Brian’s Reflection: Friday, December 28, 2007
Presented by jazz lovers from all over the world.
this piano is the only one of its kind in the world and
expresses the great genius of a man who has never
played a melancholy note in his lifetime on a planet
that has often succumbed to despair".
- Silver plaque on the Steinway of Earl “Fatha” Hines,
musician & pianist, who was born on this day, 1903
Earl Hines was born in Duquesne PA. His father was a cornetist and his mother played church organ. Happily for the world, playing the cornet hurt him behind the ears. The piano didn’t. In 1927, Louis Armstrong replaced his wife as the band pianist with Hines. Together, they made what are regarded as some of the most important jazz recordings ever made.
Our planet is in despair – and has been for awhile. Benazir Bhutto’s assassination is but the latest savagery. And it’s going to be like this for a long time, I think. My own feeling is that the bottom line for it all is the determination by some to refuse freedom to others in order to protect their position and power.
Sometimes melancholy is, I feel, appropriate. All human feelings deserve acknowledgment. But I’m grateful for Earl Hines’ non-melancholic “notes”.
I wish that, with perhaps a nod to melancholy, the World’s religions would play faithfully “Fatha” Hines note of non-despair. For, in my view, much of Religion contributes to that despair by contributing to the power mongering which only exacerbates that despair. Jesus, in my opinion, did not want everyone to be made a Christian. He desires every human being genuinely to love and respect each other, and build a World community that meets melancholy and despair with the music of hope and trust.
Something I need to learn too.
Brian+
Friday, December 28, 2007
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, December 26, 2007
[ Boxing Day ]
"ELEGY WRITTEN INA COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD"
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
…..The Epitaph
Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth
A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.
Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth,
And Melacholy marked him for her own.
Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heaven did a recompense as largely send:
He gave to Misery all he had, a tear,
He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.
No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode
(There they alike in trembling hope repose),
The bosom of his Father and his God.
- Thomas Gray, poet, born on this day, 1716
It’s Boxing Day to us colonials of the Dominions. The day when the “upper classes” gave gifts to the “lower classes”. We shall assume that this was, in the culture of the times, thoughtful. An expression of gratitude towards those who made life “work” and comfortable.
I elide to the “box” we shall all be carried out in eventually. And I love Gray’s beautiful line as a simple symbol of what life shall have been: He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.
Life is given us. May our bounty be great; our soul sincere. And the “friend from Heaven” walk with us.
Brian+
Grays elegy in full: http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Poetry/Elegy.htm
[ Boxing Day ]
"ELEGY WRITTEN INA COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD"
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
…..The Epitaph
Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth
A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.
Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth,
And Melacholy marked him for her own.
Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heaven did a recompense as largely send:
He gave to Misery all he had, a tear,
He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.
No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode
(There they alike in trembling hope repose),
The bosom of his Father and his God.
- Thomas Gray, poet, born on this day, 1716
It’s Boxing Day to us colonials of the Dominions. The day when the “upper classes” gave gifts to the “lower classes”. We shall assume that this was, in the culture of the times, thoughtful. An expression of gratitude towards those who made life “work” and comfortable.
I elide to the “box” we shall all be carried out in eventually. And I love Gray’s beautiful line as a simple symbol of what life shall have been: He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.
Life is given us. May our bounty be great; our soul sincere. And the “friend from Heaven” walk with us.
Brian+
Grays elegy in full: http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Poetry/Elegy.htm
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: December 24, 2007 (Christmas Eve)
The true meaning of religion is thus, not simply morality,
but morality touched by emotion.
- Matthew Arnold, English poet, author,
born on this day, 1822
“Morality” is just rules. It isn’t “religion”, a linking to Goodness. Morality is heartless. Morality is an instrument of control. Morality is inhuman, without feeling, except perhaps of meanness. The “moral majority”? Just a bunch of control freaks afflicted by an innate inability to appreciate being human.
The Incarnation? God with us, God in us, God “human”? “Morality touched by emotion”.
Morality will never make us human. Emmanuel will.
Brian+
The true meaning of religion is thus, not simply morality,
but morality touched by emotion.
- Matthew Arnold, English poet, author,
born on this day, 1822
“Morality” is just rules. It isn’t “religion”, a linking to Goodness. Morality is heartless. Morality is an instrument of control. Morality is inhuman, without feeling, except perhaps of meanness. The “moral majority”? Just a bunch of control freaks afflicted by an innate inability to appreciate being human.
The Incarnation? God with us, God in us, God “human”? “Morality touched by emotion”.
Morality will never make us human. Emmanuel will.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: December 24, 2007 (Christmas Eve)
The true meaning of religion is thus, not simply morality,
but morality touched by emotion.
- Matthew Arnold, English poet, author,
born on this day, 1822
“Morality” is just rules. It isn’t “religion”, a linking to Goodness. Morality is heartless. Morality is an instrument of control. Morality is inhuman, without feeling, except perhaps of meanness. The “moral majority”? Just a bunch of control freaks afflicted by an innate inability to appreciate being human.
The Incarnation? God with us, God in us, God “human”? “Morality touched by emotion”.
Morality will never make us human. Emmanuel will.
Brian+
The true meaning of religion is thus, not simply morality,
but morality touched by emotion.
- Matthew Arnold, English poet, author,
born on this day, 1822
“Morality” is just rules. It isn’t “religion”, a linking to Goodness. Morality is heartless. Morality is an instrument of control. Morality is inhuman, without feeling, except perhaps of meanness. The “moral majority”? Just a bunch of control freaks afflicted by an innate inability to appreciate being human.
The Incarnation? God with us, God in us, God “human”? “Morality touched by emotion”.
Morality will never make us human. Emmanuel will.
Brian+
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, December 21, 2007
God is not attained by a process of addition to
anything in the soul, but by a process of subtraction.
- Meister Eckhart, Christian mystic
True, true. Of course, an argument can be made for any statement as well as its opposite. As I see it, our goal in Life should be to die to this earthly life with utter simplicity of soul. Die with everything that has piled on to us through the voyage of our Life burned away, as it were by the “fuller’s fire”, or the dross removed, leaving only the refined gold.
Are we born encumbered? I think so, by the very nature of human life. Perhaps this is what is meant by “original sin”. We have this journey to make. On it, we gather to ourselves great lots of baggage, much of which we believe we must have in order to live, to succeed, to be happy. But I think that if we have had good teachers, we begin to learn as we age and mature, that Life and success and happiness are more readily found in Simplicity. Life itself has a way of being such a Teacher. Finally, we must learn that we can do without our body. All that will be left is pure energy, the “fire of God” at the heart.
It’s exactly the opposite of the bumper sticker theology that says, “(S)He who dies with the most toys wins.” And the question is, “Wins what?” And “Was it worth it?”
I don’t really think that we can avoid the contest. It’s kind of a given, the growing process we all have to work through. But, as the parable says, whenever or however we get there, “those who labored in the field only a short time were paid the same as those who labored through the heat of the day”. If it was “easy” for us and “hard” for some, we can’t grumble. Each of us has our own journey, and we are happy for all who manage it.
We are not alone. Known or not, God stays close. When needed, God is there, providing the gear we need at the critical moments. In the times of trail, look within. What we need is present. And from there will come the wisdom.
Brian+
God is not attained by a process of addition to
anything in the soul, but by a process of subtraction.
- Meister Eckhart, Christian mystic
True, true. Of course, an argument can be made for any statement as well as its opposite. As I see it, our goal in Life should be to die to this earthly life with utter simplicity of soul. Die with everything that has piled on to us through the voyage of our Life burned away, as it were by the “fuller’s fire”, or the dross removed, leaving only the refined gold.
Are we born encumbered? I think so, by the very nature of human life. Perhaps this is what is meant by “original sin”. We have this journey to make. On it, we gather to ourselves great lots of baggage, much of which we believe we must have in order to live, to succeed, to be happy. But I think that if we have had good teachers, we begin to learn as we age and mature, that Life and success and happiness are more readily found in Simplicity. Life itself has a way of being such a Teacher. Finally, we must learn that we can do without our body. All that will be left is pure energy, the “fire of God” at the heart.
It’s exactly the opposite of the bumper sticker theology that says, “(S)He who dies with the most toys wins.” And the question is, “Wins what?” And “Was it worth it?”
I don’t really think that we can avoid the contest. It’s kind of a given, the growing process we all have to work through. But, as the parable says, whenever or however we get there, “those who labored in the field only a short time were paid the same as those who labored through the heat of the day”. If it was “easy” for us and “hard” for some, we can’t grumble. Each of us has our own journey, and we are happy for all who manage it.
We are not alone. Known or not, God stays close. When needed, God is there, providing the gear we need at the critical moments. In the times of trail, look within. What we need is present. And from there will come the wisdom.
Brian+
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, December 20, 2007
Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant
planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away
in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there
are far more galaxies than people.
- Carl Sagan, scientist, teacher & author, who
died on this day, 1996, age 62
Are you feeling insignificant today? Useless? Dumb? Unproductive? A failure? Life meaningless?
Does Dr. Sagan’s quote make you feel worse?
It should make you feel better! It does me. You’d think that being where we are in the Universe, we’d be destined for the deepest pit of everything really awful. But not so.
The Senegalese poet and president, Leopold Senghor, died on this day, age 95, in 2001. I remember, a young pup of a monk of 25 or so, in the early 70’s, flying east into the night from London to Dakar airport, Senegal, on my way to Liberia. As is still true, there are great patches of blackness when flying over the World. I had heard of Dr. Senghor, and had bought a book of his poetry to read on the flight. I looked out of the window, to see the glittering lights of Dakar like a gauzy bright mushroom in the blackness.
Amazing, both the poetry and the vibrant life. Since those days, perhaps before, I find everything more and more amazing. Not just the technology, my cow-tissue aortic valve, wireless communication, all the “new” stuff. But perhaps even more, the “old” stuff. If I close my eyes, my grandmother’s garden is before me, and I wonder at those glorious gladioluses tall and bright, and the “wild” tiger lilies swaying in the wind.
I’m looking forward to getting older, however long or short that may be. I anticipate being more and more filled with amazement and delight, listening to a violin player on a summer evening in Cortona, watching the Space Station float by among the stars.
“Lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a Universe”?
Irrevelant.
Brian+
Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant
planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away
in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there
are far more galaxies than people.
- Carl Sagan, scientist, teacher & author, who
died on this day, 1996, age 62
Are you feeling insignificant today? Useless? Dumb? Unproductive? A failure? Life meaningless?
Does Dr. Sagan’s quote make you feel worse?
It should make you feel better! It does me. You’d think that being where we are in the Universe, we’d be destined for the deepest pit of everything really awful. But not so.
The Senegalese poet and president, Leopold Senghor, died on this day, age 95, in 2001. I remember, a young pup of a monk of 25 or so, in the early 70’s, flying east into the night from London to Dakar airport, Senegal, on my way to Liberia. As is still true, there are great patches of blackness when flying over the World. I had heard of Dr. Senghor, and had bought a book of his poetry to read on the flight. I looked out of the window, to see the glittering lights of Dakar like a gauzy bright mushroom in the blackness.
Amazing, both the poetry and the vibrant life. Since those days, perhaps before, I find everything more and more amazing. Not just the technology, my cow-tissue aortic valve, wireless communication, all the “new” stuff. But perhaps even more, the “old” stuff. If I close my eyes, my grandmother’s garden is before me, and I wonder at those glorious gladioluses tall and bright, and the “wild” tiger lilies swaying in the wind.
I’m looking forward to getting older, however long or short that may be. I anticipate being more and more filled with amazement and delight, listening to a violin player on a summer evening in Cortona, watching the Space Station float by among the stars.
“Lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a Universe”?
Irrevelant.
Brian+
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, December 19, 2007
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard
even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this
duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
- Thomas Paine, who published the first of his
“American Crisis” essays on this day, 1776
Jesus is recorded as saying, “Love your enemies”. Joseph Campbell, mythologist, said it was the most difficult, most challenging saying in the Gospel. Jesus had a reason for saying it, probably several. I believe that Jesus was making a point related to “Love your neighbor as yourself”, and to “Do unto others as you would have them do to you”. I believe it was a stern, wise, loving warning, one of the core things to pay attention to, to understand in all of its ramifications for human society.
Thomas Paine understood it, and obviously deeply respected it - and if you read Thomas Paine you will see that he was a stern critic of “church”. He once wrote, “All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” Oh, I’ve probably quoted him “out of context”. However, I think he valued the Gospel, but not what men and women had made of it. We need to pay attention to his warning, especially in our times.
Would you want to be waterboarded? Kept awake long hours in extreme cold or heat? Or any of the other things some people in our government and land seem to be trying to justify for our “enemies”? And oh yes, we do have enemies, those who wish us harm. This does not negate the point. Both Jesus and Thomas Paine make the point that what we are willing to do to fellow human beings - for whatever reasons we might think justified - “establishes a precedent that will reach to himself”.
The spiral of inflicting inhuman and inhumane pain on others only spirals downward - eventually probably to us. The rejection of Jesus’ command, even in time of war, only encourages humanity to a descent into barbarism ….. the result can only be terror. Paine wrote, “He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.” We and others are bleeding from self-inflicted wounds.
My prayer this holy season is that every human being will begin to pray for, and begin to love, our “enemy”. It does not mean we condone unloving acts. But that we all might be led to make peace, not war.
Brian+
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard
even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this
duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
- Thomas Paine, who published the first of his
“American Crisis” essays on this day, 1776
Jesus is recorded as saying, “Love your enemies”. Joseph Campbell, mythologist, said it was the most difficult, most challenging saying in the Gospel. Jesus had a reason for saying it, probably several. I believe that Jesus was making a point related to “Love your neighbor as yourself”, and to “Do unto others as you would have them do to you”. I believe it was a stern, wise, loving warning, one of the core things to pay attention to, to understand in all of its ramifications for human society.
Thomas Paine understood it, and obviously deeply respected it - and if you read Thomas Paine you will see that he was a stern critic of “church”. He once wrote, “All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” Oh, I’ve probably quoted him “out of context”. However, I think he valued the Gospel, but not what men and women had made of it. We need to pay attention to his warning, especially in our times.
Would you want to be waterboarded? Kept awake long hours in extreme cold or heat? Or any of the other things some people in our government and land seem to be trying to justify for our “enemies”? And oh yes, we do have enemies, those who wish us harm. This does not negate the point. Both Jesus and Thomas Paine make the point that what we are willing to do to fellow human beings - for whatever reasons we might think justified - “establishes a precedent that will reach to himself”.
The spiral of inflicting inhuman and inhumane pain on others only spirals downward - eventually probably to us. The rejection of Jesus’ command, even in time of war, only encourages humanity to a descent into barbarism ….. the result can only be terror. Paine wrote, “He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.” We and others are bleeding from self-inflicted wounds.
My prayer this holy season is that every human being will begin to pray for, and begin to love, our “enemy”. It does not mean we condone unloving acts. But that we all might be led to make peace, not war.
Brian+
Monday, December 17, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 (corrected; ignore the one below)
I honour those who try
to rid themselves of any lying,
who empty the self
and have only clear being there.
- Rumi, Sufi poet
One of the things I liked about being a monk was the period of self-examination at Compline, the last monastic office (common prayer) of the day. I think people probably didn’t like it when I was the Officiant. Because I always left a relatively long pause for the self-examination. It was a time of utter quiet, the chapel hopefully in softened light. And there was always something ….. well, sensible about taking a few minutes to look at the day past and see where one might have strayed from one’s resolved path. There were always plenty! But it seemed to help that self-examination at the end of the day was (a) a habit and (b) encouraged an honesty that was liberating.
Alas, I don’t do that much anymore. Usually only when something goes wrong, or when I am challenged. Then I think it seems or is experienced in a more traumatic way - and one is less open to being honest, becomes more easily defensive. Compline began with the words, “Be sober, be watchful”. It’s good advice.
“Clear being.” The implication is that there is a “pure core” at the centre of us all. I’m not so sure. I think I tend to believe that we human beings are more “gray area”, even at the core. I don’t accept the theology which says there was a “Fall” from sinlessness to sin. My understanding of the Garden of Eden story is that, like Jesus’ parables, the details of the story are not the point. In my view, the story simply says that we are creatures who can choose either love and truth, or not. Perhaps the “clear being” is simply a grasp on what makes us most gloriously human.
I’ve never liked saying the Offices alone. But maybe I’ll take up saying Compline again, just for that quiet few minutes of self-examination at the end of the day. (Besides, who in our days wouldn’t value a bit of quiet peace at day’s end!)
Brian+
I honour those who try
to rid themselves of any lying,
who empty the self
and have only clear being there.
