gray in the gray mist-light, hung
From the side of a jaw, unmoving.
You would think that nothing would ever again happen.
That may be a way to love God.
(Here is to be found the entire poem: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15311
I feel like one of those sheep, when I ponder the Mystery called “God”. I suspect that this what the shepherds “abiding in the fields” in the Christian myth/truth story looked like – “shreds of dry grass …. unmoving” ….. “their eyes stared into nothingness”. I have, for many many years, pooh-poohed the image of sheep for human beings - dumb creatures paying no attention, too stupid to see danger, etc.
But, but …… What else should we be like except these awed sheep, unable to utter word, shift an eye, or move a jaw, in the presence of the power of Holy Love?! Is there anything more stunning than Unconditional Love flowing from the star-lit heavens, pointing to the indwelling God within each of us?? If we catch even a fleeting glimpse of this reality, would we not stand in utter amazement, struggling with unbelief to believe? Oh, it’s true. It’s true. Each human heart is a lowly manger. And in it, “God” is born. Look inside your heart, look deeply, free from prejudice, guilt, or self-judgment. There is your True Self. When you have recovered from your immobility - CHEER!
Brian+
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, September 14, 2007
Relinquishing control is the ultimate challenge of the Spiritual Warrior.
- the Book of Runes
Today, in the Christian calendar, is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The cross on which Jesus was crucified has been the principle symbol of Christian faith since the very beginning.
In the Roman Catholic tradition, the cross with the figure of Jesus on it became dominant. Does this mean that the death of Jesus is somehow paramount, along with His suffering and pain? It seems so to me. “Christ died for me” is more often heard in Roman Catholic devotions and books and sermons than “Christ lives for me”.
In the Protestant tradition, it was and is the empty or bare cross that dominates. Is this saying that Christ’s death is irrelevant in the face of the Resurrection? Personally, I think this is nearer the message of the Gospel. Yet, I do not see in any of the Christian expressions a clear focus on Being Alive in Christ, in living one’s life. Of leaving Death in all its forms behind. Of living every moment fully and without fear.
I appreciate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (and will say so again on Sunday) because it celebrates the Cross itself, not the Mystery of what God “did for us”.
Simply put, this Feast thanks the Cross - the two beams of wood that composed it - for its part in revealing a Mystery which, if we catch some understanding of it, frees us to live fully, fearlessly, freely.
In my mind, the Cross has come to represent each human being. We , like the wood of the Cross, can be so rigid, unyielding, made hard and rejecting by our egos, our character defects, our old behaviours, our fears. So much so that we refuse to embrace the gifts for Life that are being offered. We seek to control, We begin to believe that our humanity is incapable of great beauty. But a great early hymn addresses the Cross, in a sense thanking It for relaxing its rigidity and embracing the body of Jesus. By letting go of control, of holding on to a long-held way of being, the Cross broke a barrier, letting Life flood through. People have debated “how” for millennia, but the “how” is secondary to the gift.
Relinquish control. Let down barriers. Like the Cross, reach out and throw your arms around the Love which alone makes us fully human, and which “The Christ” universally represents. As we “exalt” the Cross, we are cheering on our own courage in letting down our defenses, allowing ourselves to be inhabited by the Life-force we call God”.
Brian+
Relinquishing control is the ultimate challenge of the Spiritual Warrior.
- the Book of Runes
Today, in the Christian calendar, is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The cross on which Jesus was crucified has been the principle symbol of Christian faith since the very beginning.
In the Roman Catholic tradition, the cross with the figure of Jesus on it became dominant. Does this mean that the death of Jesus is somehow paramount, along with His suffering and pain? It seems so to me. “Christ died for me” is more often heard in Roman Catholic devotions and books and sermons than “Christ lives for me”.
In the Protestant tradition, it was and is the empty or bare cross that dominates. Is this saying that Christ’s death is irrelevant in the face of the Resurrection? Personally, I think this is nearer the message of the Gospel. Yet, I do not see in any of the Christian expressions a clear focus on Being Alive in Christ, in living one’s life. Of leaving Death in all its forms behind. Of living every moment fully and without fear.
I appreciate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (and will say so again on Sunday) because it celebrates the Cross itself, not the Mystery of what God “did for us”.
Simply put, this Feast thanks the Cross - the two beams of wood that composed it - for its part in revealing a Mystery which, if we catch some understanding of it, frees us to live fully, fearlessly, freely.
