Well. The Iraqi team has won the Asian Cup. I say, good for them. Kurds, Shiite and Sunni on ther team. People in Iraq proud of them, a sense of uniting the country. I loath sports - well, oh, in the Greek fashion, competing for no reward except the laurel wreath, great! Today, I say cynically, it's just for money. The Tour de France, par example. Take drugs, sure, if you can win. Sordid at the best.
If we (the human race) are lucky, this win will remind people of what the human community should be about. What is the purpose of hate? Of division? Of oppression? Hey, if a football game can shame us into remembering that human beings are one family, I may have to revise my feelings about sports! Well, "real" sport.
Brian+
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, July 28, 2007
Yes, I went once to the land of Sicily too,
I went to Euboia's vineyard-covered plain,
And to Sparta, that splendid city on Eurotas' reedy banks;
And everywhere I went they welcomed me with kindness.
But no pleasure came to my heart from any of them:
So true is it, after all, that nothing is dearer than one's homeland.
Theognis of Megara, Greek poet, born on this day, c 540 BCE
If I may obtusely paraphrase the young lawyer’s question to Jesus, “And what is my homeland?.
I was born in Canada. I don’t consider it my “homeland”. I’m an American citizen too. I don’t consider it my “homeland”. I’ve lived in many parts of the world. I don’t consider them my homeland. And, contrary to what St. Paul said about the Christian’s homeland being in Heaven, I don’t consider Heaven my homeland either, unless “Heaven” is understood as a simple metaphor for comfortableness with one’s truest humanity.
“Homeland” is a state of mind. One chooses it. I long ago chose mine. I feel I am “home” in the fellowship of the just, the caring, the vulnerable, the nonjudgmental, the kind, the generous, the forgiving, the grateful, the joyful. Oh, often I am far from Home, in my heart, or emotionally [physicality has nothing to do with it], or intellectually, or in the realm of the feelings.
But that is no matter. The critical matter, as Theognis says, is to hold “Home” dear, and to return no matter how far one wanders.
It feels to me that much of the human race has wandered far from Home. It makes me deeply sad. Why, only this week I received three emails with flag-waving slogans indicating that people who criticize America are unpatriotic and un-American and should leave. I guess America can’t be “home” if you disagree?
I know where my Home is. And I keep wondering what it is I might be doing to keep the home-fires burning brightly and warmly. It’s a daily challenge!
Brian+
Yes, I went once to the land of Sicily too,
I went to Euboia's vineyard-covered plain,
And to Sparta, that splendid city on Eurotas' reedy banks;
And everywhere I went they welcomed me with kindness.
But no pleasure came to my heart from any of them:
So true is it, after all, that nothing is dearer than one's homeland.
Theognis of Megara, Greek poet, born on this day, c 540 BCE
If I may obtusely paraphrase the young lawyer’s question to Jesus, “And what is my homeland?.
I was born in Canada. I don’t consider it my “homeland”. I’m an American citizen too. I don’t consider it my “homeland”. I’ve lived in many parts of the world. I don’t consider them my homeland. And, contrary to what St. Paul said about the Christian’s homeland being in Heaven, I don’t consider Heaven my homeland either, unless “Heaven” is understood as a simple metaphor for comfortableness with one’s truest humanity.
“Homeland” is a state of mind. One chooses it. I long ago chose mine. I feel I am “home” in the fellowship of the just, the caring, the vulnerable, the nonjudgmental, the kind, the generous, the forgiving, the grateful, the joyful. Oh, often I am far from Home, in my heart, or emotionally [physicality has nothing to do with it], or intellectually, or in the realm of the feelings.
But that is no matter. The critical matter, as Theognis says, is to hold “Home” dear, and to return no matter how far one wanders.
It feels to me that much of the human race has wandered far from Home. It makes me deeply sad. Why, only this week I received three emails with flag-waving slogans indicating that people who criticize America are unpatriotic and un-American and should leave. I guess America can’t be “home” if you disagree?
I know where my Home is. And I keep wondering what it is I might be doing to keep the home-fires burning brightly and warmly. It’s a daily challenge!
Brian+
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, July 25, 2007
People living deeply have no fear of death.
The only abnormality is the incapacity to love.
- Anais Nin, remarkable woman, who
made the first entry in her famous diaries
on this day, 1914
Nin’s diaries began at age 11 and ended just before her death over 60 years later. She was a writer of female erotica, confessed to sexual relations with her father, and had lovers such as Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, Edmund Wilson, and James Agee. She was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1974. Most important, she had a fine and brilliant mind. Read her stuff. It is stimulating. Dismissing people who live outside the acceptable boxes of our chained minds is self-destructive.
Ponder her two quotes. They are, to me, core in terms of being human. Deep living dissolves fear; who has time to worry about death when living is so entrancing! Is this not the metaphorical meaning of such concepts as Resurrection? Reincarnation? Eternity?
And if we can’t love, we are inhuman. This is why we must abandon ourself to Love. If we don’t, we shrivel. Go nowhere. Can only be pitied.
Suppress the impulse to turn away from the unconventional.
Brian+
People living deeply have no fear of death.
The only abnormality is the incapacity to love.
- Anais Nin, remarkable woman, who
made the first entry in her famous diaries
on this day, 1914
Nin’s diaries began at age 11 and ended just before her death over 60 years later. She was a writer of female erotica, confessed to sexual relations with her father, and had lovers such as Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, Edmund Wilson, and James Agee. She was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1974. Most important, she had a fine and brilliant mind. Read her stuff. It is stimulating. Dismissing people who live outside the acceptable boxes of our chained minds is self-destructive.
Ponder her two quotes. They are, to me, core in terms of being human. Deep living dissolves fear; who has time to worry about death when living is so entrancing! Is this not the metaphorical meaning of such concepts as Resurrection? Reincarnation? Eternity?
And if we can’t love, we are inhuman. This is why we must abandon ourself to Love. If we don’t, we shrivel. Go nowhere. Can only be pitied.
Suppress the impulse to turn away from the unconventional.
Brian+
Monday, July 23, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, July 24, 2007
The establishment is made up of little men, very frightened.
- Bella Savitsky Abzug, fabulous gutsy woman,
Representative from NY, sporter of great hats,
born on this day, 1920
Bella was the Representative from the 19th district when I was in seminary in the early seventies. I loved her. She was smart, straight-talking, and very funny. I think the only political candidate meeting I ever actually went to in my life (shame on me! But, I just don’t believe anything politicians say) was one for her in the West Village. When I told her that my phone at the seminary was being tapped, and my mail opened, presumably because of my stance on the Vietnam War (later to be confirmed by a clandestine picture of me taken by US agents outside the American consulate in Toronto), she took my info - and actually got back to me about it a few days later! She is the one and only. No one else has even answered a letter. It was Bella who famously said that her place as a woman was in the House.