- Rumi, Sufi poet
One of the things I liked about being a monk was the period of self-examination at Compline, the last monastic office (common prayer) of the day. I think people probably didn’t like it when I was the Officiant. Because I always left a relatively long pause for the self-examination. It was a time of utter quiet, the chapel hopefully in softened light. And there was always something ….. well, sensible about taking a few minutes to look at the day past and see where one might have strayed from one’s resolved path. There were always plenty! But it seemed to help that self-examination at the end of the day was (a) a habit and (b) encouraged an honesty that was liberating.
Alas, I don’t do that much anymore. Usually only when something goes wrong, or when I am challenged. Then I think it seems or is experienced in a more traumatic way - and one is less open to being honest, becomes more easily defensive. Compline began with the words, “Be sober, be watchful”. It’s good advice.
“Clear being.” The implication is that there is a “pure core” at the centre of us all. I’m not so sure. I think I tend to believe that we human beings are more “gray area”, even at the core. I don’t accept the theology which says there was a “Fall” from sinlessness to sin. My understanding of the Garden of Eden story is that, like Jesus’ parables, the details of the story are not the point. In my view, the story simply says that we are creatures who can choose either love and truth, or not. Perhaps the “clear being” is simply a grasp on what makes us most gloriously human.
I’ve never liked saying the Offices alone. But maybe I’ll take up saying Compline again, just for that quiet few minutes of self-examination at the end of the day. (Besides, who in our days wouldn’t value a bit of quiet peace at day’s end!)
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, December 18, 2007
I honour those who try
to rid themselves of any lying,
who empty the self
and have only clear being there.
- Rumi, Sufi poet
One of the things I liked about being a monk was the period of self-examination at Compline, the last monastic office (common prayer) of the day. I think people probably didn’t like it when I was the Officiant. Because I always left a relatively long pause for the self-examination. It was a time of utter quiet, the chapel hopefully in softened light. And there was always something ….. well, sensible about taking a few minutes to look at the day past and see where on might have strayed from one’s resolved path. There were always plenty! But it seemed to help that self-examination at the end of the day was (a) a habit and (b) encouraged an honesty that was liberating.
Alas, I don’t do that much anymore. Usually only when something goes wrong, or when one is challenged. Then I think it seems or is experienced in a more traumatic way - and one is less open to being honest, becomes more easily defensive. Compline began with the words, “Be sober, be watchful”. It’s good advice.
“Clear being.” The implication is that there is a “pure core” at the centre of us all. I’m not so sure. I think I tend to believe that we human beings are more “gray area”, even at the core. I don’t accept the theology which says there was a “Fall” from sinlessness to sin. My understanding of the Garden of Eden story is that, like Jesus’ parables, the details of the story are not the point. In my view, the story simply says that we are creatures who can choose either love and truth, or not. Perhaps the “clear being” is simply of grasp on what makes us most gloriously human.
I’ve never liked saying the Offices alone. But maybe I’ll take up saying Compline again, just for that quiet few minutes of self-examination at the end of the day. (Besides, who in our days wouldn’t value a bit of quiet peace at day’s end!)
Brian+
I honour those who try
to rid themselves of any lying,
who empty the self
and have only clear being there.
- Rumi, Sufi poet
One of the things I liked about being a monk was the period of self-examination at Compline, the last monastic office (common prayer) of the day. I think people probably didn’t like it when I was the Officiant. Because I always left a relatively long pause for the self-examination. It was a time of utter quiet, the chapel hopefully in softened light. And there was always something ….. well, sensible about taking a few minutes to look at the day past and see where on might have strayed from one’s resolved path. There were always plenty! But it seemed to help that self-examination at the end of the day was (a) a habit and (b) encouraged an honesty that was liberating.
Alas, I don’t do that much anymore. Usually only when something goes wrong, or when one is challenged. Then I think it seems or is experienced in a more traumatic way - and one is less open to being honest, becomes more easily defensive. Compline began with the words, “Be sober, be watchful”. It’s good advice.
“Clear being.” The implication is that there is a “pure core” at the centre of us all. I’m not so sure. I think I tend to believe that we human beings are more “gray area”, even at the core. I don’t accept the theology which says there was a “Fall” from sinlessness to sin. My understanding of the Garden of Eden story is that, like Jesus’ parables, the details of the story are not the point. In my view, the story simply says that we are creatures who can choose either love and truth, or not. Perhaps the “clear being” is simply of grasp on what makes us most gloriously human.
I’ve never liked saying the Offices alone. But maybe I’ll take up saying Compline again, just for that quiet few minutes of self-examination at the end of the day. (Besides, who in our days wouldn’t value a bit of quiet peace at day’s end!)
Brian+
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, December 17, 2007
My heart was heavy, for its trust had been
Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong;
So, turning gloomily from my fellow-men,
One summer Sabbath day I strolled among
The green mounds of the village burial-place;
Where, pondering how all human love and hate
Find one sad level; and how, soon or late,
Wronged and wrongdoer, each with meekened face,
And cold hands folded over a still heart,
Pass the green threshold of our common grave,
Whither all footsteps tend, whence none depart,
Awed for myself, and pitying my race,
Our common sorrow, like a mighty wave,
Swept all my pride away, and trembling I forgave!
- John Greenleaf Whittier, poet, born
on this day, 1807, in Haverhill, MA
I can’t talk. I don’t, I think, hold “grudges”. But I am pretty stubborn about cutting off relationships with people that have pushed me beyond the pale. People who demean and belittle other people, especially in a racist or homophobic or sexist way. I once read that one should not surround oneself with people who bring negativity into your life. So, I try not to. And forgiveness, well, I forgive for a selfish reason (as I have so often preached.) The first person that suffers from an unwillingness to forgive is ….. oneself. Like so many other things, it eats away at you. “Pinches” one. Not good.
Whittier is right. We’re all one. In the end, we’ve all got “cold hands folded over a still heart”. When we lie in our graves, all the things that we think distinguish us are moot. Just human beings. Struggling to find our meaning. We all have a “common sorrow”. True, some may not have acknowledged it. But that matters not.
The “bottom line”: if we want to fly on eagles’ wings, rise to the height of being human, it’s best to cultivate the grace to forgive. It allows us to see each other as human beings, it shatters the false barriers we build to distinguish ourselves from one another. We can “pity our race” – we’re all in the same soup. All the same.
Pondering our common mortality sweeps away all pride.
Let’s be kind one to another.
Brian+
My heart was heavy, for its trust had been
Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong;
So, turning gloomily from my fellow-men,
One summer Sabbath day I strolled among
The green mounds of the village burial-place;
Where, pondering how all human love and hate
Find one sad level; and how, soon or late,
Wronged and wrongdoer, each with meekened face,
And cold hands folded over a still heart,
Pass the green threshold of our common grave,
Whither all footsteps tend, whence none depart,
Awed for myself, and pitying my race,
Our common sorrow, like a mighty wave,
Swept all my pride away, and trembling I forgave!
- John Greenleaf Whittier, poet, born
on this day, 1807, in Haverhill, MA
I can’t talk. I don’t, I think, hold “grudges”. But I am pretty stubborn about cutting off relationships with people that have pushed me beyond the pale. People who demean and belittle other people, especially in a racist or homophobic or sexist way. I once read that one should not surround oneself with people who bring negativity into your life. So, I try not to. And forgiveness, well, I forgive for a selfish reason (as I have so often preached.) The first person that suffers from an unwillingness to forgive is ….. oneself. Like so many other things, it eats away at you. “Pinches” one. Not good.
Whittier is right. We’re all one. In the end, we’ve all got “cold hands folded over a still heart”. When we lie in our graves, all the things that we think distinguish us are moot. Just human beings. Struggling to find our meaning. We all have a “common sorrow”. True, some may not have acknowledged it. But that matters not.
The “bottom line”: if we want to fly on eagles’ wings, rise to the height of being human, it’s best to cultivate the grace to forgive. It allows us to see each other as human beings, it shatters the false barriers we build to distinguish ourselves from one another. We can “pity our race” – we’re all in the same soup. All the same.
Pondering our common mortality sweeps away all pride.
Let’s be kind one to another.
Brian+
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, December 15, 2007
Literally thousands of wonderful friends
have accompanied me in life, and many now
await me in the secret eternity to come.
I have enjoyed the long voyage.
- Ansel Adams, artist & photographer
We shall give thanks today at one of my congregations for the life of one of our members. Dottie was 87 when she died to this life. She had dealt with MS for many years and been in a wheelchair for about ten. Yet when she could, she would be at worship, even at our early 8:30am hour (!), faithfully attended by her husband Chuck. She was always elegantly dressed and coiffed, always a cheery smile on her face, a twinkle in her eye, and something nice to say. She is missed. One of our parishioners has started a Rogues Gallery in the Parish Hall – so those who go one ahead will be remembered.
Who really knows the details of the “secret eternity to come”. (What a lovely phrase!) We humans struggle to express our inner visions, following the hints that come to us from human hearts and minds throughout all the ages that we have been able to record. Wondering, wondering, dreaming, hoping. What amazing creatures we are. We know how to anchor ourselves, how to encourage our often faint hearts, how to soften the blows that this Earthly Life deals us. Friends and fellow journeyers of the spirit are a big part of it.
Today we will offer our last earthly accompaniment to Dottie, then continue with prayers and memories of love. We will envision her journeying on, and our hearts will be encouraged too.
May we all come to the moment being able to say, “I have enjoyed the long voyage”.
Brian+
Literally thousands of wonderful friends
have accompanied me in life, and many now
await me in the secret eternity to come.
I have enjoyed the long voyage.
- Ansel Adams, artist & photographer
We shall give thanks today at one of my congregations for the life of one of our members. Dottie was 87 when she died to this life. She had dealt with MS for many years and been in a wheelchair for about ten. Yet when she could, she would be at worship, even at our early 8:30am hour (!), faithfully attended by her husband Chuck. She was always elegantly dressed and coiffed, always a cheery smile on her face, a twinkle in her eye, and something nice to say. She is missed. One of our parishioners has started a Rogues Gallery in the Parish Hall – so those who go one ahead will be remembered.
Who really knows the details of the “secret eternity to come”. (What a lovely phrase!) We humans struggle to express our inner visions, following the hints that come to us from human hearts and minds throughout all the ages that we have been able to record. Wondering, wondering, dreaming, hoping. What amazing creatures we are. We know how to anchor ourselves, how to encourage our often faint hearts, how to soften the blows that this Earthly Life deals us. Friends and fellow journeyers of the spirit are a big part of it.
Today we will offer our last earthly accompaniment to Dottie, then continue with prayers and memories of love. We will envision her journeying on, and our hearts will be encouraged too.
May we all come to the moment being able to say, “I have enjoyed the long voyage”.
Brian+
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, December 14, 2007
If we can laugh, our heart-aches disappear!
Our minds become freed off tensions and stress;
If we make others laugh, they lose their fear,
And become dear, starting to us caress.
Laughter is good for both the young and old;
Laughter can turn a foe into a friend;
Laughter can help forget our woes, be bold;
Laughter can bring to grief, an early end.
Laughter is life’s most precious medicine;
Laughter is soothing balm for all our ills;
Laughter is euphoric much more than wine,
Causing no harm to one or increase bills.
Then laugh and be merry whenever you can,
For, that’s the way to live life better, man.
- Dr. John Celes, India
I certainly don’t laugh enough, that’s for sure! I’ll have to think about that - a lot. I must say, I rarely find church a place to laugh, more’s the pity. Though today we did have some wry laughs. We were repositioning pictures of two of our wonderful parishioners who has recently died. It was suggested that we put up a frame with just a large question mark in it. That created a giggle - probably because we knew that there were some who wouldn’t find that at all funny! Strange and diverse creatures, we human beings.
So, confession: the best laughs I have are watching “South Park” videos. I’ll leave it at that.
Laughter is indeed the best medicine. If you don’t have much of it in your life - and I don’t - it’s time to remedy that!
I declare Friday, December 14th, Laugh A lot Day. Enjoy!
Brian+
If we can laugh, our heart-aches disappear!
Our minds become freed off tensions and stress;
If we make others laugh, they lose their fear,
And become dear, starting to us caress.
Laughter is good for both the young and old;
Laughter can turn a foe into a friend;
Laughter can help forget our woes, be bold;
Laughter can bring to grief, an early end.
Laughter is life’s most precious medicine;
Laughter is soothing balm for all our ills;
Laughter is euphoric much more than wine,
Causing no harm to one or increase bills.
Then laugh and be merry whenever you can,
For, that’s the way to live life better, man.
- Dr. John Celes, India
I certainly don’t laugh enough, that’s for sure! I’ll have to think about that - a lot. I must say, I rarely find church a place to laugh, more’s the pity. Though today we did have some wry laughs. We were repositioning pictures of two of our wonderful parishioners who has recently died. It was suggested that we put up a frame with just a large question mark in it. That created a giggle - probably because we knew that there were some who wouldn’t find that at all funny! Strange and diverse creatures, we human beings.
So, confession: the best laughs I have are watching “South Park” videos. I’ll leave it at that.
Laughter is indeed the best medicine. If you don’t have much of it in your life - and I don’t - it’s time to remedy that!
I declare Friday, December 14th, Laugh A lot Day. Enjoy!
Brian+
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, December 13, 2007
There are hermit souls that live withdrawn
In the place of their self-content;
There are souls like stars, that dwell apart,
In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths
Where highways never ran --
But let me live by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead
And mountains of wearisome height;
That the road passes on through the long afternoon
And stretches away to the night.
But still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice,
And weep with the strangers that moan,
Nor live in my house by the side of the road
Like a man who dwells alone.
- Sam Walter Foss, poet (part of his
poem based on similar words of Homer)
I am a big fan of the Episcopal Hymnal. I love the hymns in it and I know them all, many by heart, including the tenor line! It is said that Episcopalians sing what they believe, and what we pray. I have my funeral service leaflet in my little packet ready for when I croak - there will be lots of singing. I have to admit that I hear a lot of bitching and complaining about the hymns we sing, that they “don’t know them”. I am entirely unsympathetic. I’ve said many a time, “Don’t worry; by the time I leave, you will know them!”
Many of our hymns are ………. “sophisticated”? Would that be an appropriate word? Some might say “convoluted”, some “strange”. Many are ancient, many Victorian poetry; that can require some close attention and meditation.
Like poetry. I think I have commented that I can’t understand 75% of the poems in the New Yorker magazine, which I read cover to cover. But then there are certain hymns that strike a chord in their utter simplicity, simplicity in every way. Many of them I don’t like because they are, to me, “sentimental” - not a character I like in general.
But I will admit that “What a friend we have in Jesus” is ….. OK (as long as it isn’t overdone). I guess because I deeply value all of the wonderful friends I have had. They remind me that of all the things that “God” means to me, an unconditionally loving Friend is among the most important. True friends may not countenance all the nonsense one says or does, but they will always be there when needed.
I don’t need God to redesign nature or biology or time or mortality for me. I just need God always to be there.
So far, so good.
Brian+
There are hermit souls that live withdrawn
In the place of their self-content;
There are souls like stars, that dwell apart,
In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths
Where highways never ran --
But let me live by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead
And mountains of wearisome height;
That the road passes on through the long afternoon
And stretches away to the night.
But still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice,
And weep with the strangers that moan,
Nor live in my house by the side of the road
Like a man who dwells alone.
- Sam Walter Foss, poet (part of his
poem based on similar words of Homer)
I am a big fan of the Episcopal Hymnal. I love the hymns in it and I know them all, many by heart, including the tenor line! It is said that Episcopalians sing what they believe, and what we pray. I have my funeral service leaflet in my little packet ready for when I croak - there will be lots of singing. I have to admit that I hear a lot of bitching and complaining about the hymns we sing, that they “don’t know them”. I am entirely unsympathetic. I’ve said many a time, “Don’t worry; by the time I leave, you will know them!”
Many of our hymns are ………. “sophisticated”? Would that be an appropriate word? Some might say “convoluted”, some “strange”. Many are ancient, many Victorian poetry; that can require some close attention and meditation.
Like poetry. I think I have commented that I can’t understand 75% of the poems in the New Yorker magazine, which I read cover to cover. But then there are certain hymns that strike a chord in their utter simplicity, simplicity in every way. Many of them I don’t like because they are, to me, “sentimental” - not a character I like in general.
But I will admit that “What a friend we have in Jesus” is ….. OK (as long as it isn’t overdone). I guess because I deeply value all of the wonderful friends I have had. They remind me that of all the things that “God” means to me, an unconditionally loving Friend is among the most important. True friends may not countenance all the nonsense one says or does, but they will always be there when needed.
I don’t need God to redesign nature or biology or time or mortality for me. I just need God always to be there.
So far, so good.
Brian+
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
The Katzenjammer Kids comic strip
was first published on this day, 1897
Just thought you should know this! I loved the Kids as a kid!
+
Peace on earth would mean the end of civilization as we know it.