In my mind, the Cross has come to represent each human being. We , like the wood of the Cross, can be so rigid, unyielding, made hard and rejecting by our egos, our character defects, our old behaviours, our fears. So much so that we refuse to embrace the gifts for Life that are being offered. We seek to control, We begin to believe that our humanity is incapable of great beauty. But a great early hymn addresses the Cross, in a sense thanking It for relaxing its rigidity and embracing the body of Jesus. By letting go of control, of holding on to a long-held way of being, the Cross broke a barrier, letting Life flood through. People have debated “how” for millennia, but the “how” is secondary to the gift.
Relinquish control. Let down barriers. Like the Cross, reach out and throw your arms around the Love which alone makes us fully human, and which “The Christ” universally represents. As we “exalt” the Cross, we are cheering on our own courage in letting down our defenses, allowing ourselves to be inhabited by the Life-force we call God”.
Brian+
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, September 13, 2007
Indeed, Miss Manners has come to believe that the basic
political division in this country is not between liberals and
conservatives but between those who believe that they
should have a say in the love lives of strangers and those
who do not.
- Miss Manners (Judith Martin), born on this day, 1938
Good Lord! I had no idea that Miss Manners was 8 years older than I am! But, I suppose that she would consider it “rude” that I have had the effrontery to point this out. My apologies.
Now, I suppose that many of you are going to “rush to the judgment” that I am applying Miss Manner’s words to the vicious, nasty, mean-spirited, troglodyte tendency to tell people who love those of the same sex, or perhaps those of whom they don’t approve who might be thinking of marrying their children, most of whom they have stolidly determined to keep as “strangers” and make no attempt to get to know them personally, that such loving is disgusting and all other manner of wickedness.
Nope. Not even going to refer to it. I’m thinking about those who want to intimidate those of us who have been taught to love everyone, including our enemies and those who disagree with us and those who threaten us, that we must have a healthy hatred for such persons. What?! Love a Muslim, who is quite likely a terrorist out to destroy our culture, religion, and way of life? What?! Love a “social inferior” who is quite likely to burgle our house, pee on our lawn ornaments, or reject our every effort to tidy them up? What?! Love those who dare to criticize the way we “have always done it” - well, they can just go back to where they came from! Shocking, ungrateful behavior!
Perhaps if those who “believe that they should have a say in the love lives of strangers” were to give up trying to regulate love and just become lovers …..
Brian+
Indeed, Miss Manners has come to believe that the basic
political division in this country is not between liberals and
conservatives but between those who believe that they
should have a say in the love lives of strangers and those
who do not.
- Miss Manners (Judith Martin), born on this day, 1938
Good Lord! I had no idea that Miss Manners was 8 years older than I am! But, I suppose that she would consider it “rude” that I have had the effrontery to point this out. My apologies.
Now, I suppose that many of you are going to “rush to the judgment” that I am applying Miss Manner’s words to the vicious, nasty, mean-spirited, troglodyte tendency to tell people who love those of the same sex, or perhaps those of whom they don’t approve who might be thinking of marrying their children, most of whom they have stolidly determined to keep as “strangers” and make no attempt to get to know them personally, that such loving is disgusting and all other manner of wickedness.
Nope. Not even going to refer to it. I’m thinking about those who want to intimidate those of us who have been taught to love everyone, including our enemies and those who disagree with us and those who threaten us, that we must have a healthy hatred for such persons. What?! Love a Muslim, who is quite likely a terrorist out to destroy our culture, religion, and way of life? What?! Love a “social inferior” who is quite likely to burgle our house, pee on our lawn ornaments, or reject our every effort to tidy them up? What?! Love those who dare to criticize the way we “have always done it” - well, they can just go back to where they came from! Shocking, ungrateful behavior!
Perhaps if those who “believe that they should have a say in the love lives of strangers” were to give up trying to regulate love and just become lovers …..
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, September 12, 2007
All government, of course, is against liberty.
Adultery is the application of democracy to love.
Archbishop - A Christian ecclesiastic of a rank
superior to that attained by Christ.
Criticism is prejudice made plausible.
Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective
wisdom of individual ignorance.
For every complex problem there is an answer that
is clear, simple, and wrong.
Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise
and free than Christianity has made them good.
- H. L. Mencken, gadfly, born on this day, 1880
Ok, ok, so I am being lazy today! I am doing this deliberately (of course) so that all of you can feel the reassuring confirmation that I am just as unreliable, slacker-off (well, as a rabid INFP, would you be surprised??), quirky human beings as we all can be. There is a pleasant solidarity in human weakness!
I did, however, pause when I pondered Mencken’s comment about Christianity not making people good. The parable Jesus is reported to have told about the Sheep and the Goats being separated at the end of time popped into my mind. The “goats”, you may remember, seemed shocked to find themselves on the “wrong” side of the Kingdom fence. “But WHEN did we see you and not feed you, visit you in prison, clothe you when you were naked …..etc”??