Alas, her comment is I believe still true. The “establishment” in all parts of the World is still made up of little men (pretending to be Big Guys). What galls me most is that many of them claim their right by virtue of the “fact” that God made woman inferior - or so they seem to interpret their religious texts (and that means most religions) - which only goes to prove that patriarchy has more staying power than the Divine.
What frightens me more, however, is that these men are indeed frightened. Frightened of what will happen to their prerogatives and privileges if they let women “in”. And I am frightened of what frightened men are capable of doing - no, have done and are doing to this world of ours. It was to my great delight the other night that an 80 year old male parishioner said he was going to vote for ….. Hillary! (Ok, ok, I admit I’m a little anxious about the power of power to corrupt!)
Everyone’s equal. There’s no “inferior” and “superior” in the category of Human. God does not hold men in higher regard than women, or vice versa. The sooner we live this truth, the sooner no one need be frightened. Fear is the greatest warper of human nature. One of Jesus’ central messages was, “Be not afraid”. He understood.
Brian+
The establishment is made up of little men, very frightened.
- Bella Savitsky Abzug, fabulous gutsy woman,
Representative from NY, sporter of great hats,
born on this day, 1920
Bella was the Representative from the 19th district when I was in seminary in the early seventies. I loved her. She was smart, straight-talking, and very funny. I think the only political candidate meeting I ever actually went to in my life (shame on me! But, I just don’t believe anything politicians say) was one for her in the West Village. When I told her that my phone at the seminary was being tapped, and my mail opened, presumably because of my stance on the Vietnam War (later to be confirmed by a clandestine picture of me taken by US agents outside the American consulate in Toronto), she took my info - and actually got back to me about it a few days later! She is the one and only. No one else has even answered a letter. It was Bella who famously said that her place as a woman was in the House.
Alas, her comment is I believe still true. The “establishment” in all parts of the World is still made up of little men (pretending to be Big Guys). What galls me most is that many of them claim their right by virtue of the “fact” that God made woman inferior - or so they seem to interpret their religious texts (and that means most religions) - which only goes to prove that patriarchy has more staying power than the Divine.
What frightens me more, however, is that these men are indeed frightened. Frightened of what will happen to their prerogatives and privileges if they let women “in”. And I am frightened of what frightened men are capable of doing - no, have done and are doing to this world of ours. It was to my great delight the other night that an 80 year old male parishioner said he was going to vote for ….. Hillary! (Ok, ok, I admit I’m a little anxious about the power of power to corrupt!)
Everyone’s equal. There’s no “inferior” and “superior” in the category of Human. God does not hold men in higher regard than women, or vice versa. The sooner we live this truth, the sooner no one need be frightened. Fear is the greatest warper of human nature. One of Jesus’ central messages was, “Be not afraid”. He understood.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, July 23, 2007
This is not a dress rehearsal; this is it.
- Quoted in “The Color of Light”
I was a chaplain to those with AIDS for many years. I have been permanently scarred by those years and the experience. Oh, not by those with AIDS - meeting them and walking the path with them was almost universally positive, strengthening, inspiring, and deepening in humanity. Oh no. The scarring came from Government, including Ronald Reagan, George Bush 41, Bill Clinton, and George Bush 43 and their cowardly failure to respond with compassion or fairness for fear of political repercussions, because most of the sufferers were Gay . It came from vicious mis-named “Christians” and other “religious” people who poured hate and vitriol over those with AIDS. It came from the parents I had to deal with, disguising their homophobia and fear behind thinly veiled self-righteousness. When I can put aside the scars (and I think I have only repressed them), it was the greatest time of love and courage and commitment and friendship I have lived through in over 40 years of ministry.
We laughed a lot, believe it or not. And we lived by various truths. One of them was the quotation. And it is bang on. It formed my theology. No compassion, no love, no sacrifice, no forgiveness, no generosity, no openness to reality here in this Life, none any other time or “place”, including Heaven. Remember that parable Jesus told about those who say, “But we ate and drank with you …!” But the response was, “I do not know who you are”.
This is not a dress rehearsal folks. Right here, right now, is the crucible, the test point, for authentic humanity. The test point for faithfulness, for authentic Christian or any other discipleship to a loving God.
This is it. Live it now. There is no magic spell that will transform present hypocrisy into a future blessing.
Brian+
This is not a dress rehearsal; this is it.
- Quoted in “The Color of Light”
I was a chaplain to those with AIDS for many years. I have been permanently scarred by those years and the experience. Oh, not by those with AIDS - meeting them and walking the path with them was almost universally positive, strengthening, inspiring, and deepening in humanity. Oh no. The scarring came from Government, including Ronald Reagan, George Bush 41, Bill Clinton, and George Bush 43 and their cowardly failure to respond with compassion or fairness for fear of political repercussions, because most of the sufferers were Gay . It came from vicious mis-named “Christians” and other “religious” people who poured hate and vitriol over those with AIDS. It came from the parents I had to deal with, disguising their homophobia and fear behind thinly veiled self-righteousness. When I can put aside the scars (and I think I have only repressed them), it was the greatest time of love and courage and commitment and friendship I have lived through in over 40 years of ministry.
We laughed a lot, believe it or not. And we lived by various truths. One of them was the quotation. And it is bang on. It formed my theology. No compassion, no love, no sacrifice, no forgiveness, no generosity, no openness to reality here in this Life, none any other time or “place”, including Heaven. Remember that parable Jesus told about those who say, “But we ate and drank with you …!” But the response was, “I do not know who you are”.
This is not a dress rehearsal folks. Right here, right now, is the crucible, the test point, for authentic humanity. The test point for faithfulness, for authentic Christian or any other discipleship to a loving God.
This is it. Live it now. There is no magic spell that will transform present hypocrisy into a future blessing.
Brian+
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, July 21, 2007
I'm not fancy. I'm what I appear to be.
- Janet Reno, one-time (and first woman)
Attorney General, born on this day, 1938
Well, I remember Ms. Reno. She certainly appeared “not fancy” to me. Simple, down-to-earth, a competent woman of few well chosen words – and a few well-chosen not-spoken words when being harassed by the so-called Religious Right (or, as I refer to them, the Neither Eithers).
Jesus once said about one of His followers, “Behold, an Israelite without guile.” The man was startled, wondering how Jesus knew him. “Before you came, I saw you, under the fig tree”, Jesus said - presumably not physically/literally. The implication seems to be that persons “without guile” are rare.
Guilelessness (which is what I think Ms. Reno intended by “not fancy”) is a great gift, or achievement. “Keeping up appearances”, as Hyacinth Bucket (Boo-kay) hilarious showed, is exceeding tiresome and a waste of energy.
Better just to be yourself. Makes Life a lot less stressful.
Brian+
I'm not fancy. I'm what I appear to be.