Joseph Heller, author (“Catch 22”, for one),
who died on thus day, 1999, age 76
In two weeks or so, over a billion Christians (and presumably with maybe a billion Muslims paying attention, since Islam deeply honours Jesus ….. in case you had gotten it wrong) are going to hear the angelic words, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to people of goodwill”.
Now, I know that all of us are pretty good at co-opting the Bible for our own purposes, and yes, there may be many people who would find “peace on earth” to be a big unwelcome kick in the wallet (especially the USA and Britain, who are two of the largest arms dealers in the world). But (here’s my co-opt) it seems pretty clear to me that the angelic message connects the birth of Jesus with peace on earth ……. Yes? Maybe even to say that perhaps God desires Peace on Earth???
Well, I’m just sort of wondering why there aren’t one or two billion of us hept up and out there on the streets and in the halls of government - including those elected to govern - working and praying and legislating tirelessly for Peace on Earth?? Have I missed something here?? Isn’t one of Jesus’ honorifics “Prince of Peace”??
Oh, I know. Some will quote me Jesus’ words, “I did not come to bring Peace, but a sword”. Has anyone ever heard of ….. irony?? Peacemakers are always going to generate enemies - as I say, War is lucrative, and many of us love the rush of dominance and power. But Jesus wasn’t into dominance and power, I don’t think. And His “Peace be to you” ’s outnumber the other.
“Let there be Peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.” Sort of has a nice Christmas ring, don’t it!
Brian+
was first published on this day, 1897
Just thought you should know this! I loved the Kids as a kid!
+
Peace on earth would mean the end of civilization as we know it.
Joseph Heller, author (“Catch 22”, for one),
who died on thus day, 1999, age 76
In two weeks or so, over a billion Christians (and presumably with maybe a billion Muslims paying attention, since Islam deeply honours Jesus ….. in case you had gotten it wrong) are going to hear the angelic words, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to people of goodwill”.
Now, I know that all of us are pretty good at co-opting the Bible for our own purposes, and yes, there may be many people who would find “peace on earth” to be a big unwelcome kick in the wallet (especially the USA and Britain, who are two of the largest arms dealers in the world). But (here’s my co-opt) it seems pretty clear to me that the angelic message connects the birth of Jesus with peace on earth ……. Yes? Maybe even to say that perhaps God desires Peace on Earth???
Well, I’m just sort of wondering why there aren’t one or two billion of us hept up and out there on the streets and in the halls of government - including those elected to govern - working and praying and legislating tirelessly for Peace on Earth?? Have I missed something here?? Isn’t one of Jesus’ honorifics “Prince of Peace”??
Oh, I know. Some will quote me Jesus’ words, “I did not come to bring Peace, but a sword”. Has anyone ever heard of ….. irony?? Peacemakers are always going to generate enemies - as I say, War is lucrative, and many of us love the rush of dominance and power. But Jesus wasn’t into dominance and power, I don’t think. And His “Peace be to you” ’s outnumber the other.
“Let there be Peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.” Sort of has a nice Christmas ring, don’t it!
Brian+
Monday, December 10, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, December 11, 2007
HERE
Here I am in the garden laughing
an old woman with heavy breasts
and a nicely mapped face
how did this happen
well that's who I wanted to be
at last a womanin the old style sitting
stout thighs apart under
a big skirt grandchild sliding
on off my lap a pleasant
summer perspiration
that's my old man across the yard
he's talking to the meter reader
he's telling him the world's sad story
how electricity is oil or uranium
and so forth I tell my grandson
run over to your grandpa ask him
to sit beside me for a minute I
am suddenly exhausted by my desire
to kiss his sweet explaining lips.
- Grace Paley, born on this day,
1922, in Manhattan
“Well, that’s who I wanted to be.” Charming! Do most of know who or what we want to be? Not most of the people I know. And I, well ….. it changes a lot. I have this feeling that it’s going to keep on changing a lot. It has to. I think new things. I learn new things. Things of inner wisdom, whether that be little or much.
Rich. Healthy. Honoured. Beautiful. No, these are all Sic Transit Gloria Mundi. Maybe, maybe not - too many variables and happenstances.
Content with who I am? Ah, well, that’s up to me. I’d like to be content ….and thinner. But I’ll settle for content and grudgingly plump. And instead of wearing purple, I’ll dye my beard and wear hippie caftans.
Brian+
HERE
Here I am in the garden laughing
an old woman with heavy breasts
and a nicely mapped face
how did this happen
well that's who I wanted to be
at last a womanin the old style sitting
stout thighs apart under
a big skirt grandchild sliding
on off my lap a pleasant
summer perspiration
that's my old man across the yard
he's talking to the meter reader
he's telling him the world's sad story
how electricity is oil or uranium
and so forth I tell my grandson
run over to your grandpa ask him
to sit beside me for a minute I
am suddenly exhausted by my desire
to kiss his sweet explaining lips.
- Grace Paley, born on this day,
1922, in Manhattan
“Well, that’s who I wanted to be.” Charming! Do most of know who or what we want to be? Not most of the people I know. And I, well ….. it changes a lot. I have this feeling that it’s going to keep on changing a lot. It has to. I think new things. I learn new things. Things of inner wisdom, whether that be little or much.
Rich. Healthy. Honoured. Beautiful. No, these are all Sic Transit Gloria Mundi. Maybe, maybe not - too many variables and happenstances.
Content with who I am? Ah, well, that’s up to me. I’d like to be content ….and thinner. But I’ll settle for content and grudgingly plump. And instead of wearing purple, I’ll dye my beard and wear hippie caftans.
Brian+
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, December 10, 2007
The good we secure for ourselves is precarious
and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and
incorporated into our common life.
- Jane Addams, social worker, internationalist,
first American woman winner of the Nobel
Peace Prize, on this day in 1931
I would bet that you have never heard of Jane Addams. She was born in 1860 in Cedarville, Illinois, to well-to-do parents. With a friend, she opened a settlement house in Chicago, to provide a center for a higher civic and social life, “to institute and maintain educational and philanthropic enterprises and to investigate and improve the conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago”. She was opposed to the entrance of the USA into WWI, and for her beliefs was kicked out of the Daughters of the American Revolution - tsk tsk! If you would like to know more, see http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1931/addams-bio.html
Jesus is recorded to have said, “What you do to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you do to me”. I take this to mean what Addams said. I take Jesus to be saying that He represents ALL people. And that in order to be faithful to respecting Him – and therefore God - you must make sure that whatever “good” is secured is secured for all. Because “all” are “children of God”, for whom God cares equally.
Many Americans who call themselves Christians say that America is a “Christian nation”. If so, why is it that they aren’t supporting the rights of women to make the same money as men for the same jobs? Why is it that they are not supporting the right of American Gayfolk to the same equal legal rights under the legal contract called marriage? Do they fail to see that in not doing so, they are insulting Jesus? And this would certainly be more serious that naming your teddy-bear Jesus, yes?
Christian folk: if in civil life you think you deserve something, then everyone deserves it. Period.
Thank you, Jane Addams.
Brian+
The good we secure for ourselves is precarious
and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and
incorporated into our common life.
- Jane Addams, social worker, internationalist,
first American woman winner of the Nobel
Peace Prize, on this day in 1931
I would bet that you have never heard of Jane Addams. She was born in 1860 in Cedarville, Illinois, to well-to-do parents. With a friend, she opened a settlement house in Chicago, to provide a center for a higher civic and social life, “to institute and maintain educational and philanthropic enterprises and to investigate and improve the conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago”. She was opposed to the entrance of the USA into WWI, and for her beliefs was kicked out of the Daughters of the American Revolution - tsk tsk! If you would like to know more, see http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1931/addams-bio.html
Jesus is recorded to have said, “What you do to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you do to me”. I take this to mean what Addams said. I take Jesus to be saying that He represents ALL people. And that in order to be faithful to respecting Him – and therefore God - you must make sure that whatever “good” is secured is secured for all. Because “all” are “children of God”, for whom God cares equally.
Many Americans who call themselves Christians say that America is a “Christian nation”. If so, why is it that they aren’t supporting the rights of women to make the same money as men for the same jobs? Why is it that they are not supporting the right of American Gayfolk to the same equal legal rights under the legal contract called marriage? Do they fail to see that in not doing so, they are insulting Jesus? And this would certainly be more serious that naming your teddy-bear Jesus, yes?
Christian folk: if in civil life you think you deserve something, then everyone deserves it. Period.
Thank you, Jane Addams.
Brian+
Friday, December 7, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, December 8, 2007
The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort?
Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean,
is there something wrong with society that's making us so pressurized,
that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?
- John Lennon of the Beatles, murdered on this day, 1980
The answer, John, is Yes. There is something “wrong with society”. And it has ever been so, universally. Despite the fact that Guinea-Bissau is now overwhelmed with drug dealers from South America controlling and destroying their society and importing cocaine by the multi-tons to distribute to the World, alcohol is still I think the major all-purpose drug that pervades most societies of the globe. The rudiments of beer have been discovered in ancient Egyptian tombs, sake in ancient Japanese culture, fermented liquor in ancient African cultures, etc. America, America - drug czars notwithstanding, Americans float on a sea of drugs to cushion us against our society.
Is it just urban society? I don’t know. But I have lived in many a small town - and drugs of various sorts were prevalent, even northern Manitoba in the late 60’s, where boozing men were a scourge every night on the roads and in the domestic violence of practically every household.
I don’t think the problem is living in society, urban or otherwise. I think the problem is denial. Denial of what will make us happy as human beings. We human beings always have thought that power and “stuff” will make us happy. Millennia have wrestled with the same issue. Religions and philosophies come and go, trying to make us see that this is folly. Jesus “had no place to lay His head”. The Buddha lives homeless under a tree. St. Francis strips naked and finds happiness in poverty. A few “get it”. Most don’t. Most adopt a “religion” on the surface, but ignore the teachings and insights. The so-called “Gospel of Prosperity” is a perfect example: worship God and you will be rich - and therefore happy.
Bullshit.
Love is scary. Demanding. Asking of human beings the deepest personal understanding of what makes us happy and calling us to “do unto others” that which we know we ourselves require to be happy.
Maybe most of “us” will never “get it”. Maybe human society will always need those “accessories to normal living to live”.
As Joshua said, “As for I am my house”, I choose the God of Love.
Brian+
The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort?
Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean,
is there something wrong with society that's making us so pressurized,
that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?
- John Lennon of the Beatles, murdered on this day, 1980
The answer, John, is Yes. There is something “wrong with society”. And it has ever been so, universally. Despite the fact that Guinea-Bissau is now overwhelmed with drug dealers from South America controlling and destroying their society and importing cocaine by the multi-tons to distribute to the World, alcohol is still I think the major all-purpose drug that pervades most societies of the globe. The rudiments of beer have been discovered in ancient Egyptian tombs, sake in ancient Japanese culture, fermented liquor in ancient African cultures, etc. America, America - drug czars notwithstanding, Americans float on a sea of drugs to cushion us against our society.
Is it just urban society? I don’t know. But I have lived in many a small town - and drugs of various sorts were prevalent, even northern Manitoba in the late 60’s, where boozing men were a scourge every night on the roads and in the domestic violence of practically every household.
I don’t think the problem is living in society, urban or otherwise. I think the problem is denial. Denial of what will make us happy as human beings. We human beings always have thought that power and “stuff” will make us happy. Millennia have wrestled with the same issue. Religions and philosophies come and go, trying to make us see that this is folly. Jesus “had no place to lay His head”. The Buddha lives homeless under a tree. St. Francis strips naked and finds happiness in poverty. A few “get it”. Most don’t. Most adopt a “religion” on the surface, but ignore the teachings and insights. The so-called “Gospel of Prosperity” is a perfect example: worship God and you will be rich - and therefore happy.
Bullshit.
Love is scary. Demanding. Asking of human beings the deepest personal understanding of what makes us happy and calling us to “do unto others” that which we know we ourselves require to be happy.
Maybe most of “us” will never “get it”. Maybe human society will always need those “accessories to normal living to live”.
As Joshua said, “As for I am my house”, I choose the God of Love.
Brian+
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, December 7, 2007
When kindness has left people, even for a few moments, we become
afraid of them as if their reason had left them. When it has left a place
where we have always found it, it is like shipwreck; we drop from
security into something malevolent and bottomless.
- Willa Cather, author, born on this day, 1873, in Black Creek Valley VA
Willa Cather was born into the Baptist religion, but “converted” (funny word, that) to the Episcopal Church in 1922. After co-authoring a very critical book about Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science (which so outraged the Christian Scientists that they tried to buy every copy printed!), she wrote for McClure’s magazine. In 1923, she won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel “One of Us”. She made the town of her youth, Red Cloud, Nebraska, famous. She died April 24, 1947, and is buried in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. And I’m sure that many of you will be thrilled to know that she was inducted in 1986 into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame!!
Kindness. Ms. Cather is right. Along with Love, and Compassion, Kindness is right up there in my book as a mark of great human soul. I think this is why I can’t watch any movie or read any book where someone is being tortured. And why I was so both stunned and angry that any high government official could possibly say that they couldn’t say whether waterboarding was or was not torture. The feeling I had was that indeed we had dropped from “security into something malevolent and bottomless”.
I can think of several instances when I have been unkind. It means that I have lost sight of a person’s humanity – and my own. And I am ashamed of myself for it.
The word “kind” has a telling etymology. It comes from the Old English “gecynde”, meaning “innate” or “natural”. Theough prehistoric Germanic, it is related to “kin”.
To be kind is to be innately, naturally human. And to be part of the human family.
Let’s join the human race.
Brian+
When kindness has left people, even for a few moments, we become
afraid of them as if their reason had left them. When it has left a place
where we have always found it, it is like shipwreck; we drop from
security into something malevolent and bottomless.
- Willa Cather, author, born on this day, 1873, in Black Creek Valley VA
Willa Cather was born into the Baptist religion, but “converted” (funny word, that) to the Episcopal Church in 1922. After co-authoring a very critical book about Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science (which so outraged the Christian Scientists that they tried to buy every copy printed!), she wrote for McClure’s magazine. In 1923, she won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel “One of Us”. She made the town of her youth, Red Cloud, Nebraska, famous. She died April 24, 1947, and is buried in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. And I’m sure that many of you will be thrilled to know that she was inducted in 1986 into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame!!
Kindness. Ms. Cather is right. Along with Love, and Compassion, Kindness is right up there in my book as a mark of great human soul. I think this is why I can’t watch any movie or read any book where someone is being tortured. And why I was so both stunned and angry that any high government official could possibly say that they couldn’t say whether waterboarding was or was not torture. The feeling I had was that indeed we had dropped from “security into something malevolent and bottomless”.
I can think of several instances when I have been unkind. It means that I have lost sight of a person’s humanity – and my own. And I am ashamed of myself for it.
The word “kind” has a telling etymology. It comes from the Old English “gecynde”, meaning “innate” or “natural”. Theough prehistoric Germanic, it is related to “kin”.
To be kind is to be innately, naturally human. And to be part of the human family.
Let’s join the human race.
Brian+
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, December 6, 2007
Refuse to pander to a morbid interest in your own misdeeds.
Pick yourself up, be sorry, shake yourself, and go on again.
The direction and constancy of the will is what really matters,
and intellect and feeling are only important insofar as they contribute to that.
- Evelyn Underhill, poet, author, and philosopher of religion,
born on this day, 1875
Could it be possible that whoever wrote that song (“Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again”) had read Evelyn Underhill?? Stranger things have happened!
Ms. Underhill had a life I would like to have had. She was well educated, she was a teacher and spiritual counselor, she wrote. I’ve had some of that. It’s the other part I’d have liked. Her father and husband were great yachters - and she spent a lot of her life sailing the Mediterranean for months on end, enjoying the artistic treasures of France and Italy! Sigh.
She wrote a fine book, titled Mysticism. It is still read today.
I agree strongly with the first quote. Religion has often put too much emphasis on spending great amounts of time beating one’s breast and pandering to a morbid (good word) interest in one’s own misdeeds. This is not helpful. It’s just slacking. The whole point of knowing that one can honestly repent and be forgiven is to Get On With Life! My friend Connor+ said it nicely once to me, something like, “make a quick touch of the hand to the ground and move on”. Doing so would be the sign that one truly believes in the gift of Forgiveness. (This is why I always begin the Liturgy with the Confession – acknowledge our sin, but worship in the light of Grace.
I obviously owe, or have a connection with, Ms. Underhill. I have preached for decades that Love is 95% a matter of the will. That it has, or should have, little to do with feelings. And I believe that exercising the will ultimately has the power to heal hurt feelings. Love has become far too identified with how one feels in our cultures. Someone like Jesus didn’t choose Love unto Death because it “felt” good.
Accept your capacity for evil. Let it flit by quickly. Embrace new life. Shape and nurture the Will. Decide who you want to be and do.
Do it.
Brian+
Refuse to pander to a morbid interest in your own misdeeds.