And I thought of the words from 1 John, that no ne can say that they love God and hate their neighbour.
Mencken always invokes some serious thought. But, for the most part ….. have a laugh with the old Curmudgeon!!
Brian+
All government, of course, is against liberty.
Adultery is the application of democracy to love.
Archbishop - A Christian ecclesiastic of a rank
superior to that attained by Christ.
Criticism is prejudice made plausible.
Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective
wisdom of individual ignorance.
For every complex problem there is an answer that
is clear, simple, and wrong.
Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise
and free than Christianity has made them good.
- H. L. Mencken, gadfly, born on this day, 1880
Ok, ok, so I am being lazy today! I am doing this deliberately (of course) so that all of you can feel the reassuring confirmation that I am just as unreliable, slacker-off (well, as a rabid INFP, would you be surprised??), quirky human beings as we all can be. There is a pleasant solidarity in human weakness!
I did, however, pause when I pondered Mencken’s comment about Christianity not making people good. The parable Jesus is reported to have told about the Sheep and the Goats being separated at the end of time popped into my mind. The “goats”, you may remember, seemed shocked to find themselves on the “wrong” side of the Kingdom fence. “But WHEN did we see you and not feed you, visit you in prison, clothe you when you were naked …..etc”??
And I thought of the words from 1 John, that no ne can say that they love God and hate their neighbour.
Mencken always invokes some serious thought. But, for the most part ….. have a laugh with the old Curmudgeon!!
Brian+
Monday, September 10, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, September 11, 2007
In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim
at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in
either can rarely be cured by persecution.
- Alexander Hamilton, who on this day, 1789,
was appointed the first Secretary of the
Treasury of the United States of America
I have ever been stunned by the fact that Christianity decided to make the Hebrew Scriptures part of the Holy Writings of the Christian faith. (And equally stunned that we never developed our own set of “Psalms”.) If I had been alive at the time, I would have been a Marcionite. Or, in the 19th century, I would have been a follower of Olive Pell, who composed her own Bible by taking out of it all the passages to which she objected as being unworthy of the God she knew.
From a “spiritual” perspective, I believe that Hamilton is correct. The God of the “Old” (an odious term!) Testament may have been pictured as achieving His ends by “fire and sword”. I simply cannot imagine the God of Jesus Christ would. And, intellectually and rationally, it makes clear sense that persecution, punishment, mistreatment, and ridicule only makes for more determined enemies. That is why we try to make imprisonment for crime not vengeful; we only make more vicious enemies of society.
Today we remember 9/11 - and with deep prayer and sorrow those who perished, their families and friends. We give thanks that they are in the loving hands of God, simply because they are God’s “children”. But in my own heart I also remember all of those, of whatever nationality and culture and religion, who have suffered and died in the aftermath of 9/11, because of the actions of unloving human beings. Christians know that the God we have come to know in Jesus loves every human being equally and unconditionally. God weeps at every act of hate and fear perpetrated by one human being against another.
Has 9/11 taught us anything? I look around and I am not reassured. But I am ever hopeful.
Brian+
In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim
at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in
either can rarely be cured by persecution.
- Alexander Hamilton, who on this day, 1789,
was appointed the first Secretary of the
Treasury of the United States of America
I have ever been stunned by the fact that Christianity decided to make the Hebrew Scriptures part of the Holy Writings of the Christian faith. (And equally stunned that we never developed our own set of “Psalms”.) If I had been alive at the time, I would have been a Marcionite. Or, in the 19th century, I would have been a follower of Olive Pell, who composed her own Bible by taking out of it all the passages to which she objected as being unworthy of the God she knew.
From a “spiritual” perspective, I believe that Hamilton is correct. The God of the “Old” (an odious term!) Testament may have been pictured as achieving His ends by “fire and sword”. I simply cannot imagine the God of Jesus Christ would. And, intellectually and rationally, it makes clear sense that persecution, punishment, mistreatment, and ridicule only makes for more determined enemies. That is why we try to make imprisonment for crime not vengeful; we only make more vicious enemies of society.
Today we remember 9/11 - and with deep prayer and sorrow those who perished, their families and friends. We give thanks that they are in the loving hands of God, simply because they are God’s “children”. But in my own heart I also remember all of those, of whatever nationality and culture and religion, who have suffered and died in the aftermath of 9/11, because of the actions of unloving human beings. Christians know that the God we have come to know in Jesus loves every human being equally and unconditionally. God weeps at every act of hate and fear perpetrated by one human being against another.
Has 9/11 taught us anything? I look around and I am not reassured. But I am ever hopeful.
Brian+
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