- Janet Reno, one-time (and first woman)
Attorney General, born on this day, 1938
Well, I remember Ms. Reno. She certainly appeared “not fancy” to me. Simple, down-to-earth, a competent woman of few well chosen words – and a few well-chosen not-spoken words when being harassed by the so-called Religious Right (or, as I refer to them, the Neither Eithers).
Jesus once said about one of His followers, “Behold, an Israelite without guile.” The man was startled, wondering how Jesus knew him. “Before you came, I saw you, under the fig tree”, Jesus said - presumably not physically/literally. The implication seems to be that persons “without guile” are rare.
Guilelessness (which is what I think Ms. Reno intended by “not fancy”) is a great gift, or achievement. “Keeping up appearances”, as Hyacinth Bucket (Boo-kay) hilarious showed, is exceeding tiresome and a waste of energy.
Better just to be yourself. Makes Life a lot less stressful.
Brian+
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, July 20, 2007
I do often turn backward when I pass
By with this body that in pain I bear,
And then I receive comfort from your air
Which causes it to move, and say: "Alas!"
Then thinking of the sweet treasure I leave,
Of the long journey, of my life's short round,
I stop my walk, and pale, dismayed, I grieve
And bend my eyes in tears toward the ground.
Sometimes a doubt assails my deep distress:
How can these limbs go on living at all,
So far away from their soul's happiness?
But then Love answers me: "Don't you recall
That lovers have the privilege to be
Rid of each human trait and quality?"
- A sonnet of Petrarch, Italian poet
and scholar, born on this day, 1304
How I would have loved to be Francesco Petrarca! He abandoned law after his father died, and became a scholar and poet. After reading Cicero, he became a passionate lover of all the classics. He undertook the collection of ancient manuscripts, scouring cathedral and monastic libraries all over Europe - that appeals to me! His private library was the first of its kind. He is lauded as the founder of Renaissance Christian humanism, “harmonizing classical genius with divine revelation”. Would that we had a lot more of his type in the world today!
His sonnet might be a little challenging – I doubt that many young people read sonnets these days, let alone Petrarch. But, hell, everyone would surely benefit from pondering a 700 year old sonnet upon rising from bed!!
Most of us are no doubt assailed every now and then with thoughts about “the long journey”, and about our own life’s “short round”. Dismayed by it all perhaps. But, reminds Petrarch, Love lifts us beyond the purely material nature of “these limbs”, reminds us that we are not so far away from our “soul’s happiness”, reminds us that we are spirit beings destined for the enjoyment of the eternal Journey, unconstrained by “each human trait and quality”.
Now: that should get you out of bed with a Petrarchan enthusiasm for the day!!
Brian+
I do often turn backward when I pass
By with this body that in pain I bear,
And then I receive comfort from your air
Which causes it to move, and say: "Alas!"
Then thinking of the sweet treasure I leave,
Of the long journey, of my life's short round,
I stop my walk, and pale, dismayed, I grieve
And bend my eyes in tears toward the ground.
Sometimes a doubt assails my deep distress:
How can these limbs go on living at all,
So far away from their soul's happiness?
But then Love answers me: "Don't you recall
That lovers have the privilege to be
Rid of each human trait and quality?"
- A sonnet of Petrarch, Italian poet
and scholar, born on this day, 1304
How I would have loved to be Francesco Petrarca! He abandoned law after his father died, and became a scholar and poet. After reading Cicero, he became a passionate lover of all the classics. He undertook the collection of ancient manuscripts, scouring cathedral and monastic libraries all over Europe - that appeals to me! His private library was the first of its kind. He is lauded as the founder of Renaissance Christian humanism, “harmonizing classical genius with divine revelation”. Would that we had a lot more of his type in the world today!
His sonnet might be a little challenging – I doubt that many young people read sonnets these days, let alone Petrarch. But, hell, everyone would surely benefit from pondering a 700 year old sonnet upon rising from bed!!
Most of us are no doubt assailed every now and then with thoughts about “the long journey”, and about our own life’s “short round”. Dismayed by it all perhaps. But, reminds Petrarch, Love lifts us beyond the purely material nature of “these limbs”, reminds us that we are not so far away from our “soul’s happiness”, reminds us that we are spirit beings destined for the enjoyment of the eternal Journey, unconstrained by “each human trait and quality”.
Now: that should get you out of bed with a Petrarchan enthusiasm for the day!!
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, July 19, 2007
And a festival shall be kept for King PTOLEMY, THE EVER-LIVING,
THE BELOVED OF PTAH, THE GOD EPIPHANES EUCHARISTOS,
yearly in the temples throughout the land from the 1st of Thoth for five days,
in which they shall wear garlands and perform sacrifices and libations and the
other usual honours, and the priests in each temple shall be called priests of the
GOD EPIPHANES EUCHARISTOS.
- From the Rosetta Stone, found on this day by Napoleon’s soldiers,
knocking down a wall near Alexandria, Egypt, 1799
Babel. The implication in the Bible is that languages were multiplied by a jealous God who didn’t want people to “get too big for their britches”. How like ego-centric humans!
Balderdash. The meaning I take is this. This is an etiological story, attempting to explain the multitude of languages. The underlying implication? God wants people to recognize that it takes effort to understand each other and to learn to respect each other. That this effort is worth it – otherwise the result is alienation and brokenness.
The Rosetta Stone placed together two languages, Egyptian and Greek, with three scripts, demotic, hieroglyphic, and Greek. It permitted the understanding of Egyptian culture.
We need many new Rosetta Stones. In two languages. Each human tongue and the language of Divine Love and Compassion. Perhaps then we would discover how to understand and respect each other.
In fact, better still, we each could become one.
Brian+
And a festival shall be kept for King PTOLEMY, THE EVER-LIVING,
THE BELOVED OF PTAH, THE GOD EPIPHANES EUCHARISTOS,
yearly in the temples throughout the land from the 1st of Thoth for five days,
in which they shall wear garlands and perform sacrifices and libations and the
other usual honours, and the priests in each temple shall be called priests of the
GOD EPIPHANES EUCHARISTOS.
- From the Rosetta Stone, found on this day by Napoleon’s soldiers,
knocking down a wall near Alexandria, Egypt, 1799
Babel. The implication in the Bible is that languages were multiplied by a jealous God who didn’t want people to “get too big for their britches”. How like ego-centric humans!
Balderdash. The meaning I take is this. This is an etiological story, attempting to explain the multitude of languages. The underlying implication? God wants people to recognize that it takes effort to understand each other and to learn to respect each other. That this effort is worth it – otherwise the result is alienation and brokenness.
The Rosetta Stone placed together two languages, Egyptian and Greek, with three scripts, demotic, hieroglyphic, and Greek. It permitted the understanding of Egyptian culture.