Pick yourself up, be sorry, shake yourself, and go on again.
The direction and constancy of the will is what really matters,
and intellect and feeling are only important insofar as they contribute to that.
- Evelyn Underhill, poet, author, and philosopher of religion,
born on this day, 1875
Could it be possible that whoever wrote that song (“Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again”) had read Evelyn Underhill?? Stranger things have happened!
Ms. Underhill had a life I would like to have had. She was well educated, she was a teacher and spiritual counselor, she wrote. I’ve had some of that. It’s the other part I’d have liked. Her father and husband were great yachters - and she spent a lot of her life sailing the Mediterranean for months on end, enjoying the artistic treasures of France and Italy! Sigh.
She wrote a fine book, titled Mysticism. It is still read today.
I agree strongly with the first quote. Religion has often put too much emphasis on spending great amounts of time beating one’s breast and pandering to a morbid (good word) interest in one’s own misdeeds. This is not helpful. It’s just slacking. The whole point of knowing that one can honestly repent and be forgiven is to Get On With Life! My friend Connor+ said it nicely once to me, something like, “make a quick touch of the hand to the ground and move on”. Doing so would be the sign that one truly believes in the gift of Forgiveness. (This is why I always begin the Liturgy with the Confession – acknowledge our sin, but worship in the light of Grace.
I obviously owe, or have a connection with, Ms. Underhill. I have preached for decades that Love is 95% a matter of the will. That it has, or should have, little to do with feelings. And I believe that exercising the will ultimately has the power to heal hurt feelings. Love has become far too identified with how one feels in our cultures. Someone like Jesus didn’t choose Love unto Death because it “felt” good.
Accept your capacity for evil. Let it flit by quickly. Embrace new life. Shape and nurture the Will. Decide who you want to be and do.
Do it.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, December 05, 2007
I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking,
what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means.
What I want and what I fear.
- Joan Didion, author, born on this day,
1934, in Sacramento CA
In my perception over many many years of contemplation, this is where Scriptures come from too. All Scriptures. When a human being begins to ask Joan’s questions - “What am I thinking?”, What am I looking at?”, “What do I see?”, “What does it mean?”, “What do I want?”, “What do I fear?” - “God” is at work. This is how the Source of Life and Meaning many call God reveals Its Nature, Its Being. I have come to believe that God is known only through the awakening and self-awareness of each individual person. Otherwise, God remains the utterly hidden “Other”, about which Mystery many religious thinkers have spoken.
Oh, I know. Many of us would like to believe that God puts a pen in someone’s hand and then uses that person as a conduit. Like Joseph Smith and the Golden Tablets. I don’t believe it works that way. The profound internal inconsistencies alone speak against such a concept - unless one is willing to accept a God Who is inconsistent! No, the Being of God and the Being of each human person are inextricably interrelated. When we have the courage to begin asking the critical questions about Life, the Two Solitudes awake in joy to each other.
This is why I read a lot more fiction than “theology”. Good fiction writers write out of the well of the Critical Issues of Life. As I think do the “writers” of scriptures. When I ask those questions, when I long to know what I’m experiencing and what it all means, I find the God Who is Compassion, Justice, Love, Gentleness. Baal, Molloch, the Hebrew God who would slaughter a nation, the Hindu God(dess) who would burn up a city, the Allah who would condone the “honour-killing” of women or the death of a woman whose school-children named a teddy bear Muhammad, the Christian God who would consign people to a Hell of pain - Nope. Not what I want Life to be. Or God.
Our understanding of God is fundamentally shaped by our own commitment to self-discovery. If on that journey we choose power, hate, aggression, such is the God we find. If we choose Compassion and Justice, the same. Indeed, God is at the mercy of our own self-perception and our choices.
Talk about a Vulnerable God! But in Jesus, Christians know this vulnerable God who places His/Her very existence trustingly in our hands.
This is only the beginning of a conversation. Keep thinking!
Brian+
I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking,
what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means.
What I want and what I fear.
- Joan Didion, author, born on this day,
1934, in Sacramento CA
In my perception over many many years of contemplation, this is where Scriptures come from too. All Scriptures. When a human being begins to ask Joan’s questions - “What am I thinking?”, What am I looking at?”, “What do I see?”, “What does it mean?”, “What do I want?”, “What do I fear?” - “God” is at work. This is how the Source of Life and Meaning many call God reveals Its Nature, Its Being. I have come to believe that God is known only through the awakening and self-awareness of each individual person. Otherwise, God remains the utterly hidden “Other”, about which Mystery many religious thinkers have spoken.
Oh, I know. Many of us would like to believe that God puts a pen in someone’s hand and then uses that person as a conduit. Like Joseph Smith and the Golden Tablets. I don’t believe it works that way. The profound internal inconsistencies alone speak against such a concept - unless one is willing to accept a God Who is inconsistent! No, the Being of God and the Being of each human person are inextricably interrelated. When we have the courage to begin asking the critical questions about Life, the Two Solitudes awake in joy to each other.
This is why I read a lot more fiction than “theology”. Good fiction writers write out of the well of the Critical Issues of Life. As I think do the “writers” of scriptures. When I ask those questions, when I long to know what I’m experiencing and what it all means, I find the God Who is Compassion, Justice, Love, Gentleness. Baal, Molloch, the Hebrew God who would slaughter a nation, the Hindu God(dess) who would burn up a city, the Allah who would condone the “honour-killing” of women or the death of a woman whose school-children named a teddy bear Muhammad, the Christian God who would consign people to a Hell of pain - Nope. Not what I want Life to be. Or God.
Our understanding of God is fundamentally shaped by our own commitment to self-discovery. If on that journey we choose power, hate, aggression, such is the God we find. If we choose Compassion and Justice, the same. Indeed, God is at the mercy of our own self-perception and our choices.
Talk about a Vulnerable God! But in Jesus, Christians know this vulnerable God who places His/Her very existence trustingly in our hands.
This is only the beginning of a conversation. Keep thinking!
Brian+
Monday, December 3, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, December 4, 2007
I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two
people: that each protects the solitude of the other.
- Rainer Maria Rilke, poet, born on this day, 1875
Most of us probably know Rilke’s most famous quote:
Live your questions now, and perhaps even
without knowing it, you will live along some
distant day into your answers.
The Answers are not the most important. The Questions are. Answers that come long before the “distant day” make for dull, boring, rigid people. Such people make for a dangerous world. “Fundamentalists” are Answer people. They “get” them - often from God, no less! - they write them in stone - and they use those stones to batter those they fear. I have long been a Question person. And even now, at 61, many of the Answers I thought I had are slipping away. I am not afraid. It reminds me that I haven’t died yet; I have Life to live and much to learn.
I have for many years now loved the presenting quote. Because it is true. The most destructive relationships, and especially marriages, I have seen are those which do not or cannot honour the solitude of the other. Relationships which seek to redefine the other, reshape the other, deny the other, are fatally flawed - because the perpetrator is an incomplete human being. One of the glories of the Christian understanding of God is that God honours our solitudes. And we love Her by honouring Hers. By not attempting to remake Him in our own image. At the meeting of those Two Solitudes is the heart of Love.
Rilke said:
For one human being to love another; that is perhaps
the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last
test and proof, the work for which all other work is but
preparation.
Yes. Because authentically to love another, we must be our own Self. And it takes courage and acceptance and surrender and the hard work of self-awareness to do that.
For many, it is too hard. Many cannot break out of old roles and stereotypes. The failure of relationships in our time is the sign. The Trinity, strange a concept as it is, is a good role model: three Divine Solitudes forming the one pure Divine Love.
Brian+
I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two
people: that each protects the solitude of the other.
- Rainer Maria Rilke, poet, born on this day, 1875
Most of us probably know Rilke’s most famous quote:
Live your questions now, and perhaps even
without knowing it, you will live along some
distant day into your answers.
The Answers are not the most important. The Questions are. Answers that come long before the “distant day” make for dull, boring, rigid people. Such people make for a dangerous world. “Fundamentalists” are Answer people. They “get” them - often from God, no less! - they write them in stone - and they use those stones to batter those they fear. I have long been a Question person. And even now, at 61, many of the Answers I thought I had are slipping away. I am not afraid. It reminds me that I haven’t died yet; I have Life to live and much to learn.
I have for many years now loved the presenting quote. Because it is true. The most destructive relationships, and especially marriages, I have seen are those which do not or cannot honour the solitude of the other. Relationships which seek to redefine the other, reshape the other, deny the other, are fatally flawed - because the perpetrator is an incomplete human being. One of the glories of the Christian understanding of God is that God honours our solitudes. And we love Her by honouring Hers. By not attempting to remake Him in our own image. At the meeting of those Two Solitudes is the heart of Love.
Rilke said:
For one human being to love another; that is perhaps
the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last
test and proof, the work for which all other work is but
preparation.
Yes. Because authentically to love another, we must be our own Self. And it takes courage and acceptance and surrender and the hard work of self-awareness to do that.
For many, it is too hard. Many cannot break out of old roles and stereotypes. The failure of relationships in our time is the sign. The Trinity, strange a concept as it is, is a good role model: three Divine Solitudes forming the one pure Divine Love.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, December 3, 2007
If some longing goes unmet, don't be
astonished. We call that Life.
- Anna Freud, Austrian/English
psychoanalyst, born on this
day, 1895
Yep. Madam Freud is on the money. I often think about Jesus and the motley crew that He gathered around Himself. I hope He wasn’t trying to do what Madam Freud also once said, “Create around one at least a small circle where matters are arranged as one wants them to be.” Because if Jesus was trying to do that, I question His judgment! What a bunch, those disciples. Power-mad, or in-fighting, or wanting to do in opponents, or chopping off people’s ears, or elitist, or racist (Samaritans, ugh), etc.
Or, Jesus just understood Life, and knew that what He might have hoped for in a band of disciples was …. well, a longing not to be met, given human nature. That’s Life. He made the best of it - and still has to!
As I review my Life, I realize that many of my longings have been met. I have fine friends. I have had a vocation in which I’ve been a help to some people. I’ve seen glorious places on the Earth. I’m happy (in general) with the basic me, and have been accepted for myself by enough to make it ok, and best of all “God”. Some longings have gone unmet, though one in particular I thought never would be has indeed been. Anna has reminded me not to be astonished that some haven’t and probably never will be.
We call that Life. I’m on the plus-side of it - and I hope you are too!
Brian+
If some longing goes unmet, don't be
astonished. We call that Life.
- Anna Freud, Austrian/English
psychoanalyst, born on this
day, 1895
Yep. Madam Freud is on the money. I often think about Jesus and the motley crew that He gathered around Himself. I hope He wasn’t trying to do what Madam Freud also once said, “Create around one at least a small circle where matters are arranged as one wants them to be.” Because if Jesus was trying to do that, I question His judgment! What a bunch, those disciples. Power-mad, or in-fighting, or wanting to do in opponents, or chopping off people’s ears, or elitist, or racist (Samaritans, ugh), etc.
Or, Jesus just understood Life, and knew that what He might have hoped for in a band of disciples was …. well, a longing not to be met, given human nature. That’s Life. He made the best of it - and still has to!
As I review my Life, I realize that many of my longings have been met. I have fine friends. I have had a vocation in which I’ve been a help to some people. I’ve seen glorious places on the Earth. I’m happy (in general) with the basic me, and have been accepted for myself by enough to make it ok, and best of all “God”. Some longings have gone unmet, though one in particular I thought never would be has indeed been. Anna has reminded me not to be astonished that some haven’t and probably never will be.
We call that Life. I’m on the plus-side of it - and I hope you are too!
Brian+
Friday, November 30, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, December 1, 2007
Understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what
part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake
and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must
be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
- From the version of the Good News called “Matthew”
The “Unexpected hour” is not in the time-space continuum - if I may sound a little star-trekkie. Matthew’s Jesus does not say these words so that we spend our lives furtively looking around in anxiety and fear for what might spring unexpectedly upon us. Matthew’s Jesus says these words for one reason only: so that we actively live every moment understanding that we are in the presence of the Source of Life we call “God”.
The “coming of the Son of Man” is not a straight line. It is a continuous loop. This is what we are proclaiming in the Eucharistic Liturgy when we say, “Christ has died, Christ is risen; Christ will come again”. We are saying, God, keep pouring out your life for us; God, keep lifting us out of death into life; God, keep us living in the eternal present of your Presence. Past, present, future collapse into One Reality. Now. The Moment.
For Christians, Advent is the Season of moment by moment expectation that Life has captured us. That we are in the swirl of Compassion, Justice, Joy, Peace, Generosity of Self, Graciousness of being blessed.
“Do not be anxious”. The “hour” is now - calling us to be our true, our divine, Selves.
Brian+
Understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what
part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake
and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must
be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
- From the version of the Good News called “Matthew”
The “Unexpected hour” is not in the time-space continuum - if I may sound a little star-trekkie. Matthew’s Jesus does not say these words so that we spend our lives furtively looking around in anxiety and fear for what might spring unexpectedly upon us. Matthew’s Jesus says these words for one reason only: so that we actively live every moment understanding that we are in the presence of the Source of Life we call “God”.
The “coming of the Son of Man” is not a straight line. It is a continuous loop. This is what we are proclaiming in the Eucharistic Liturgy when we say, “Christ has died, Christ is risen; Christ will come again”. We are saying, God, keep pouring out your life for us; God, keep lifting us out of death into life; God, keep us living in the eternal present of your Presence. Past, present, future collapse into One Reality. Now. The Moment.
For Christians, Advent is the Season of moment by moment expectation that Life has captured us. That we are in the swirl of Compassion, Justice, Joy, Peace, Generosity of Self, Graciousness of being blessed.
“Do not be anxious”. The “hour” is now - calling us to be our true, our divine, Selves.
Brian+
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, November 30, 2007
[ Sorry; pictures not available ]
St. Andrew the Apostle, by El Greco (left); traditional icon, right
“ O good cross, made beautiful by the body of my Lord! so long desired,
so anxiously loved, so unceasingly sought after, and now at last ready
for my soul to enjoy! take me from amidst men, and restore me to my
Master; that by thee He may receive me, Who by thee redeemed me.”
Well, I can’t resist. Being a Scot - at least on my father’s side. (My mother’s “side” is English, alas hated by the autonomous Scots!). But, you know what? Though the McHugh’s were “vera Scots” (one of my great uncles, Edward the Gospel Singer, changed his name to MacHugh, lest anyone think he was ….. Irish, horrors!), my paternal great-grandparents were ….. Irish!
Legend says that, in the middle of the 10th century, Andrew (brother of Peter, and called in the Greek Protocletos, “first called”) became the patron Saint of Scotland. And so it is that many years on St. Andrew’s Day, I have donned my kilt (the Orrock tartan, for my paternal grandmother Elspeth Orrock) and celebrated!!
I’m a Scot. I’m a Canadian. I’m also an “American”. All this is inconsequential to me. I don’t live on this lovely Earth to take ethnic or cultural sides! I live here as a free citizen of the World. Oh, if only I could have a United Nations passport! I think of myself as everything! I I am neither “Jew nor Greek”; neither “male nor female”. I am essentially - I choose to be - a citizen of God’s Kingdom - where there are no distinctions. I consider myself to be in the same family as all people.
Friends, give up tribalism. Give up zenophobia. Be a brother or a sister of every other human being. You will be giddy with the sense of relationship. This is what it means to be “one with Christ”. This does not mean “Christian”. It means “A lover of All People”.
Brian+
[ Sorry; pictures not available ]
St. Andrew the Apostle, by El Greco (left); traditional icon, right
“ O good cross, made beautiful by the body of my Lord! so long desired,
so anxiously loved, so unceasingly sought after, and now at last ready
for my soul to enjoy! take me from amidst men, and restore me to my
Master; that by thee He may receive me, Who by thee redeemed me.”
Well, I can’t resist. Being a Scot - at least on my father’s side. (My mother’s “side” is English, alas hated by the autonomous Scots!). But, you know what? Though the McHugh’s were “vera Scots” (one of my great uncles, Edward the Gospel Singer, changed his name to MacHugh, lest anyone think he was ….. Irish, horrors!), my paternal great-grandparents were ….. Irish!
Legend says that, in the middle of the 10th century, Andrew (brother of Peter, and called in the Greek Protocletos, “first called”) became the patron Saint of Scotland. And so it is that many years on St. Andrew’s Day, I have donned my kilt (the Orrock tartan, for my paternal grandmother Elspeth Orrock) and celebrated!!
I’m a Scot. I’m a Canadian. I’m also an “American”. All this is inconsequential to me. I don’t live on this lovely Earth to take ethnic or cultural sides! I live here as a free citizen of the World. Oh, if only I could have a United Nations passport! I think of myself as everything! I I am neither “Jew nor Greek”; neither “male nor female”. I am essentially - I choose to be - a citizen of God’s Kingdom - where there are no distinctions. I consider myself to be in the same family as all people.
Friends, give up tribalism. Give up zenophobia. Be a brother or a sister of every other human being. You will be giddy with the sense of relationship. This is what it means to be “one with Christ”. This does not mean “Christian”. It means “A lover of All People”.
Brian+
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, November 29, 2007
He whose only concern had been to announce the unconditional love of God
had only one question to ask, "Do you love me?"......."Do you know the incarnate
God?" In our world of loneliness and despair, there is an enormous need for men
and women who know the heart of God, a heart that forgives, that cares, that
reaches out and wants to heal. In that heart there is no suspicion, no vindictiveness,
no resentment, and not a tinge of hatred. It is a heart that only wants to give love
and receive love in response. It is a heart that suffers immensely because it sees the
magnitude of human pain and the great resistance to trusting the heart of God who
wants to offer consolation and hope.
- Henri Nouwen,
Well, I have work to do. I want to be the kind of person that Henri Nouwen describes. An “announcer of the unconditional Love of God” ….. who “forgives, cares, reaches out, wants to heal”. But ….. I have to confess that there is much suspicion, vindictiveness, resentment, hatred in my heart at times. And I am further concerned that those things are shading my life and my living while I am unaware.
Perhaps I am too fortunate, that I don’t see ….. no, I see it, but rather don’t feel ….. the magnitude of human pain, especially of those I see as “enemies”.
Here is the role of “true religion”. To help me see the vision, to feel the suffering, to understand the resistance to trusting ….. to be free to offer hope and consolation to all. When I can feel this way about George Bush, I will be home free - and believe me, only Grace will get me there!
Pray for me.
Brian+
He whose only concern had been to announce the unconditional love of God
had only one question to ask, "Do you love me?"......."Do you know the incarnate
God?" In our world of loneliness and despair, there is an enormous need for men
and women who know the heart of God, a heart that forgives, that cares, that
reaches out and wants to heal. In that heart there is no suspicion, no vindictiveness,
no resentment, and not a tinge of hatred. It is a heart that only wants to give love
and receive love in response. It is a heart that suffers immensely because it sees the
magnitude of human pain and the great resistance to trusting the heart of God who
wants to offer consolation and hope.
- Henri Nouwen,
Well, I have work to do. I want to be the kind of person that Henri Nouwen describes. An “announcer of the unconditional Love of God” ….. who “forgives, cares, reaches out, wants to heal”. But ….. I have to confess that there is much suspicion, vindictiveness, resentment, hatred in my heart at times. And I am further concerned that those things are shading my life and my living while I am unaware.
Perhaps I am too fortunate, that I don’t see ….. no, I see it, but rather don’t feel ….. the magnitude of human pain, especially of those I see as “enemies”.
Here is the role of “true religion”. To help me see the vision, to feel the suffering, to understand the resistance to trusting ….. to be free to offer hope and consolation to all. When I can feel this way about George Bush, I will be home free - and believe me, only Grace will get me there!
Pray for me.
Brian+
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, November 28, 2007
That the Jews assumed a right exclusively
to the benefits of God will be a lasting
witness against them and the same will
it be against Christians.
- William Blake, poet, born on this
day, 1757
I am certain that I would have liked William Blake and his wife. (Which I can say, not knowing much about them intimately.) They were once discovered naked in their garden, playing the parts of Adam and Eve as they read Milton’s “Paradise Lost”. As the young would say, “Cool!”
When I was a callow youth, and a young man “into” being an avid Anglo-Catholic, I thought that surely Christianity was the top of the heap of religions. Judaism? Certainly superseded by “the New Israel”.
It did not take me long to realize how pompous and arrogant my thinking was. And it didn’t take me long because I was lucky enough to meet people who had come to know God. And these people, mostly Christians, taught me how my God was too small. And besides, who was I to think that I knew the mind of God - when Jesus Himself said, “No one knows the Father but the Son”. Why would I be one to whom God revealed Her reality???
But She did! And I learned not to think that I controlled God. I learned that God “works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform”. That God was not above using every possible path to make the wonder of divine Love known.
Jews and Christians are just two of God’s “children”.
We claim “the true God” as “ours”. But God lavishes Love and the knowledge of God on all. Without exception.
Brian+
That the Jews assumed a right exclusively
to the benefits of God will be a lasting
witness against them and the same will
it be against Christians.
- William Blake, poet, born on this
day, 1757
I am certain that I would have liked William Blake and his wife. (Which I can say, not knowing much about them intimately.) They were once discovered naked in their garden, playing the parts of Adam and Eve as they read Milton’s “Paradise Lost”. As the young would say, “Cool!”
When I was a callow youth, and a young man “into” being an avid Anglo-Catholic, I thought that surely Christianity was the top of the heap of religions. Judaism? Certainly superseded by “the New Israel”.
It did not take me long to realize how pompous and arrogant my thinking was. And it didn’t take me long because I was lucky enough to meet people who had come to know God. And these people, mostly Christians, taught me how my God was too small. And besides, who was I to think that I knew the mind of God - when Jesus Himself said, “No one knows the Father but the Son”. Why would I be one to whom God revealed Her reality???
But She did! And I learned not to think that I controlled God. I learned that God “works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform”. That God was not above using every possible path to make the wonder of divine Love known.
Jews and Christians are just two of God’s “children”.
We claim “the true God” as “ours”. But God lavishes Love and the knowledge of God on all. Without exception.
Brian+
Monday, November 26, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Kiss the Earth
Walk and touch peace every moment.
Walk and touch happiness every moment.
Each step brings a fresh breeze.
Each step makes a flower bloom.
Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Bring the Earth your love and happiness.
The Earth will be safewhen we feel safe in ourselves.
- Thich Nhat Hanh, poet, Buddhist
A lovely human being he is. At least I think so ….. at least in his public persona. He exhibits character that I find winning and true. I have heard Thich Nhat Hanh speak in the vast space of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, and I have heard him in a garden in California. He has that so attractive quality of ….. serenity. He sees Life as the Big Picture. Where everything is part of everything else. I admire that kind of vision. And I admire and respect his understanding that, while we may be on different paths, all paths call us to find what it is to be authentically human.
I have always felt a part of the Earth. I was lucky enough to spend my childhood summers in the lakes and mountains of the Laurentians. Lying on sun-warmed rocks, or on the still warm grass at night, or floating in the warm-cool waters of our lake, I had then and still have the sense of being one with It.
The Earth, our Mother, is in danger. It is sick and dying in many places. Is it because we do not feel safe in ourselves? I hadn’t thought of that until I read Thich Nhat Hanh’s poem.
It is hard to feel safe in ourselves when so many human beings are threatening others, over religion, or power, or greed, or fear.
Unless we learn to make Life safe for all, Mother Earth will die, and we with Her.
Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Brian+
Kiss the Earth
Walk and touch peace every moment.
Walk and touch happiness every moment.
Each step brings a fresh breeze.
Each step makes a flower bloom.
Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Bring the Earth your love and happiness.
The Earth will be safewhen we feel safe in ourselves.
- Thich Nhat Hanh, poet, Buddhist
A lovely human being he is. At least I think so ….. at least in his public persona. He exhibits character that I find winning and true. I have heard Thich Nhat Hanh speak in the vast space of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, and I have heard him in a garden in California. He has that so attractive quality of ….. serenity. He sees Life as the Big Picture. Where everything is part of everything else. I admire that kind of vision. And I admire and respect his understanding that, while we may be on different paths, all paths call us to find what it is to be authentically human.
I have always felt a part of the Earth. I was lucky enough to spend my childhood summers in the lakes and mountains of the Laurentians. Lying on sun-warmed rocks, or on the still warm grass at night, or floating in the warm-cool waters of our lake, I had then and still have the sense of being one with It.
The Earth, our Mother, is in danger. It is sick and dying in many places. Is it because we do not feel safe in ourselves? I hadn’t thought of that until I read Thich Nhat Hanh’s poem.
It is hard to feel safe in ourselves when so many human beings are threatening others, over religion, or power, or greed, or fear.
Unless we learn to make Life safe for all, Mother Earth will die, and we with Her.
Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Brian+
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, November 26, 2007
I'm not wise, but the beginning of wisdom is there;
it's like relaxing into - and an acceptance of - things.
You take your problems to a god, but what you really
need is for the god to take you to the inside of you.
- Tina Turner, singer, born on this day, 1939
What energy! Have you seen Tina Turner on stage? Incredible! Well I remember the first time I ever saw her. I was awed!
And oh, I would say that Tina is indeed wise! It’s a cliché now, to say “Go with the flow”. But the “flow” is the Journey of Life, and going with it is understanding who we human beings are. It’s knowing that we are an integral part of The Flow, not “above” or “outside” or “in control” of It. It is the Tao. It is our milieu, our natural context. It is to be connected with the god/goddess. We need to be in that river, accepting our part and participation in the Mystery. In the Flow, we begin to understand.
And Tina is right on the money about taking your problems “to a god”. Most of us who are so inclined do this - and drop it. We think that God is “out there” and that the God Out There will solve our problems. But the God is not Out There. God is always “inside of you”. And if we have problems to solve, we must let the God take us inside. The answer is always there, inside ourself. Once we learn this, we have at least begun to be wise.
Good old Tina! Wise indeed.
Brian+
I'm not wise, but the beginning of wisdom is there;
it's like relaxing into - and an acceptance of - things.
You take your problems to a god, but what you really
need is for the god to take you to the inside of you.
- Tina Turner, singer, born on this day, 1939
What energy! Have you seen Tina Turner on stage? Incredible! Well I remember the first time I ever saw her. I was awed!
And oh, I would say that Tina is indeed wise! It’s a cliché now, to say “Go with the flow”. But the “flow” is the Journey of Life, and going with it is understanding who we human beings are. It’s knowing that we are an integral part of The Flow, not “above” or “outside” or “in control” of It. It is the Tao. It is our milieu, our natural context. It is to be connected with the god/goddess. We need to be in that river, accepting our part and participation in the Mystery. In the Flow, we begin to understand.
And Tina is right on the money about taking your problems “to a god”. Most of us who are so inclined do this - and drop it. We think that God is “out there” and that the God Out There will solve our problems. But the God is not Out There. God is always “inside of you”. And if we have problems to solve, we must let the God take us inside. The answer is always there, inside ourself. Once we learn this, we have at least begun to be wise.
Good old Tina! Wise indeed.
Brian+
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Sunday, November 25, 2007
Love must Act, as Light must Shine, and Fire must Burn.
- James O. S. Huntington, OHC, founder,
The Order of the Holy Cross, who died on
this day, 1935
Well, I got “lazy” over Thanksgiving ………. So here’s the "guilty" Sunday Reflection.
Fr. Huntington is acknowledged as the Founder of the Order that I was a member of for 15 years. The Religious Life established itself in the Episcopal Church in the mid-19th century, an outgrowth of the re-flourishing of the Catholic tradition in the United States and other Anglican churches. Still many Episcopalians don’t know that there are monks and nuns in the Episcopal Church. It’s s fascinating part of the story.
Fr. Huntington wrote these words in the Rule of the Order. And I have remembered them all these 40 years. To me, they are a perfect, simple, and poetic stating of a profound human truth. Jesus emphasized it in a powerful way when He said, “There is no greater love than this, that a man should lay down his life for a friend”.
Talk is cheap. And God knows there is a lot of cheap talk in American (and other) life about Love. Especially in nauseous music - though I have to admit in my old age that Bing Crosby or Cole Porter being nauseous about it sounds a whole lot better to me than rappers.
Love must act ………. or it isn’t. Like dark light or dead flame.
What Life requires is us to be Act-ors in the great game of Love. Let’s be creative!
Brian+
Love must Act, as Light must Shine, and Fire must Burn.
- James O. S. Huntington, OHC, founder,
The Order of the Holy Cross, who died on
this day, 1935
Well, I got “lazy” over Thanksgiving ………. So here’s the "guilty" Sunday Reflection.
Fr. Huntington is acknowledged as the Founder of the Order that I was a member of for 15 years. The Religious Life established itself in the Episcopal Church in the mid-19th century, an outgrowth of the re-flourishing of the Catholic tradition in the United States and other Anglican churches. Still many Episcopalians don’t know that there are monks and nuns in the Episcopal Church. It’s s fascinating part of the story.
Fr. Huntington wrote these words in the Rule of the Order. And I have remembered them all these 40 years. To me, they are a perfect, simple, and poetic stating of a profound human truth. Jesus emphasized it in a powerful way when He said, “There is no greater love than this, that a man should lay down his life for a friend”.
Talk is cheap. And God knows there is a lot of cheap talk in American (and other) life about Love. Especially in nauseous music - though I have to admit in my old age that Bing Crosby or Cole Porter being nauseous about it sounds a whole lot better to me than rappers.
Love must act ………. or it isn’t. Like dark light or dead flame.
What Life requires is us to be Act-ors in the great game of Love. Let’s be creative!
Brian+
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, November 21, 2007
The great secret of a successful marriage
is to treat all disasters as incidents and none
of the incidents as disasters.
- Sir Harold Nicholson, English author
and diplomat, married to Vita Sackville-West,
born on this day, 1886
It was quite a marriage to be married to Vita! Believe me - read the historical documents! (Or, don’t read them if you are prone to judgmentalism; it will be perhaps too challenging to your inner life.)
And I might have mentioned before the gardens of Sissinghurst, the Sackville-West’s ancestral home. Stunning! Go there, if you like gardens.
I have gotten to the age to realize that Harold is right. We can spend a lot of sleepless nights worrying about what we think are - and might be in some sense - disasters. But you know, before long, they aren’t. Just think of all the “disasters” that occurred between God and the Israelites, and yet, the relationship continued. God choose to consider all the disasters as incidents, which then became non-disasters.
This is because Love allows you/God/us to see what’s important. When you truly love someone, “disasters” don’t destroy anything. One just deals with them, because the gift of the relationship goes on.
So, take Sir Harold to heart. Keep things in perspective and balanced.
Balance and perspective are always characteristics of a wise person.
Brian+
The great secret of a successful marriage
is to treat all disasters as incidents and none
of the incidents as disasters.
- Sir Harold Nicholson, English author
and diplomat, married to Vita Sackville-West,
born on this day, 1886
It was quite a marriage to be married to Vita! Believe me - read the historical documents! (Or, don’t read them if you are prone to judgmentalism; it will be perhaps too challenging to your inner life.)
And I might have mentioned before the gardens of Sissinghurst, the Sackville-West’s ancestral home. Stunning! Go there, if you like gardens.
I have gotten to the age to realize that Harold is right. We can spend a lot of sleepless nights worrying about what we think are - and might be in some sense - disasters. But you know, before long, they aren’t. Just think of all the “disasters” that occurred between God and the Israelites, and yet, the relationship continued. God choose to consider all the disasters as incidents, which then became non-disasters.
This is because Love allows you/God/us to see what’s important. When you truly love someone, “disasters” don’t destroy anything. One just deals with them, because the gift of the relationship goes on.
So, take Sir Harold to heart. Keep things in perspective and balanced.
Balance and perspective are always characteristics of a wise person.
Brian+
Monday, November 19, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Mr. Foster, when you beat our teams, it gives us a black eye.
- Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Federal judge (!) and
Baseball Commissioner, born on this day, 1866
I would hope that no one would condemn me as “conventional”! I would hate to think that I was predictable. The worst of judgments, to my way of thinking. Yes, yes, I have spent my Life exulting in the fact that I surprise people, in everything from what I wear to what I think. Does that indicate a jolly wickedness, or a deep seated insecurity? You know, I care not!
Now who who knows me would think that I would ever quote a sports person?! I loathe sports and everything that has to do with competition. Just proves that I can be open and flexible and ….. surprising!
Mr. Landis said these words to Rube Foster, founder of the Negro National League, in 1923. 1923! What I don’t know is, did they know each other or have a relationship? Because it is delightful in its wit! Did Mr. Justice Landis know that when Mr. Foster got this message, he would chuckle???? Did they both know what the joke was?
A “black” eye. Rapier-like, yes. But more ….. human and humane. I like to think that Mr. Landis and Mr. Foster sat and laughed with a beer on a porch somewhere, away from the prying eyes of the Fascist so-called Christian storm troopers.
When people become Buddhists, does that give Christians a “black” eye? When they become Muslims, does that give Christians a “black” eye? Or Jains? Or Pagans? Or Wiccan? Or Atheists?
No, friends. It simply means that people are looking for an inner discipline that makes sense of their Lives. If Christianity abuses them, demeans them, doesn’t answer their questions with respect, they will look elsewhere. It is “our” job to show them, by loving them with the intensity of The Christ, that we, as does God, honour their humanity, their uniqueness, their Mystery. And more ….. Love them.
As we approach Thanksgiving, give thanks for all human beings, in their incredible Diversity.
Better: honour them by saluting their Beauty.