We need many new Rosetta Stones. In two languages. Each human tongue and the language of Divine Love and Compassion. Perhaps then we would discover how to understand and respect each other.
In fact, better still, we each could become one.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, July 18, 2007
For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains,
but to live in a way that respects and enhances the
freedom of others.
- Nelson Mandela, free man, born on this day, 1918
Our world, then, is in a period of enslavement. I look around. I see a lot of people(s) seeking to cast off their perceived chains - with little awareness that they have wrapped the chains around them with their own hands. But equally, people(s) who have been enslaved by others against their will, whose masters still, after untold time, are determined to remain masters. This is something that I simply cannot understand. If people feel enslaved, oppressed, would it not eliminate an enormous amount of pain and suffering and guilt to “let my people go”? Can it really be that the lust for power and control, regardless of the misery it causes both slave and master, indeed has such power? Why can’t the Tamils be free? The Chechens? The Quebecois if they wish? The Kurds? Women, for that matter - why are men so determined to subjugate women in various subtle and not so subtle ways? Why does the Roman Catholic Church feel the need to reassert its absurd claim to “true church”, condemning the rest of Christendom to the status of outcast and slave?
Mandela is absolutely right. No one is free unless everyone is free. No person is free who cannot allow another freedom. Jesus taught this. All the great souls teach this. Which is why I know that those Islamists who seek to force others to live their way are insulting the spirit of the Prophet. The same for any religion. To be faithful, one must respect and enhance the freedom of others. Otherwise, all are doomed to misery and fear.
Jesus is reported to have said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. The truth is that, by nature, all persons are free. Mandela said, “There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living”.
Unless we choose to enhance and respect the freedom of others, we have chosen the way of the slave. It leads only to despair.
Brian+
For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains,
but to live in a way that respects and enhances the
freedom of others.
- Nelson Mandela, free man, born on this day, 1918
Our world, then, is in a period of enslavement. I look around. I see a lot of people(s) seeking to cast off their perceived chains - with little awareness that they have wrapped the chains around them with their own hands. But equally, people(s) who have been enslaved by others against their will, whose masters still, after untold time, are determined to remain masters. This is something that I simply cannot understand. If people feel enslaved, oppressed, would it not eliminate an enormous amount of pain and suffering and guilt to “let my people go”? Can it really be that the lust for power and control, regardless of the misery it causes both slave and master, indeed has such power? Why can’t the Tamils be free? The Chechens? The Quebecois if they wish? The Kurds? Women, for that matter - why are men so determined to subjugate women in various subtle and not so subtle ways? Why does the Roman Catholic Church feel the need to reassert its absurd claim to “true church”, condemning the rest of Christendom to the status of outcast and slave?
Mandela is absolutely right. No one is free unless everyone is free. No person is free who cannot allow another freedom. Jesus taught this. All the great souls teach this. Which is why I know that those Islamists who seek to force others to live their way are insulting the spirit of the Prophet. The same for any religion. To be faithful, one must respect and enhance the freedom of others. Otherwise, all are doomed to misery and fear.
Jesus is reported to have said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. The truth is that, by nature, all persons are free. Mandela said, “There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living”.
Unless we choose to enhance and respect the freedom of others, we have chosen the way of the slave. It leads only to despair.
Brian+
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, July 17, 2007
I have a love interest in every one of my films - a gun.
If it bleeds, we can kill it.
When you grow up you have to drink beer.
The best activities for your health are pumping and humping.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, bodybuilder, who, in 2004
on this day, used the term “girlie-men” to denigrate
his opponents
Is this authentic “Christian” America??? Can you picture what Jesus’ face would look like listening in on these comments? Do you think that he would be pleased to be represented by someone like Arnie?? Would Jesus have been a member of the NRA? Of a skin-head or Aryan Nation group? Of a congregation in Jerry Falwell’s church?
What about us?? Is this the kind of thought and word and intellect that we want to symbolize America?? Does this sound caring? Understanding? Compassionate? Rational? Respectful? Humane? “Created equal”?? Is America, and the so-called basic Judeo-Christian foundation of America, well served and reflected by comments like this from the present governor of the largest state in the union? It may be a cynical comment, but I believe that the governor has cleaned up his act somewhat, but underneath …..
“Girlie-men”? Is it a Christ-like thing to demean and to encourage violence against the perhaps 20-30 million Gay and Lesbian folk who are Americans? Folk who are constantly misrepresented as “choosers of sin” by people who have made a pact with the devil to reject the truth of homosexual orientation because of their own either twisted theology or their irrational fear? Do in fact most Americans think it’s ok to “hump” as long as it’s heterosexual humping??
Is it not time to reclaim some semblance of sense? Of kindness? Of commitment and openness to the truth?
Until we do, America buries its birthright under a withering fire of troglodyte ignorance and venality.
Brian+
I have a love interest in every one of my films - a gun.
If it bleeds, we can kill it.
When you grow up you have to drink beer.
The best activities for your health are pumping and humping.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, bodybuilder, who, in 2004
on this day, used the term “girlie-men” to denigrate
his opponents
Is this authentic “Christian” America??? Can you picture what Jesus’ face would look like listening in on these comments? Do you think that he would be pleased to be represented by someone like Arnie?? Would Jesus have been a member of the NRA? Of a skin-head or Aryan Nation group? Of a congregation in Jerry Falwell’s church?
What about us?? Is this the kind of thought and word and intellect that we want to symbolize America?? Does this sound caring? Understanding? Compassionate? Rational? Respectful? Humane? “Created equal”?? Is America, and the so-called basic Judeo-Christian foundation of America, well served and reflected by comments like this from the present governor of the largest state in the union? It may be a cynical comment, but I believe that the governor has cleaned up his act somewhat, but underneath …..
“Girlie-men”? Is it a Christ-like thing to demean and to encourage violence against the perhaps 20-30 million Gay and Lesbian folk who are Americans? Folk who are constantly misrepresented as “choosers of sin” by people who have made a pact with the devil to reject the truth of homosexual orientation because of their own either twisted theology or their irrational fear? Do in fact most Americans think it’s ok to “hump” as long as it’s heterosexual humping??
Is it not time to reclaim some semblance of sense? Of kindness? Of commitment and openness to the truth?
Until we do, America buries its birthright under a withering fire of troglodyte ignorance and venality.
Brian+
Monday, July 16, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, July 16, 2007
But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him,
he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds,
having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal,
brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took
out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him;
and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’
Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell
into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.”
Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
- the Lucan version of the Good News, chap 10
Jesus is reported to have said that it was nothing if you only loved those who loved you – even the worst of people could do that. And he famously said, “Love your enemies”. This parable of the “Good Samaritan” was the reading for this past Sunday - and it really engaged me all week.
I talk and preach about Love all the time. “Where am I with this”, I asked myself all week. I don’t (I hope) actively “hate” anyone - but when it comes to controlling people, or homophobes, or religious “terrorists”, I despise and reject them - that’s coming close to hate. Here is this Samaritan. Different ethnic background and “tribe” of the assaulted man. And while two of the man’s fellow Jews wouldn’t even give him the time of day, the Samaritan superbly had compassion.
I said to my congregations that this is “Ratchet Up” Sunday if you are in any way a serious follower of the Christ - of the Message that each of us is a manifestation of Divine Compassion. Loving the “loveable” is easy. Nice people; people who love us; people who are supportive; people who think like us. Not a problem. But that only sustains the local tribe - and sets up one tribe against another. Look around the World - tribalism is destroying us. It’s Us against the Other.
The parable got to me. Selective love isn’t going to bring peace, understanding, cooperation, generosity, safety. Yet, for all the talk I hear from the present crop of American politicians who talk their “religious” talk, I have never heard one say that they woke up each day and asked God to help them love their “enemies” or how they would turn that core principle into action.
The parable is clear: every person who touches our lives directly or indirectly is our neighbour. All require mercy. However that is to be worked out in each of our lives, each of us, like the Good Samaritan, must “go and do likewise”.
Or we shall continue to reap the misery we sew.
Brian+
But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him,
he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds,
having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal,
brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took
out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him;
and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’
Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell
into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.”
Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
- the Lucan version of the Good News, chap 10
Jesus is reported to have said that it was nothing if you only loved those who loved you – even the worst of people could do that. And he famously said, “Love your enemies”. This parable of the “Good Samaritan” was the reading for this past Sunday - and it really engaged me all week.
I talk and preach about Love all the time. “Where am I with this”, I asked myself all week. I don’t (I hope) actively “hate” anyone - but when it comes to controlling people, or homophobes, or religious “terrorists”, I despise and reject them - that’s coming close to hate. Here is this Samaritan. Different ethnic background and “tribe” of the assaulted man. And while two of the man’s fellow Jews wouldn’t even give him the time of day, the Samaritan superbly had compassion.
I said to my congregations that this is “Ratchet Up” Sunday if you are in any way a serious follower of the Christ - of the Message that each of us is a manifestation of Divine Compassion. Loving the “loveable” is easy. Nice people; people who love us; people who are supportive; people who think like us. Not a problem. But that only sustains the local tribe - and sets up one tribe against another. Look around the World - tribalism is destroying us. It’s Us against the Other.
The parable got to me. Selective love isn’t going to bring peace, understanding, cooperation, generosity, safety. Yet, for all the talk I hear from the present crop of American politicians who talk their “religious” talk, I have never heard one say that they woke up each day and asked God to help them love their “enemies” or how they would turn that core principle into action.
The parable is clear: every person who touches our lives directly or indirectly is our neighbour. All require mercy. However that is to be worked out in each of our lives, each of us, like the Good Samaritan, must “go and do likewise”.
Or we shall continue to reap the misery we sew.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, July 14, 2007
Life has got a habit of not standing hitched. You got to ride it
like you find it. You got to change with it. If a day goes by that
don't change some of your old notions for new ones, that is just
about like trying to milk a dead cow.
- Woody Guthrie, born on this day, 1912
I heard on the radio a couple of days ago a fascinating thing about the Blue Moon (was that the name?) butterfly. I think it is endemic to New Zealand. A bacteria was killing most of the male butterflies. They were in immanent danger of dying out as a species. But, in only five years, they changed! They evolved genetically in order to make themselves immune to the bacteria. Talk about a fast change - five years to evolve is pretty fast in the evolution department.
The Blue Moon butterfly - a great symbol for what Woody is talking about. How interesting that the butterfly is also, in Christian imagery, the symbol of Resurrection, of new life, of the blossoming into the full beauty of Life. The caterpillar has to “die”, and in death is rebirth in a more glorious form.
All faiths are about transformation, about “transfiguration”. Change is a constant. Life doesn’t “stand hitched”. Every day, our choice is “dead cow” or “new notions”. Consider the institutions, the religion, the places you learn from, the people you spend time with. If they aren’t helping you to “ride it like you find it”, ditch ‘em!
Brian+
Life has got a habit of not standing hitched. You got to ride it
like you find it. You got to change with it. If a day goes by that
don't change some of your old notions for new ones, that is just
about like trying to milk a dead cow.
- Woody Guthrie, born on this day, 1912
I heard on the radio a couple of days ago a fascinating thing about the Blue Moon (was that the name?) butterfly. I think it is endemic to New Zealand. A bacteria was killing most of the male butterflies. They were in immanent danger of dying out as a species. But, in only five years, they changed! They evolved genetically in order to make themselves immune to the bacteria. Talk about a fast change - five years to evolve is pretty fast in the evolution department.
The Blue Moon butterfly - a great symbol for what Woody is talking about. How interesting that the butterfly is also, in Christian imagery, the symbol of Resurrection, of new life, of the blossoming into the full beauty of Life. The caterpillar has to “die”, and in death is rebirth in a more glorious form.
All faiths are about transformation, about “transfiguration”. Change is a constant. Life doesn’t “stand hitched”. Every day, our choice is “dead cow” or “new notions”. Consider the institutions, the religion, the places you learn from, the people you spend time with. If they aren’t helping you to “ride it like you find it”, ditch ‘em!
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, July 13, 2007
Looking at faces of people, one gets the feeling
there's a lot of work to be done.
- Wole Soyinka (Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka), in Nigeria,
author, Nobel laureate 1986, born on this day, 1934
I have been watching the face of George Bush for a while now. The face of “archbishop” Akinola of Nigeria - the quotes are a sign of my deep sense of mendacity (lying), of betrayal of the truth. The faces of radical Islamic leaders. Of radical Hindu leaders in India. The faces of Tamil leaders, and of their “government” (which means those who have gained power) opponents. The faces of Sudanese government leaders. Ian Paisley’s face. The faces of Americas’s mis-named “Christian” populist leaders. Stephen Harper’s face in Canada. Nicolas Sarkozy of France. The President of Iran. The man proposed by Bush to be the next Surgeon General. Many more.
What do I see? What I see is frightening and deeply disturbing. I see conviction. And a vile veiled duplicity. Not a conviction founded in Justice, Compassion. But conviction founded in fear, and a craving for power, and zenophobia. That makes me think of Adolf Hitler. I have thought about this. Is there a difference among them? No. Worse, many of them look and sound like Delores Jane Umbridge, made headmaster of Hogwarts School by the Ministry of Magic, in the latest Harry Potter movie. Cool, “reasonable”, law-abiding - with evil and cruelty exuding from every charming pore.
I don’t know if even doing a “lot of work” will make any difference these days. We are on the edge - no, we have tipped over the edge - of warfare. Everyone who does not think as “we” do is the “enemy”. More, they are “wrong”, “ungodly”.