Brian+
Mr. Foster, when you beat our teams, it gives us a black eye.
- Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Federal judge (!) and
Baseball Commissioner, born on this day, 1866
I would hope that no one would condemn me as “conventional”! I would hate to think that I was predictable. The worst of judgments, to my way of thinking. Yes, yes, I have spent my Life exulting in the fact that I surprise people, in everything from what I wear to what I think. Does that indicate a jolly wickedness, or a deep seated insecurity? You know, I care not!
Now who who knows me would think that I would ever quote a sports person?! I loathe sports and everything that has to do with competition. Just proves that I can be open and flexible and ….. surprising!
Mr. Landis said these words to Rube Foster, founder of the Negro National League, in 1923. 1923! What I don’t know is, did they know each other or have a relationship? Because it is delightful in its wit! Did Mr. Justice Landis know that when Mr. Foster got this message, he would chuckle???? Did they both know what the joke was?
A “black” eye. Rapier-like, yes. But more ….. human and humane. I like to think that Mr. Landis and Mr. Foster sat and laughed with a beer on a porch somewhere, away from the prying eyes of the Fascist so-called Christian storm troopers.
When people become Buddhists, does that give Christians a “black” eye? When they become Muslims, does that give Christians a “black” eye? Or Jains? Or Pagans? Or Wiccan? Or Atheists?
No, friends. It simply means that people are looking for an inner discipline that makes sense of their Lives. If Christianity abuses them, demeans them, doesn’t answer their questions with respect, they will look elsewhere. It is “our” job to show them, by loving them with the intensity of The Christ, that we, as does God, honour their humanity, their uniqueness, their Mystery. And more ….. Love them.
As we approach Thanksgiving, give thanks for all human beings, in their incredible Diversity.
Better: honour them by saluting their Beauty.
Brian+
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, November 19, 2007
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent,
a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all
men are created equal ….. It is for us the living ….. to be dedicated here to
the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced
….. that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish
from the earth.
- President Abraham Lincoln, at Gettysburg, on this day, 1863
God knows that I do not trust any politician - unless I have had very ample reason. And God knows that I would be loath to connect any political statement to a theological virtue.
But.
The Kingdom of God is a community in which all human beings are members. In It, all who govern do so solely for the purpose of building the community of Love. In It, the common, equal, and non-discriminatory welfare of the People is the grounding principle. In It, the benefit of the people according to God’s Compassion and Justice rules.
Lincoln was right in his vision of the American purpose. Lincoln, and present politicians, may have their own view of what this means. But God’s purpose is, I believe, clear.
Do not vote for anything less.
Brian+
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent,
a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all
men are created equal ….. It is for us the living ….. to be dedicated here to
the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced
….. that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish
from the earth.
- President Abraham Lincoln, at Gettysburg, on this day, 1863
God knows that I do not trust any politician - unless I have had very ample reason. And God knows that I would be loath to connect any political statement to a theological virtue.
But.
The Kingdom of God is a community in which all human beings are members. In It, all who govern do so solely for the purpose of building the community of Love. In It, the common, equal, and non-discriminatory welfare of the People is the grounding principle. In It, the benefit of the people according to God’s Compassion and Justice rules.
Lincoln was right in his vision of the American purpose. Lincoln, and present politicians, may have their own view of what this means. But God’s purpose is, I believe, clear.
Do not vote for anything less.
Brian+
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, November 15, 2007
So as this only point among the rest remaineth sure and certain,
namely, that nothing is certain. . .”
- William Pitt the Elder, British statesman, born on
this day, 1708
Very freeing! Well I remember my time in Nicaragua. There were six different points to cover. One day each week, the catechist and I would get in a dugout canoe, dressed only in shorts and a T-shirt. The communion vessels, a stole, bread and wine, and books were stashed in a heavy plastic bag which was tied to the gunwales. We would head up the shore of the sea towards a village (Rio Grande, I think) near the mouth of the river entering the sea. I got used to the sharks circling, looking for fish. But I would often say, “Will we make it?” The catechist, an experienced canoeist, would answer, “Father, nothing is for certain.”
It isn’t. So it’s better just to live with that reality. Make plans, sure. Dream, sure. Definitely strive for good health on all levels. If you wake up to another day, live it fully, loving and laughing and enjoying and singing and weeping with and maybe mourning with. The only near certain thing is the Present Moment.
I have a wonderful calligraphy from the Evening Gatha on my wall that Roy Parker, OHC, did. It says:
Let me respectfully
remind you:
Life & Death
are of supreme importance.
Time swiftly passes by
&
Opportunity is lost.
Each of us should strive
to awaken,
Awaken
Awaken.
Take heed.
Do not squander your Life.
Indeed. Jesus said, “Stay Awake! For you do not know the hour when the Master will come.” If we can live with shifting “certainty”, we will be less likely to be lulled into squandering, and opportunity not be missed.
Brian+
Brian McHugh, priest & vicar
St. Peter's, Casa Grande
St. Michael's, Coolidge
http://www.blogger.com/orrock1946@msn.com
520.705.2689 (telephonitto)
blog: http://brianstakeontheworldfaithandreligion.blogspot.com/
So as this only point among the rest remaineth sure and certain,
namely, that nothing is certain. . .”
- William Pitt the Elder, British statesman, born on
this day, 1708
Very freeing! Well I remember my time in Nicaragua. There were six different points to cover. One day each week, the catechist and I would get in a dugout canoe, dressed only in shorts and a T-shirt. The communion vessels, a stole, bread and wine, and books were stashed in a heavy plastic bag which was tied to the gunwales. We would head up the shore of the sea towards a village (Rio Grande, I think) near the mouth of the river entering the sea. I got used to the sharks circling, looking for fish. But I would often say, “Will we make it?” The catechist, an experienced canoeist, would answer, “Father, nothing is for certain.”
It isn’t. So it’s better just to live with that reality. Make plans, sure. Dream, sure. Definitely strive for good health on all levels. If you wake up to another day, live it fully, loving and laughing and enjoying and singing and weeping with and maybe mourning with. The only near certain thing is the Present Moment.
I have a wonderful calligraphy from the Evening Gatha on my wall that Roy Parker, OHC, did. It says:
Let me respectfully
remind you:
Life & Death
are of supreme importance.
Time swiftly passes by
&
Opportunity is lost.
Each of us should strive
to awaken,
Awaken
Awaken.
Take heed.
Do not squander your Life.
Indeed. Jesus said, “Stay Awake! For you do not know the hour when the Master will come.” If we can live with shifting “certainty”, we will be less likely to be lulled into squandering, and opportunity not be missed.
Brian+
Brian McHugh, priest & vicar
St. Peter's, Casa Grande
St. Michael's, Coolidge
http://www.blogger.com/orrock1946@msn.com
520.705.2689 (telephonitto)
blog: http://brianstakeontheworldfaithandreligion.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, November 14, 2007
People discuss my art and pretend to
understand as if it were necessary to
understand, when it's simply necessary
to love.
- Claude Monet, artist, born on
this day, 1840
Well, here I am again, “borrowing” paintings from the Internet. Claude Monet’s “Row of Poplars” and “A Meadow at Giverny”. Beautiful, yes??
I’ve been a “preacher” for 40 years. I’ve never “used” a sermon twice. Life changes, the World changes, ideas change - so no matter the Scripture, Life makes its demands, and no sermon written years ago can be in any way adequate to this new day. But that has made it easy! New wineskins, new wine! You just need to be alive, with some imagination.
If I had to say what the biggest preacher-ly mistake I’ve made, it’s that I’ve spent too much time trying to get people (including myself) to “understand”. As if understanding would really come from wrestling with the words. Oh, certainly we get somewhere. But, as Monet points out, “understanding” is not critical for any art, including the art of Life.
It is “simply necessary to love”. That’s where the understanding of Life is found. Monet also said, “No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it, and is sure of his method and composition.” The “picture in the head” is Faith informed by heart, mind, spirit. And the surety of method and composition is what Religion is at its best - that which shows us how to structure and nurture Faith.
“Understand”? This is an unexpected gift of Love. Be it Monet’s paintings, the World, Self, Another, all Mystery. Jesus said, in the end, “Love”. It is the only Path to comprehension.
Brian+
People discuss my art and pretend to
understand as if it were necessary to
understand, when it's simply necessary
to love.
- Claude Monet, artist, born on
this day, 1840
Well, here I am again, “borrowing” paintings from the Internet. Claude Monet’s “Row of Poplars” and “A Meadow at Giverny”. Beautiful, yes??
I’ve been a “preacher” for 40 years. I’ve never “used” a sermon twice. Life changes, the World changes, ideas change - so no matter the Scripture, Life makes its demands, and no sermon written years ago can be in any way adequate to this new day. But that has made it easy! New wineskins, new wine! You just need to be alive, with some imagination.
If I had to say what the biggest preacher-ly mistake I’ve made, it’s that I’ve spent too much time trying to get people (including myself) to “understand”. As if understanding would really come from wrestling with the words. Oh, certainly we get somewhere. But, as Monet points out, “understanding” is not critical for any art, including the art of Life.
It is “simply necessary to love”. That’s where the understanding of Life is found. Monet also said, “No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it, and is sure of his method and composition.” The “picture in the head” is Faith informed by heart, mind, spirit. And the surety of method and composition is what Religion is at its best - that which shows us how to structure and nurture Faith.
“Understand”? This is an unexpected gift of Love. Be it Monet’s paintings, the World, Self, Another, all Mystery. Jesus said, in the end, “Love”. It is the only Path to comprehension.
Brian+
Monday, November 12, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, November 13, 2007
If you would only recognize that life is hard,
things would be so much easier for you.
- Justice Louis Brandeis, Associate
Justice of the Supreme Court for 23 years,
born on this day, 1856
Most of us live in a fantasy. We think that Life is going to be perpetually lovely. Without pain, physical or emotional or whatever. We think that every child will be born perfect. We think that doctors will fix everything to our own fantasy….. or God will ….. or prayer will. The highest form of repression and delusion is that, when experience proves all this wrong, we continue to live in a state of childish unreality. The God who has promised to “walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death” becomes the Good Fairy God whose failure to make everything right will be rationalized away with the most appalling stupidity ……. but secretly we harbor deep resentment, and how this makes a mockery of the God who above all things wishes to help us to live Life in its reality.
Life is hard, in a sense. But Life, lived in the context of Its Reality, is also stunningly amazing and fun and hilarious. Making a fantasy of Life only makes Life more difficult! And a fake.
Reality is always easier. Always.
Brian+
p.s. The Justice also said:
To declare that the end justifies the means, to declare that the government may commit crimes, would bring terrible retribution.
And:
We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.
You think this is politics and not about the inner life of the spirit and of America?
Think again.
If you would only recognize that life is hard,
things would be so much easier for you.
- Justice Louis Brandeis, Associate
Justice of the Supreme Court for 23 years,
born on this day, 1856
Most of us live in a fantasy. We think that Life is going to be perpetually lovely. Without pain, physical or emotional or whatever. We think that every child will be born perfect. We think that doctors will fix everything to our own fantasy….. or God will ….. or prayer will. The highest form of repression and delusion is that, when experience proves all this wrong, we continue to live in a state of childish unreality. The God who has promised to “walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death” becomes the Good Fairy God whose failure to make everything right will be rationalized away with the most appalling stupidity ……. but secretly we harbor deep resentment, and how this makes a mockery of the God who above all things wishes to help us to live Life in its reality.
Life is hard, in a sense. But Life, lived in the context of Its Reality, is also stunningly amazing and fun and hilarious. Making a fantasy of Life only makes Life more difficult! And a fake.
Reality is always easier. Always.
Brian+
p.s. The Justice also said:
To declare that the end justifies the means, to declare that the government may commit crimes, would bring terrible retribution.
And:
We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.
You think this is politics and not about the inner life of the spirit and of America?
Think again.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, November 9, 2007
By the time we hit fifty, we have learned our hardest lessons.
We have found out that only a few things are really important.
We have learned to take life seriously, but never ourselves.
- Marie Dressler (Leila Marie Koerber), actress, born on
this day in Canada, 1869
By the time we hit fifty, we have learned our hardest lessons.
We have found out that only a few things are really important.
We have learned to take life seriously, but never ourselves.
- Marie Dressler (Leila Marie Koerber), actress, born on
this day in Canada, 1869
.jpg)
Oh Lordy! Who could forget Marie Dressler as “Min”, alongside Wallace Beery as “Bill” in that great film! She won the Academy Award that year (1930) for her performance. She was great as the owner of a tough dockside hotel, struggling to know what to do for the young girl she took in and raised. I’ve seen the movie three times - I just love Marie’s strong character and her gutsy acting.
Marie might better have said, “By fifty, we ought to have learned our hardest lessons ….”. I don’t think I can say that I have. O, I know what’s important, I think, at least for me. But I continue to allow all sorts of other things to take up my time and energies. I’ll have to take some quiet time and really think about why that is. Why is it that I still find myself in a rush all day long, doing several things at the same time, not leaving enough time, dashing to appointments having left just seconds to get there – and being in a fury when someone or something (perfectly predictable, of course!) gets in my way. Sigh.
Could it be that ….. oh, surely not! ….. that I take myself too seriously?? That I really think that I need to be doing all these things at breakneck speed because I think this means I’m taking Life seriously?? Yikes!
I think I do know, in the center, what’s really important. By 50, most of us probably do. We have learned what is genuinely serious in Life.
If we can just learn not to take ourselves too seriously, we can see all the distractions for what they are. We can let them go. I think this is what Jesus meant in saying, “Take up your cross” - He meant, Live and Die for what’s really important.
After 50, that’s the goal!
Brian+
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, November 8, 2007
We have all known the long loneliness
and we have learned that the only solution
is love and that love comes with community.
- Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic
Worker movement, born on this day,
1897
Dorothy Day was born in Brooklyn. She survived the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Her family moved into a tenement on Chicago’s South side, where, with her father out of work, Dorothy came to understand the shame of failure, and poverty, and the beauty even of slums and their fullness of life and people.
Her experiences led her to Roman Catholicism, and to working for the equality of women and for social services to the poor. She was drawn to the Franciscan way of life. Eventually, to further outreach to the poor, she started a newspaper called The Catholic Worker - it sold 100,000 a month. And then Catholic Worker houses, for the homeless; they grew to 33 by 1936. And, in my mind, being the best of Christian love and charity, people were never proselytized - they were just loved and cared for in Christ’s name. To me, this is the very best of Christian witness. Charity for conversion is only unholy manipulation.
In the Christian myth, Jesus did not die for love of any one person. He died for the whole community of God’s human family. Of course love can begin between two. But any loving relationship draws others to it. Community forms - where people come “com muneris”, with gifts to share, so that all may grow together in mutual affection.
Anyone can pray alone – and this is good. And God can be found alone, or often finds us when alone. The church is only useful if it is a community of Love patterned after God’s unconditional Love. If it is not, it is a millstone around God’s neck.
If you are a church-goer, work to make your community a solution to the long loneliness that so many of us know.
Brian+
Brian McHugh, priest & vicar
St. Peter's, Casa Grande
St. Michael's, Coolidge
orrock1946@msn.com
520.705.2689 (telephonitto)
blog: http://brianstakeontheworldfaithandreligion.blogspot.com/
We have all known the long loneliness
and we have learned that the only solution
is love and that love comes with community.
- Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic
Worker movement, born on this day,
1897
Dorothy Day was born in Brooklyn. She survived the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Her family moved into a tenement on Chicago’s South side, where, with her father out of work, Dorothy came to understand the shame of failure, and poverty, and the beauty even of slums and their fullness of life and people.
Her experiences led her to Roman Catholicism, and to working for the equality of women and for social services to the poor. She was drawn to the Franciscan way of life. Eventually, to further outreach to the poor, she started a newspaper called The Catholic Worker - it sold 100,000 a month. And then Catholic Worker houses, for the homeless; they grew to 33 by 1936. And, in my mind, being the best of Christian love and charity, people were never proselytized - they were just loved and cared for in Christ’s name. To me, this is the very best of Christian witness. Charity for conversion is only unholy manipulation.
In the Christian myth, Jesus did not die for love of any one person. He died for the whole community of God’s human family. Of course love can begin between two. But any loving relationship draws others to it. Community forms - where people come “com muneris”, with gifts to share, so that all may grow together in mutual affection.
Anyone can pray alone – and this is good. And God can be found alone, or often finds us when alone. The church is only useful if it is a community of Love patterned after God’s unconditional Love. If it is not, it is a millstone around God’s neck.
If you are a church-goer, work to make your community a solution to the long loneliness that so many of us know.
Brian+
Brian McHugh, priest & vicar
St. Peter's, Casa Grande
St. Michael's, Coolidge
orrock1946@msn.com
520.705.2689 (telephonitto)
blog: http://brianstakeontheworldfaithandreligion.blogspot.com/
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, November 7, 2007
http://www.maniacworld.com/Phone-Salesman-Amazes-Crowd.html
You may have seen this; if not, here it is.