I have one consolation. “A house divided against itself cannot stand”. It may take awhile. But God, I hope. And it will all come crashing down.
But oh, I fear for those whose minds and hearts and spirits will be withered by this stage. And for those who will become their victims.
I am a believer in the “Remnant”. When the next stage of human depravity has run its course, there will remain those who love. Who have not consented to evil. They will rebuild the Kingdom of Peace.
Brian+
Looking at faces of people, one gets the feeling
there's a lot of work to be done.
- Wole Soyinka (Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka), in Nigeria,
author, Nobel laureate 1986, born on this day, 1934
I have been watching the face of George Bush for a while now. The face of “archbishop” Akinola of Nigeria - the quotes are a sign of my deep sense of mendacity (lying), of betrayal of the truth. The faces of radical Islamic leaders. Of radical Hindu leaders in India. The faces of Tamil leaders, and of their “government” (which means those who have gained power) opponents. The faces of Sudanese government leaders. Ian Paisley’s face. The faces of Americas’s mis-named “Christian” populist leaders. Stephen Harper’s face in Canada. Nicolas Sarkozy of France. The President of Iran. The man proposed by Bush to be the next Surgeon General. Many more.
What do I see? What I see is frightening and deeply disturbing. I see conviction. And a vile veiled duplicity. Not a conviction founded in Justice, Compassion. But conviction founded in fear, and a craving for power, and zenophobia. That makes me think of Adolf Hitler. I have thought about this. Is there a difference among them? No. Worse, many of them look and sound like Delores Jane Umbridge, made headmaster of Hogwarts School by the Ministry of Magic, in the latest Harry Potter movie. Cool, “reasonable”, law-abiding - with evil and cruelty exuding from every charming pore.
I don’t know if even doing a “lot of work” will make any difference these days. We are on the edge - no, we have tipped over the edge - of warfare. Everyone who does not think as “we” do is the “enemy”. More, they are “wrong”, “ungodly”.
I have one consolation. “A house divided against itself cannot stand”. It may take awhile. But God, I hope. And it will all come crashing down.
But oh, I fear for those whose minds and hearts and spirits will be withered by this stage. And for those who will become their victims.
I am a believer in the “Remnant”. When the next stage of human depravity has run its course, there will remain those who love. Who have not consented to evil. They will rebuild the Kingdom of Peace.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, July 12, 2007
Nothing is as peevish and pedantic as men's judgments of one another.
- Desiderius Erasmus, thinker, who died on this day, 1536
Like all of us, I’ve gone through, go through, endless moments of self-doubt. And of judging myself by the standards or opinions, or worse, judgmentalisms of others. So, some time ago, I set my self my own standard. God.
Granted, the God I have come to know and, ok, the God I have chosen to accept as “true”. I do, however, believe that I have some objective basis for my understanding of God! Bottom line, God accepts me unconditionally. This, I have found, is the best platform from which to change and grow. This is important. Being “accepted unconditionally” doesn’t mean we have no responsibility to mature. It’s just the best way to be free for this journey. As Erasmus also said, “It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is”.
By “peevish and pedantic”, I think Erasmus means to say that when we make judgments about each other, it is all filtered through the normal human wierdnesses. If we accept these judgments as “true”, we are already at a disadvantage, and it’s hard to get beyond these burdens.
There is a corollary to this. If you find a true friend, or anyone, who accepts you unconditionally, be glad. This is a gift greater than any other.
Brian+
Nothing is as peevish and pedantic as men's judgments of one another.
- Desiderius Erasmus, thinker, who died on this day, 1536
Like all of us, I’ve gone through, go through, endless moments of self-doubt. And of judging myself by the standards or opinions, or worse, judgmentalisms of others. So, some time ago, I set my self my own standard. God.
Granted, the God I have come to know and, ok, the God I have chosen to accept as “true”. I do, however, believe that I have some objective basis for my understanding of God! Bottom line, God accepts me unconditionally. This, I have found, is the best platform from which to change and grow. This is important. Being “accepted unconditionally” doesn’t mean we have no responsibility to mature. It’s just the best way to be free for this journey. As Erasmus also said, “It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is”.
By “peevish and pedantic”, I think Erasmus means to say that when we make judgments about each other, it is all filtered through the normal human wierdnesses. If we accept these judgments as “true”, we are already at a disadvantage, and it’s hard to get beyond these burdens.
There is a corollary to this. If you find a true friend, or anyone, who accepts you unconditionally, be glad. This is a gift greater than any other.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, July 11, 2007
This mortal body of a thousand days
Now fills, O Burns, a space in thine own room,
Where thou didst dream alone on budded bays,
Happy and thoughtless of thy day of doom!
My pulse is warm with thine old Barley-bree,
My head is light with pledging a great soul,
My eyes are wandering, and I cannot see,
Fancy is dead and drunken at its goal;
Yet can I stamp my foot upon thy floor,
Yet can I ope thy window-sash to find
The meadow thou hast tramped o'er and o'er,
Yet can I think of thee till thought is blind,
Yet can I gulp a bumper to thy name,
O smile among the shades, for this is fame!
- Poet John Keats, age 22, on visiting Robbie Burns
cottage on this day, 1818
In the following January, in a nine-month burst, Keats would write his virtually all his best poems. In February a year later, he would first cough blood - consumption. He was dead on Feb 23. I sat for a long time - hard though it was with the crush of tourists and the wildnesses of hoards of youth - on the Spanish Steps facing the apartment where Keats died. Frankly, I was having a wonderful time! I was about 30. I felt great, and young, and ageless. I fairly luxuriated in the romanticism of it all - Rome, Keats, wandering the World, a dreamer - and then to meet a California friend quite by accident at the Trevi Fountain and have a very late dinner in Trastevere - does Life get any better??
It is transient, but it offers many opportunities if we are willing to answer the call. You know, Life for most of us is too circumscribed, too bound by rules that others have made, usually out of their own disappointment. When Jesus, or any other Great Spirit, says, “Follow me”, do. Joy is something most often to be found (as we say today) “out of the box”.
Brian+
This mortal body of a thousand days
Now fills, O Burns, a space in thine own room,
Where thou didst dream alone on budded bays,
Happy and thoughtless of thy day of doom!
My pulse is warm with thine old Barley-bree,
My head is light with pledging a great soul,
My eyes are wandering, and I cannot see,
Fancy is dead and drunken at its goal;
Yet can I stamp my foot upon thy floor,
Yet can I ope thy window-sash to find
The meadow thou hast tramped o'er and o'er,
Yet can I think of thee till thought is blind,
Yet can I gulp a bumper to thy name,
O smile among the shades, for this is fame!
- Poet John Keats, age 22, on visiting Robbie Burns
cottage on this day, 1818
In the following January, in a nine-month burst, Keats would write his virtually all his best poems. In February a year later, he would first cough blood - consumption. He was dead on Feb 23. I sat for a long time - hard though it was with the crush of tourists and the wildnesses of hoards of youth - on the Spanish Steps facing the apartment where Keats died. Frankly, I was having a wonderful time! I was about 30. I felt great, and young, and ageless. I fairly luxuriated in the romanticism of it all - Rome, Keats, wandering the World, a dreamer - and then to meet a California friend quite by accident at the Trevi Fountain and have a very late dinner in Trastevere - does Life get any better??
It is transient, but it offers many opportunities if we are willing to answer the call. You know, Life for most of us is too circumscribed, too bound by rules that others have made, usually out of their own disappointment. When Jesus, or any other Great Spirit, says, “Follow me”, do. Joy is something most often to be found (as we say today) “out of the box”.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, July 10, 2007
God preordained, for his own glory and the display
of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the
human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal
salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their
sin, to eternal damnation.
- John Calvin, Reformation thinker, born on
this day, 1509, in Noyon, France
Oh, give me a break! “Mercy”? “Justice”? Is God some kind of Eternal Narcissist, or Fascist?? (Actually, now that I think about it, the way God is portrayed throughout history is often one or the other!). What about Divine Grace? Free will? Compassion? Repentance? Kindness? Love? It is amazing, is it not, the utter nonsense that we human beings can come up with?? Talk about psychopathic projection. Perhaps I should have listened to Freud a little more.
However.
However many blessings we expect from God,
His infinite liberality will always exceed all our
wishes and our thoughts.
- Yep; you guessed!
Apparently even John Calvin’s! JC must have been having a better day when he wrote these words. Maybe his conscience had quieted a bit from all the people he was burning at the stake. And it just goes to show, doesn’t it, just how weird we human beings can be - and how even God can become the victim of our wierdnesses. Good to remember this. If we are in a bad mood, God gets a bad rap. If we are in a good mood, God knows She’s had a close call. I sometimes have the tingling thought that God is going to go ballistic one day and change all the rules!
Our understanding of God is only as good (in both ways) as we human beings permit. What will it be? Mean and spiteful, or loving and generous? How we choose to understand each other is how we see God.
It’s up to us.
Brian+
God preordained, for his own glory and the display
of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the
human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal
salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their
sin, to eternal damnation.
- John Calvin, Reformation thinker, born on
this day, 1509, in Noyon, France
Oh, give me a break! “Mercy”? “Justice”? Is God some kind of Eternal Narcissist, or Fascist?? (Actually, now that I think about it, the way God is portrayed throughout history is often one or the other!). What about Divine Grace? Free will? Compassion? Repentance? Kindness? Love? It is amazing, is it not, the utter nonsense that we human beings can come up with?? Talk about psychopathic projection. Perhaps I should have listened to Freud a little more.
However.
However many blessings we expect from God,
His infinite liberality will always exceed all our
wishes and our thoughts.
- Yep; you guessed!
Apparently even John Calvin’s! JC must have been having a better day when he wrote these words. Maybe his conscience had quieted a bit from all the people he was burning at the stake. And it just goes to show, doesn’t it, just how weird we human beings can be - and how even God can become the victim of our wierdnesses. Good to remember this. If we are in a bad mood, God gets a bad rap. If we are in a good mood, God knows She’s had a close call. I sometimes have the tingling thought that God is going to go ballistic one day and change all the rules!
Our understanding of God is only as good (in both ways) as we human beings permit. What will it be? Mean and spiteful, or loving and generous? How we choose to understand each other is how we see God.
It’s up to us.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, July 09, 2007
“If you are looking for an illustration of the divinity of Jesus,
one needs only to look at the fact that in all of the resurrection
appearances, Jesus never appeared to Pilate. What human
being could have resisted that!”
- Estelle Carver (paraphrased), great teacher in the
Episcopal Church
Ha! Monday morning deserves a good chuckle! Estelle was a wonderful and sharp teacher, as attested by a very dear friend who went to every workshop given by Estelle she could.
And we human beings should certainly be able to laugh at our foibles, our “charming” human characteristics. Oh, they can be aggravating at times! But we do all need to relax a little and not “sweat the small stuff”.
On another note, Estelle also taught that Jesus understood the enormous pain and guilt that Peter’s three denials caused him. Understood that this could paralyze Peter and his effectiveness – as guilt often does to many of us. So, Jesus asked Peter three times, “Peter, do you love Me?” And Peter’s opportunity to express his deep love allowed him to be free.
Now: there’s a practice and principle that would grace any humanity!
Brian+
“If you are looking for an illustration of the divinity of Jesus,
one needs only to look at the fact that in all of the resurrection
appearances, Jesus never appeared to Pilate. What human
being could have resisted that!”
- Estelle Carver (paraphrased), great teacher in the
Episcopal Church
Ha! Monday morning deserves a good chuckle! Estelle was a wonderful and sharp teacher, as attested by a very dear friend who went to every workshop given by Estelle she could.
And we human beings should certainly be able to laugh at our foibles, our “charming” human characteristics. Oh, they can be aggravating at times! But we do all need to relax a little and not “sweat the small stuff”.
On another note, Estelle also taught that Jesus understood the enormous pain and guilt that Peter’s three denials caused him. Understood that this could paralyze Peter and his effectiveness – as guilt often does to many of us. So, Jesus asked Peter three times, “Peter, do you love Me?” And Peter’s opportunity to express his deep love allowed him to be free.
Now: there’s a practice and principle that would grace any humanity!
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, July 7, 2007
A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace
gets you into Heaven. An equally long life of decent living and
good works followed by one outburst of taking the name of the
Lord in vain - then have a heart attack at that moment and be
damned for eternity. Is that the system?
- Robert Heinlein, “science fiction” writer, born on this day, 1907
As the wonderful New Yorker cartoon says, “Wrongity Wrong Wrong!” NO, this is not the system - though I know a lot of people who think it is, or worse, who wish it was ….. themselves excepted, of course.
[ Equally, I know a lot of people who think that they can mutter a word of repentance in the last few seconds of life and “be saved”. Wrongity Wrong Wrong.]
If you believe that God exists, do you think that God is a fool?? Or for that matter, the rest of us? How infantile. As I look around these days though, what I see is a hell of a lot of people promulgating a God who is Ungodly and foolish - whereby illuminating their own stupidity. But stupid or not, they wield power. So, “be wise as serpents but gentle as doves” ….. but resist the idiocy with as much passion as possible.
Since Heinlein was born on the same day I was, below are some of his comments with which I essentially agree. Enjoy! [The parts I particularly agree with are highlighted.]
Brian+
I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. "Supernatural" is a null word.
One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.
Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.
When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives.
You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace
gets you into Heaven. An equally long life of decent living and
good works followed by one outburst of taking the name of the
Lord in vain - then have a heart attack at that moment and be
damned for eternity. Is that the system?