It made me cry.
What a joy to see someone with a gift move the whole crowd.
Brian+
http://www.maniacworld.com/Phone-Salesman-Amazes-Crowd.html
You may have seen this; if not, here it is.
It made me cry.
What a joy to see someone with a gift move the whole crowd.
Brian+
Monday, November 5, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Evolution seems to close the heart to some
of the plainest spiritual truths while it opens
the mind to the wildest guesses advanced
in the name of science.
- William Jennings Bryan, who lost
the Presidential election to McKinley
on this day, 1900
Well, I don’t know who Mr. Bryan talked to ….. but he didn’t talk to me!! Why, I even projected myself back in time and stood outside the polling booth to give him the opportunity on this night in 1900 - but he must have been preoccupied.
For me, nothing could be more glorious than the elegance of evolution. And if “God” is anything, God is elegant! God is not some crude hucksterish magician - whose cache is illusion and delusion and trickery. “God” is about Reality.
And, since Science is Reality, they are Twins. Born of the same Beauty and Elegance and marriage of Imagination and Intellect.
There is no separation or contradiction between Science and Faith. Science is the biology and the geology and the genetics and the chemistry. Faith (or Religion) is the glorious Art of elegant explanation which honours the science and exalts the Mind - the Mind being the fountain of God’s language.
Bryan, alas, allowed himself to be misled by small-minded people.
Don’t make the same mistake. Your sanity depends on it.
Brian+
Evolution seems to close the heart to some
of the plainest spiritual truths while it opens
the mind to the wildest guesses advanced
in the name of science.
- William Jennings Bryan, who lost
the Presidential election to McKinley
on this day, 1900
Well, I don’t know who Mr. Bryan talked to ….. but he didn’t talk to me!! Why, I even projected myself back in time and stood outside the polling booth to give him the opportunity on this night in 1900 - but he must have been preoccupied.
For me, nothing could be more glorious than the elegance of evolution. And if “God” is anything, God is elegant! God is not some crude hucksterish magician - whose cache is illusion and delusion and trickery. “God” is about Reality.
And, since Science is Reality, they are Twins. Born of the same Beauty and Elegance and marriage of Imagination and Intellect.
There is no separation or contradiction between Science and Faith. Science is the biology and the geology and the genetics and the chemistry. Faith (or Religion) is the glorious Art of elegant explanation which honours the science and exalts the Mind - the Mind being the fountain of God’s language.
Bryan, alas, allowed himself to be misled by small-minded people.
Don’t make the same mistake. Your sanity depends on it.
Brian+
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, November 5, 2007
Life is too short to work so hard.
- Vivian Leigh, English actress,
born on this day, 1913.
Miss Scarlet! I’ll bet most people think that Vivien Leigh was American. She was born in Darjeeling, India - as was her Irish mother. Her father was British, her mother Irish and part Armenian, contributing to her daughter’s dark features. She had a fine career, but Vivien Leigh will always be Miss Scarlet to Americans.
You know, Life IS too short to work so hard!
Balance, balance is the goal. It’s hard in America. Puritan blood still courses through our bodies. Thinking we can “earn” Heaven and God’s Love. And, Life as we want it - all the trimmings, all the MRI’s, all the techie toys, $30,000 per year colleges, Starbuck’s coffee at $3.95 a frappacino.
Relax guys! Take a deep breath. Think about what expensive stuff you don’t need! Buy a grill and have good salmon and veggies on it! Play Scrabble. Reduce cable TV to 5 good channels.
Take the extra moolah every year and go to the Greek isles and eat moussaka from a cheap stall.
Feel better??
Brian+
Life is too short to work so hard.
- Vivian Leigh, English actress,
born on this day, 1913.
Miss Scarlet! I’ll bet most people think that Vivien Leigh was American. She was born in Darjeeling, India - as was her Irish mother. Her father was British, her mother Irish and part Armenian, contributing to her daughter’s dark features. She had a fine career, but Vivien Leigh will always be Miss Scarlet to Americans.
You know, Life IS too short to work so hard!
Balance, balance is the goal. It’s hard in America. Puritan blood still courses through our bodies. Thinking we can “earn” Heaven and God’s Love. And, Life as we want it - all the trimmings, all the MRI’s, all the techie toys, $30,000 per year colleges, Starbuck’s coffee at $3.95 a frappacino.
Relax guys! Take a deep breath. Think about what expensive stuff you don’t need! Buy a grill and have good salmon and veggies on it! Play Scrabble. Reduce cable TV to 5 good channels.
Take the extra moolah every year and go to the Greek isles and eat moussaka from a cheap stall.
Feel better??
Brian+
Friday, November 2, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, November 3, 2007
Mutation
They talk of short-lived pleasure--be it so--
Pain dies as quickly; stern, hard-featured pain
Expires, and lets her weary prisoner go.
The fiercest agonies have shortest reign;
And after dreams of horror, comes again
The welcome morning with its rays of peace.
Oblivion, softly wiping out the stain,
Makes the strong secret pangs of pain to cease:
Remorse is virtue's root; its fair increase
Are fruits of innocence and blessedness;
Thus joy, o'erborne and bound, doth still release
His young limbs from the chains that round him press.
Weep not that the world changes--did it keep
A stable, changeless state, 'twere cause indeed to weep.
- William Cullen Bryant, American poet, born on
this day, 1794
Born in Cummington MA, Bryant was a sickly child - but he prospered, went to Williams College, later became a lawyer, practiced successfully, but leaned more to literature than the law. Whether or not this had anything to do with the fact that his doctor father tried to reduce the size of his enormous head by having him plunged as a baby into a cold stream daily, we cannot know. As I often say - Ain’t People Amazing!
I guess we can give thanks for the short reign of fierce agonies. For Oblivion, wiping out the strong pangs of pain. For remorse, welling up and flooding our lives and causing innocence and blessedness to flower, and Joy given strength to break chains and take over from mistakes and meanness and cowardice.
Lord, how many people I know who resist Change! We are using some new formats for the Liturgy, encouraging new insights into the nature of God, Self, Repentance, Salvation, Love. Oh the behind the scenes bitching! One person swept by me the other day and spit out, “Don’t tell me what page we need, just tell me whether we are using the Liturgy “we” (who’s “we”???) hate or the one we like!”
“Weep not that the World changes …. Did it keep / A stable, changeless state, ‘twere cause to weep.”
Weep. Yes, weep. Resist change, especially in ourselves, and we wither and die.
But The Christ calls us to change and Live.
Brian+
Mutation
They talk of short-lived pleasure--be it so--
Pain dies as quickly; stern, hard-featured pain
Expires, and lets her weary prisoner go.
The fiercest agonies have shortest reign;
And after dreams of horror, comes again
The welcome morning with its rays of peace.
Oblivion, softly wiping out the stain,
Makes the strong secret pangs of pain to cease:
Remorse is virtue's root; its fair increase
Are fruits of innocence and blessedness;
Thus joy, o'erborne and bound, doth still release
His young limbs from the chains that round him press.
Weep not that the world changes--did it keep
A stable, changeless state, 'twere cause indeed to weep.
- William Cullen Bryant, American poet, born on
this day, 1794
Born in Cummington MA, Bryant was a sickly child - but he prospered, went to Williams College, later became a lawyer, practiced successfully, but leaned more to literature than the law. Whether or not this had anything to do with the fact that his doctor father tried to reduce the size of his enormous head by having him plunged as a baby into a cold stream daily, we cannot know. As I often say - Ain’t People Amazing!
I guess we can give thanks for the short reign of fierce agonies. For Oblivion, wiping out the strong pangs of pain. For remorse, welling up and flooding our lives and causing innocence and blessedness to flower, and Joy given strength to break chains and take over from mistakes and meanness and cowardice.
Lord, how many people I know who resist Change! We are using some new formats for the Liturgy, encouraging new insights into the nature of God, Self, Repentance, Salvation, Love. Oh the behind the scenes bitching! One person swept by me the other day and spit out, “Don’t tell me what page we need, just tell me whether we are using the Liturgy “we” (who’s “we”???) hate or the one we like!”
“Weep not that the World changes …. Did it keep / A stable, changeless state, ‘twere cause to weep.”
Weep. Yes, weep. Resist change, especially in ourselves, and we wither and die.
But The Christ calls us to change and Live.
Brian+
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, November 2, 2007
The world is too much with us;
late and soon, getting and spending,
we lay waste our powers;Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
the winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.
William Wordsworth "The World Is Too Much With Us"
“We lay waste our powers.” I think so, oh, I think so. Is my perception just clouded by cynicism? I wonder sometimes. I am always grateful for National Public Radio. It helps me not to wallow in discouragement about “the World” that “is too much with us”. Especially on the weekends, the news programs are filled with fascinating people who are doing wonderful, interesting, creative, thoughtful, fresh, kind, artistic, or funny things. I can’t watch TV News - too negative. And even NPR is getting way too filled with news of violent, saddening stuff, so I limit myself to an hour a day.
“We have given our hearts away”. Indeed I think we have. And here is where some words of Jesus come to mind. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.”
Ponder Wordsworth with me today. Are we “out of tune”? Especially if we have given our hearts and minds and all we are to the God of Love and to the building of the Kingdom of Peace? The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon and the howling winds are but symbols of the wonder of Creation. Are we moved?
Treasure whatsoever is lovely, gentle, kind, generous.
Sleeping flowers of divine humanity will unfold.
Brian+
The world is too much with us;
late and soon, getting and spending,
we lay waste our powers;Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
the winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.
William Wordsworth "The World Is Too Much With Us"
“We lay waste our powers.” I think so, oh, I think so. Is my perception just clouded by cynicism? I wonder sometimes. I am always grateful for National Public Radio. It helps me not to wallow in discouragement about “the World” that “is too much with us”. Especially on the weekends, the news programs are filled with fascinating people who are doing wonderful, interesting, creative, thoughtful, fresh, kind, artistic, or funny things. I can’t watch TV News - too negative. And even NPR is getting way too filled with news of violent, saddening stuff, so I limit myself to an hour a day.
“We have given our hearts away”. Indeed I think we have. And here is where some words of Jesus come to mind. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.”
Ponder Wordsworth with me today. Are we “out of tune”? Especially if we have given our hearts and minds and all we are to the God of Love and to the building of the Kingdom of Peace? The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon and the howling winds are but symbols of the wonder of Creation. Are we moved?
Treasure whatsoever is lovely, gentle, kind, generous.
Sleeping flowers of divine humanity will unfold.
Brian+
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, November 1, 2007
Feast of All Saints
My soul can find no staircase to Heaven
unless it be through Earth's loveliness.
- Michelangelo, artist, whose
Sistine Chapel was opened to
the public on this day, 1512
I was in the Sistine Chapel for the first time the day that the Pope died. Unfortunately, the place was jammed with wall-to-wall people - all of whom were in Rome waiting for the Pope to die! But at least I could stand and look up at that glorious ceiling and the apse without worrying about falling over. I was “in Heaven” for a half-hour - and of course, being a birder, I had my binoculars with me. The detail was superb.
I absolutely agree! I feel exactly as Michelangelo felt. I have always rejected, even as a young person, that this world and our bodies and all the loveliness of the Earth was in any way to be despised or rejected. It just didn’t make any sense to an INFP intuitive like me And believe me, there have been a lot of religious people and certainly Christians throughout history who have taught such nonsense. Such an attitude flies in the face of one of the few aspects of the Judeo-Christian Creation Story (or at least, the interpretation of It) I agree with - that “God looked and saw that it was very good”.
We would have no concept of the loveliness of things Heavenly were it not for the loveliness of things Earthly. Heaven can only be described with the human language of glory and beauty, in word and in art and music, and through the experience of Earth’s beauty. Heaven is Earth-writ-large - and by some magic, we sometimes manage to reach the sublime.
Let us not destroy the Earth in our greed and our carelessness.
Our soul will have no staircase to the vision of the Divine wonder of existence.
Brian+
Feast of All Saints
My soul can find no staircase to Heaven
unless it be through Earth's loveliness.
- Michelangelo, artist, whose
Sistine Chapel was opened to
the public on this day, 1512
I was in the Sistine Chapel for the first time the day that the Pope died. Unfortunately, the place was jammed with wall-to-wall people - all of whom were in Rome waiting for the Pope to die! But at least I could stand and look up at that glorious ceiling and the apse without worrying about falling over. I was “in Heaven” for a half-hour - and of course, being a birder, I had my binoculars with me. The detail was superb.
I absolutely agree! I feel exactly as Michelangelo felt. I have always rejected, even as a young person, that this world and our bodies and all the loveliness of the Earth was in any way to be despised or rejected. It just didn’t make any sense to an INFP intuitive like me And believe me, there have been a lot of religious people and certainly Christians throughout history who have taught such nonsense. Such an attitude flies in the face of one of the few aspects of the Judeo-Christian Creation Story (or at least, the interpretation of It) I agree with - that “God looked and saw that it was very good”.
We would have no concept of the loveliness of things Heavenly were it not for the loveliness of things Earthly. Heaven can only be described with the human language of glory and beauty, in word and in art and music, and through the experience of Earth’s beauty. Heaven is Earth-writ-large - and by some magic, we sometimes manage to reach the sublime.
Let us not destroy the Earth in our greed and our carelessness.
Our soul will have no staircase to the vision of the Divine wonder of existence.
Brian+
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Eve of All Saints; Eve of Samhain
The imperfect health [of soul], that is to say, the imperfect love,
of the dying brings with it, of necessity, great fear; and the smaller
the love, the greater is the fear. (14)
- The Fourteenth of the 95 Theses of Martin Luther,
published on this day and nailed to the door of
Wittenburg parish church, 1517
I read through all the 95 Theses today. First time I’ve done that. Principally of course, Luther inveighs against the selling of pardons (indulgences) by the Pope or the Church. Not very interesting - except that Luther rightly and boldly attacks the absurd idea that pardon can be bought from an “earthly” source. No wonder Erasmus (quoted in an earlier Reflection) sighed at how money/gain in his time could be squeezed out of anything either secular or religious.
It is good to be reminded that it is Love that conquers fear, including the fear of death. Isn’t it nice to think that the more energy we spend in loving, the more surprised we will be when the moment of death arrives?! It will sneak up on us, and all we will be able to say is “Oh” before we slide over. The idea is, of course, firmly anchored in Scripture. 1 John 4: “love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.”
And there’s another point. I suppose that many people fear death because they are afraid that they are going to be punished. To which I only have to say (and here I resonate with Luther, who might have felt at least a little twitch at contradicting the Pope) - God does not punish anyone. That is not in the nature of the God who is Love. If there is any “punishment” after death (and I’m not at all sure there is), it is self-imposed.
So let’s Love, and a pox on Death and all it’s minions!!
Brian+
Eve of All Saints; Eve of Samhain
The imperfect health [of soul], that is to say, the imperfect love,
of the dying brings with it, of necessity, great fear; and the smaller
the love, the greater is the fear. (14)
- The Fourteenth of the 95 Theses of Martin Luther,
published on this day and nailed to the door of
Wittenburg parish church, 1517
I read through all the 95 Theses today. First time I’ve done that. Principally of course, Luther inveighs against the selling of pardons (indulgences) by the Pope or the Church. Not very interesting - except that Luther rightly and boldly attacks the absurd idea that pardon can be bought from an “earthly” source. No wonder Erasmus (quoted in an earlier Reflection) sighed at how money/gain in his time could be squeezed out of anything either secular or religious.
It is good to be reminded that it is Love that conquers fear, including the fear of death. Isn’t it nice to think that the more energy we spend in loving, the more surprised we will be when the moment of death arrives?! It will sneak up on us, and all we will be able to say is “Oh” before we slide over. The idea is, of course, firmly anchored in Scripture. 1 John 4: “love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.”
And there’s another point. I suppose that many people fear death because they are afraid that they are going to be punished. To which I only have to say (and here I resonate with Luther, who might have felt at least a little twitch at contradicting the Pope) - God does not punish anyone. That is not in the nature of the God who is Love. If there is any “punishment” after death (and I’m not at all sure there is), it is self-imposed.
So let’s Love, and a pox on Death and all it’s minions!!
Brian+
Monday, October 29, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, October 30, 2007
The Banks of the Oise, 1877/1878
Alfred Sisley, French impressionist painter, born on this day, 1839
Alfred Sisley was born in Paris. I envy him! I first went to Paris when I was 58. It was cold as we birded in the Bois de Bologne - and I really don’t like the cold! The next time, it was warmer. I set off to spend a day by myself, waiting for friends to arrive. Rounding a corner on the Left Bank, I saw a charming little restaurant, free of people. I sat outside, looking over the Seine, read my novel, and ate ….. sweetbreads! Does Life get any better!