- Robert Heinlein, “science fiction” writer, born on this day, 1907
As the wonderful New Yorker cartoon says, “Wrongity Wrong Wrong!” NO, this is not the system - though I know a lot of people who think it is, or worse, who wish it was ….. themselves excepted, of course.
[ Equally, I know a lot of people who think that they can mutter a word of repentance in the last few seconds of life and “be saved”. Wrongity Wrong Wrong.]
If you believe that God exists, do you think that God is a fool?? Or for that matter, the rest of us? How infantile. As I look around these days though, what I see is a hell of a lot of people promulgating a God who is Ungodly and foolish - whereby illuminating their own stupidity. But stupid or not, they wield power. So, “be wise as serpents but gentle as doves” ….. but resist the idiocy with as much passion as possible.
Since Heinlein was born on the same day I was, below are some of his comments with which I essentially agree. Enjoy! [The parts I particularly agree with are highlighted.]
Brian+
I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. "Supernatural" is a null word.
One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.
Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.
When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives.
You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Sharing food with another human being is an
intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.
- M. F. K. Fisher, writer on food, novelist, born on
this day, in Albion MI, 1908
I have had MFK Fisher’s book “The Art of Eating” for many years. I love just to sit and read it. I feel like I have entered deeper into Life, and into a greater understanding of the Mystery. And in such a simple thing – thoughts on Food!
Another thing that attracted me to Fisher was that her family moved to Whittier CA when she was a child. And they used to go camping in the summer on the hillsides of Laguna Beach – a place I am crazy about! (Though it sounds “better” when they went there in the early part of the 20th century.)
She is right. I have eaten some fine meals with convivial companions. And some not so fine meals with companions less so. The food was equal but an unconvivial companion(s) ruins it. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I have never really liked large dinner parties. They are an art that most people have not mastered in terms of making them work.
Many religions gather their devotees together for a “family meal”. I remember it in Brasil with the devotees of Candomble, eating with the orixas. At Chinese meals, eating with the ancestors. And of course, at the Eucharist, eating with fellow journeyers at God’s invitation. Usually I am “standing in” as host. Then and also when I’ve been standing at the rail with others, I’ve certainly been aware of the intimacy. And of the implications about how to live the meaning of my life as a “child of God”. No wonder Paul was clear about the consequences of sharing the holy meal in a cavalier manner.
The meal – any meal – is a symbol for the intimacy of any human relationship, and for the care with which all human relationships should be undertaken. Any encounter with another should not be indigled in lightly.
Brian+
Sharing food with another human being is an
intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.
- M. F. K. Fisher, writer on food, novelist, born on
this day, in Albion MI, 1908
I have had MFK Fisher’s book “The Art of Eating” for many years. I love just to sit and read it. I feel like I have entered deeper into Life, and into a greater understanding of the Mystery. And in such a simple thing – thoughts on Food!
Another thing that attracted me to Fisher was that her family moved to Whittier CA when she was a child. And they used to go camping in the summer on the hillsides of Laguna Beach – a place I am crazy about! (Though it sounds “better” when they went there in the early part of the 20th century.)
She is right. I have eaten some fine meals with convivial companions. And some not so fine meals with companions less so. The food was equal but an unconvivial companion(s) ruins it. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I have never really liked large dinner parties. They are an art that most people have not mastered in terms of making them work.
Many religions gather their devotees together for a “family meal”. I remember it in Brasil with the devotees of Candomble, eating with the orixas. At Chinese meals, eating with the ancestors. And of course, at the Eucharist, eating with fellow journeyers at God’s invitation. Usually I am “standing in” as host. Then and also when I’ve been standing at the rail with others, I’ve certainly been aware of the intimacy. And of the implications about how to live the meaning of my life as a “child of God”. No wonder Paul was clear about the consequences of sharing the holy meal in a cavalier manner.
The meal – any meal – is a symbol for the intimacy of any human relationship, and for the care with which all human relationships should be undertaken. Any encounter with another should not be indigled in lightly.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, July 2, 2007
All good books have one thing in common –
they are truer than if they had really happened.
-Ernest Hemingway, author, Nobel Laureate (1954),
killed himself on this day, 1961
True of the “Good Book” too. I remember reading the Creation Story (aspects of which, or perhaps more accurately interpretations of which, I profoundly disagree with) and thinking “Don’t be ridiculous! And the stories in Luke about the birth of Jesus and thinking, “Nice story, enhances the idea in a charming way” – but happened literally, nope. It wasn’t until I got to the point that I could accept them as “stories” that I understood what Hemingway is saying. Such stories are “truer than if they had really happened”.
But what is “really happened”? The point is, such events indeed “really happened”!. It’s just that reality is such a poverty-stricken concept in our modern culture. It is no wonder to me that certain cultures today censor and/or ban literature – Salman Rushdie, for example. “Good books” reveal reality when the events in them never literally happened, the people in them never literally existed. In my experience and opinion, fiction is most often the truest reality.
Adam and Eve as individual persons never (in my view) existed. But as symbols or humanity, they and their story speak much about what “really happens” in human lives. Angels (in my opinion) never sang in the sky in the first Nativity – but Creation does indeed sing It’s own glorious song about the presence of the Holy One in human life.
How about you, your Life. Write a “good book” about it. Let your imagination rip! Even if you say things about yourself that never literally happened, we will certainly hear your truth!
Brian+
All good books have one thing in common –
they are truer than if they had really happened.
-Ernest Hemingway, author, Nobel Laureate (1954),
killed himself on this day, 1961
True of the “Good Book” too. I remember reading the Creation Story (aspects of which, or perhaps more accurately interpretations of which, I profoundly disagree with) and thinking “Don’t be ridiculous! And the stories in Luke about the birth of Jesus and thinking, “Nice story, enhances the idea in a charming way” – but happened literally, nope. It wasn’t until I got to the point that I could accept them as “stories” that I understood what Hemingway is saying. Such stories are “truer than if they had really happened”.
But what is “really happened”? The point is, such events indeed “really happened”!. It’s just that reality is such a poverty-stricken concept in our modern culture. It is no wonder to me that certain cultures today censor and/or ban literature – Salman Rushdie, for example. “Good books” reveal reality when the events in them never literally happened, the people in them never literally existed. In my experience and opinion, fiction is most often the truest reality.
Adam and Eve as individual persons never (in my view) existed. But as symbols or humanity, they and their story speak much about what “really happens” in human lives. Angels (in my opinion) never sang in the sky in the first Nativity – but Creation does indeed sing It’s own glorious song about the presence of the Holy One in human life.
How about you, your Life. Write a “good book” about it. Let your imagination rip! Even if you say things about yourself that never literally happened, we will certainly hear your truth!
Brian+
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