So, here is a Sisley painting. A critic said of Sisley that he “painted a world of tranquility”.
So, take a moment to gaze at the picture. Have a little tranquility before you take on the day!
Brian+
p.s. Apologies and regrets to those who can’t get emailed pictures!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, October 29, 2007
The ancient masters were profound and stable.
Their wisdom was unfathomable.
There is no way to describe it; all we can describe is their appearance.
They were careful as someone crossing an iced-over stream.
Alert as a warrior in enemy territory. Courteous as a guest.
Fluid as melting ice. Shapable as a block of wood.
Receptive as a valley. Clear as a glass of water.
Do you have the patience to wait
until your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action rises by itself?
The Master doesn't seek fulfillment.
Not seeking, not expecting,
she is present, and can welcome all things.
- Loa-tzu, Chinese teacher
Well …………………… ah, No.
I’d like to be able to say Yes, I can “wait until the mud settles”. But, not as a conscious principle, alas. Not most of the time anyway. I most often want to act quickly, because I’m a terrible procrastinator, and I will feel even more guilty if I do nothing.
But! Procrastination has ironically helped me. While I fight within myself, time goes by. And you know what? 95% of the time, things just “go away”. And the 5% that doesn’t, I usually have to do something about - and by then I and it/they have “cooled down” somewhat and am more ready to work things out a little more cool-headedly.
It’s “your mud” (i.e., my) that has to settle. So the situation can be seen as clearly as possible, particularly the way in which I myself am muddying the waters and obscuring the clarity of a solution or response. This I hope that I can learn.
I’d better get off my procrastinating rear end and get at it!!
Brian+
The ancient masters were profound and stable.
Their wisdom was unfathomable.
There is no way to describe it; all we can describe is their appearance.
They were careful as someone crossing an iced-over stream.
Alert as a warrior in enemy territory. Courteous as a guest.
Fluid as melting ice. Shapable as a block of wood.
Receptive as a valley. Clear as a glass of water.
Do you have the patience to wait
until your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action rises by itself?
The Master doesn't seek fulfillment.
Not seeking, not expecting,
she is present, and can welcome all things.
- Loa-tzu, Chinese teacher
Well …………………… ah, No.
I’d like to be able to say Yes, I can “wait until the mud settles”. But, not as a conscious principle, alas. Not most of the time anyway. I most often want to act quickly, because I’m a terrible procrastinator, and I will feel even more guilty if I do nothing.
But! Procrastination has ironically helped me. While I fight within myself, time goes by. And you know what? 95% of the time, things just “go away”. And the 5% that doesn’t, I usually have to do something about - and by then I and it/they have “cooled down” somewhat and am more ready to work things out a little more cool-headedly.
It’s “your mud” (i.e., my) that has to settle. So the situation can be seen as clearly as possible, particularly the way in which I myself am muddying the waters and obscuring the clarity of a solution or response. This I hope that I can learn.
I’d better get off my procrastinating rear end and get at it!!
Brian+
Friday, October 26, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, October 27, 2007
Nowadays the rage for possession has got to such
a pitch that there is nothing in the realm of nature,
whether sacred or profane, out of which profit
cannot be squeezed.
- Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch scholar, author,
and philosopher, born on this day, 1466
So, nothing new, right! Here we are, 600 years later. And what Erasmus observed of his time is uncannily descriptive of ours. I’m reading an interesting book called “Journey into Islam”, by Dr. Akbar Ahmed. Here is what he says about the effects of globalization: “Poverty kills thousands of people annually through the lack of health care and food; about one billion people earn less than a dollar a day; and, as if to mock these figures, 358 individuals own more financial wealth than half of the world’s population collectively. ….. Admittedly, societies have faced the … problems cited earlier …. Excessive interest in amassing material wealth (Ah, our Erasmus!) … (but) it is the scale and scope of globalization today that, without restraint or balance, places humankind at a dangerous point in its history.”
Have you heard about the Theology of Abundance (or “Blessing”)? It says that if you love God you will get rich (at some level). So, does that mean that all the radically poor - shall we say half of the world’s population – does not love God, and so God is punishing them?? You see (I hope!) the idiocy of such thinking. And could any so-called “theology” be more of an affront to a poor carpenter’s son, a naked saint, a Buddha with a hut for a home, a Sufi poet?
And yet they all thought themselves rich beyond imagining - and they were.
I consciously adopted a way of reminding me of where my riches lie. I give many things away. And when I move, I sell everything or give it to someone. I keep only a few treasurers of the heart and a few beautiful things. But in 40 years, my dear friends have gone with me in heart and spirit, and they constitute my riches - along with those who taught me how glorious the World can be, and how exquisitely beautiful, from a Laurentian lake to the Arizona desert.
Many seek profit out of the sacred and the profane. “Globalization” will churn its inevitable way, for I have little faith in Faith these days to teach balance and generosity.
But I’m going to try and follow the path over whose gate is written the words, “Store not up for yourselves treasures on earth”.
Brian+
Nowadays the rage for possession has got to such
a pitch that there is nothing in the realm of nature,
whether sacred or profane, out of which profit
cannot be squeezed.
- Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch scholar, author,
and philosopher, born on this day, 1466
So, nothing new, right! Here we are, 600 years later. And what Erasmus observed of his time is uncannily descriptive of ours. I’m reading an interesting book called “Journey into Islam”, by Dr. Akbar Ahmed. Here is what he says about the effects of globalization: “Poverty kills thousands of people annually through the lack of health care and food; about one billion people earn less than a dollar a day; and, as if to mock these figures, 358 individuals own more financial wealth than half of the world’s population collectively. ….. Admittedly, societies have faced the … problems cited earlier …. Excessive interest in amassing material wealth (Ah, our Erasmus!) … (but) it is the scale and scope of globalization today that, without restraint or balance, places humankind at a dangerous point in its history.”
Have you heard about the Theology of Abundance (or “Blessing”)? It says that if you love God you will get rich (at some level). So, does that mean that all the radically poor - shall we say half of the world’s population – does not love God, and so God is punishing them?? You see (I hope!) the idiocy of such thinking. And could any so-called “theology” be more of an affront to a poor carpenter’s son, a naked saint, a Buddha with a hut for a home, a Sufi poet?
And yet they all thought themselves rich beyond imagining - and they were.
I consciously adopted a way of reminding me of where my riches lie. I give many things away. And when I move, I sell everything or give it to someone. I keep only a few treasurers of the heart and a few beautiful things. But in 40 years, my dear friends have gone with me in heart and spirit, and they constitute my riches - along with those who taught me how glorious the World can be, and how exquisitely beautiful, from a Laurentian lake to the Arizona desert.
Many seek profit out of the sacred and the profane. “Globalization” will churn its inevitable way, for I have little faith in Faith these days to teach balance and generosity.
But I’m going to try and follow the path over whose gate is written the words, “Store not up for yourselves treasures on earth”.
Brian+
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, October 25, 2007
God can make you anything you want to be,
but you have to put everything in his hands.
When you sing gospel you have a feeling
there is a cure for what's wrong.
- Mahalia Jackson, Gospel singer,
born on this day, 1911
I think I had every record that Mahalia Jackson made when I was young. I remember one album cover (remember “albums”??) as if I still had it in front of me. A black & white photograph of her from the shoulders up, eyes characteristically closed - but they were never tight closed as I remember. They were closed in a way that looked as if they were going to flutter any minute, and open, and joy come pouring through! I have no recollection of how or why I “found” Mahalia. But obviously something of this African-American woman reached out to this Canadian kid. I think now that I saw authentic Belief in her face, and heard it in her beautiful, sometimes-dark-sometimes-soaring, moving voice. Long before I discovered Liturgy and Sacraments, she represented a deep relationship with a wonderful God. And that there’s a “cure for what’s wrong”.
“Putting everything in God’s hands” is not, I repeat not, an excuse for refusing to take responsibility for our own life - for failing to “work out our own salvation in fear and trembling”. Oh no. God gave us, at minimum, what the Tin Man and the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion were in search of. They represent each of us in our Life’s journey. A Heart and a Brain and Courage - those are the basics we all need. “The Wizard of Oz” is a parable, of course. We are tempted to think that some mysterious being will give us those things. But we already have them - and that’s what the Wizard reveals. “God” won’t mind me comparing Her to the Wizard. God appears huge, scary, but when we look behind the curtain, there is a gentle soul saying “Look inside. What you seek is there.”
And Dorothy? Little Dorothy from Kansas? To me, she represents each of us saying bravely, “I am going to find that Wizard and find my way home, and get me and my friends what they need!”
“Putting everything in God’s hands” is the absolutely necessary Step One. It means saying, “To be human is to love. I will love, and let myself be loved, and believe in Love”.
And then we are off dancing down the Yellow Brick Road, determined to do what we must do to claim our Life, singing arm in arm as we go.
Brian+
God can make you anything you want to be,
but you have to put everything in his hands.
When you sing gospel you have a feeling
there is a cure for what's wrong.
- Mahalia Jackson, Gospel singer,
born on this day, 1911
I think I had every record that Mahalia Jackson made when I was young. I remember one album cover (remember “albums”??) as if I still had it in front of me. A black & white photograph of her from the shoulders up, eyes characteristically closed - but they were never tight closed as I remember. They were closed in a way that looked as if they were going to flutter any minute, and open, and joy come pouring through! I have no recollection of how or why I “found” Mahalia. But obviously something of this African-American woman reached out to this Canadian kid. I think now that I saw authentic Belief in her face, and heard it in her beautiful, sometimes-dark-sometimes-soaring, moving voice. Long before I discovered Liturgy and Sacraments, she represented a deep relationship with a wonderful God. And that there’s a “cure for what’s wrong”.
“Putting everything in God’s hands” is not, I repeat not, an excuse for refusing to take responsibility for our own life - for failing to “work out our own salvation in fear and trembling”. Oh no. God gave us, at minimum, what the Tin Man and the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion were in search of. They represent each of us in our Life’s journey. A Heart and a Brain and Courage - those are the basics we all need. “The Wizard of Oz” is a parable, of course. We are tempted to think that some mysterious being will give us those things. But we already have them - and that’s what the Wizard reveals. “God” won’t mind me comparing Her to the Wizard. God appears huge, scary, but when we look behind the curtain, there is a gentle soul saying “Look inside. What you seek is there.”
And Dorothy? Little Dorothy from Kansas? To me, she represents each of us saying bravely, “I am going to find that Wizard and find my way home, and get me and my friends what they need!”
“Putting everything in God’s hands” is the absolutely necessary Step One. It means saying, “To be human is to love. I will love, and let myself be loved, and believe in Love”.
And then we are off dancing down the Yellow Brick Road, determined to do what we must do to claim our Life, singing arm in arm as we go.
Brian+
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, October 25, 2007
In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling
and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
- John Steinbeck, author, who won the Nobel
Prize in Literature on this day, 1962
Yes, we are, as a World community, at that stage. The “grapes of wrath” are growing in the hearts of people. In the hearts of many, if not most, peoples. Why? Because the very rich and powerful of the World, having gained dominance and control, now know that if they relinquish that control, they are vulnerable. And they know it.
That includes the “rich” nations keeping an economic and technological vice-grip on the “poor” nations . But a bunch of passionate Vietnamese patriots defeated the vast power of both the French and the Americans. Same for the Afghans and the Russians. And for the Shiites so long brutalized by Saadam Hussein. The “powerful” fear the “vintage” that is “growing heavy” in the resentful hearts of their former slaves. I heard an African diplomat say of China on NPR the other day, “We are being re-colonized by China”. They know what is going on.
World terrorism is the radical response of resentment, resentment being the soil and sunshine in which the “grapes of wrath” flourish. Most people are not terrorists. But they resonate - which is why it is difficult to get any Muslim, as an example of many, to condemn terrorism outright.
The “Great Commission” of the Gospel called “Matthew” - to go and “baptize all nations” - is a colonialist propagandist agenda, added to Matthew by an early Christian Church that was seeking to establish itself in a position of power. If the “Commission” is to be interpreted in any way consonant with Christ’s Message and Self-Giving, it can only mean that Christ’s followers must, must, Love Radically. That means, not recruit Christians, but recruit radical lovers for the Way of respect. Compassion, and justice for all human beings. This is what Jesus implied when He said that His Kingdom was “not of this World”.
The Grapes of Wrath are filling with a venomous vintage that may soon burst and drown the World in a poisonous hate - and death. If we take the Gospel seriously, let Christians be willing to die with their Saviour, for love of all of God’s children, in affirmation of the divinity of us all.
Only then can there be the “Peace that passes all understanding”. Or a World Community that honours the “dignity of every human being”.
Brian+
In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling
and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
- John Steinbeck, author, who won the Nobel
Prize in Literature on this day, 1962
Yes, we are, as a World community, at that stage. The “grapes of wrath” are growing in the hearts of people. In the hearts of many, if not most, peoples. Why? Because the very rich and powerful of the World, having gained dominance and control, now know that if they relinquish that control, they are vulnerable. And they know it.
That includes the “rich” nations keeping an economic and technological vice-grip on the “poor” nations . But a bunch of passionate Vietnamese patriots defeated the vast power of both the French and the Americans. Same for the Afghans and the Russians. And for the Shiites so long brutalized by Saadam Hussein. The “powerful” fear the “vintage” that is “growing heavy” in the resentful hearts of their former slaves. I heard an African diplomat say of China on NPR the other day, “We are being re-colonized by China”. They know what is going on.
World terrorism is the radical response of resentment, resentment being the soil and sunshine in which the “grapes of wrath” flourish. Most people are not terrorists. But they resonate - which is why it is difficult to get any Muslim, as an example of many, to condemn terrorism outright.
The “Great Commission” of the Gospel called “Matthew” - to go and “baptize all nations” - is a colonialist propagandist agenda, added to Matthew by an early Christian Church that was seeking to establish itself in a position of power. If the “Commission” is to be interpreted in any way consonant with Christ’s Message and Self-Giving, it can only mean that Christ’s followers must, must, Love Radically. That means, not recruit Christians, but recruit radical lovers for the Way of respect. Compassion, and justice for all human beings. This is what Jesus implied when He said that His Kingdom was “not of this World”.
The Grapes of Wrath are filling with a venomous vintage that may soon burst and drown the World in a poisonous hate - and death. If we take the Gospel seriously, let Christians be willing to die with their Saviour, for love of all of God’s children, in affirmation of the divinity of us all.
Only then can there be the “Peace that passes all understanding”. Or a World Community that honours the “dignity of every human being”.
Brian+
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, October 24, 2007
All the mistakes I ever made were when
I wanted to say 'No' and said 'Yes'.
- Moss Hart, dramatist, born
on this day, 1904
“Merrily We Roll Along”. “My Fair Lady”. “Camelot”. A postage stamp in his honour. Moss Hart certainly enriched the arts. He was a closeted Gay man, though succumbed to marriage to Kitty Carlisle. His death, it is opined, was hastened by deep depression, mood swings and emotional distress caused by the repression of his sexual orientation. Sad, very sad. Perhaps he was thinking about all this when he made the quoted words.
I’m a big “Yes” sayer, when I should say No. It’s a disease of many clergy. We seem to have a terrible desire to please people (though I have known a few clergy who worked from the exact opposite stance!) We simply “forget” that saying Yes to people when we should say No only prolongs a pile of negative and unhelpful results. Many people I know should have said No to getting married. The resulting horror was ….. well, horrible. There are several marriages I agree to officiate at and shouldn’t have. I’ll answer for that!
The Scripture wisely says, “If you mean Yes say Yes, if you mean No say No”. Anything more is of the devil.
Next time, think carefully. “No” can be a very loving response, gently, firmly, lovingly said.
Brian+
All the mistakes I ever made were when
I wanted to say 'No' and said 'Yes'.
- Moss Hart, dramatist, born
on this day, 1904
“Merrily We Roll Along”. “My Fair Lady”. “Camelot”. A postage stamp in his honour. Moss Hart certainly enriched the arts. He was a closeted Gay man, though succumbed to marriage to Kitty Carlisle. His death, it is opined, was hastened by deep depression, mood swings and emotional distress caused by the repression of his sexual orientation. Sad, very sad. Perhaps he was thinking about all this when he made the quoted words.
I’m a big “Yes” sayer, when I should say No. It’s a disease of many clergy. We seem to have a terrible desire to please people (though I have known a few clergy who worked from the exact opposite stance!) We simply “forget” that saying Yes to people when we should say No only prolongs a pile of negative and unhelpful results. Many people I know should have said No to getting married. The resulting horror was ….. well, horrible. There are several marriages I agree to officiate at and shouldn’t have. I’ll answer for that!
The Scripture wisely says, “If you mean Yes say Yes, if you mean No say No”. Anything more is of the devil.
Next time, think carefully. “No” can be a very loving response, gently, firmly, lovingly said.
Brian+
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