Brian’s Reflection: Monday, September 10, 2007
Creationist critics often charge that evolution cannot be tested,
and therefore cannot be viewed as a properly scientific subject
at all. This claim is rhetorical nonsense.
- Stephen Jay Gould, born on this day, 1941
You know, I had no idea really who Stephen Gould is! So, thanks to Google, I “looked him up”. He was a paleontologist, having announcd that he would be one having seen a dinosaur skeleton at age 5 at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. Just like me, who said, at age 5, that I wanted to “be a priest”. Gould was a scientist. And he was Creationism’s most effective opponent - Creationism as “science”, that is.
I cannot tell you how discouraged and disappointed and yes, even angry, I have become about this business of the clash between Creationism and Evolution. Why disappointed and discouraged? Because it tells me that Americans are not evolving. And not to evolve means that the American human imagination is withering. “Evolution” is science. “Creationism” is ….. well, should be ….. holy imagination. Holy metaphor.
The Bible has NOTHING (or very little) to do with science or history. Israeli (and other) archeologists have come a long way in proving that pivotal characters like Abraham, Moses, the Flight from Egypt, the Wandering in the Desert, the occupation of the “Promised Land” are NOT historical personages or facts. The Bible is a Holy Metaphor. The Bible is imaginative expression of how a people have chosen to understand their place and meaning in History. “Creationism” is a Holy Myth. A story attempting to express a people’s struggle to grasp - or, and here is the problem, create - their meaning in History?
Do you understand how confusing Science with Imagination kills the Soul? Kills Truth? Kills the freedom of the Human Spirit? Do we not see how thinking there was a physical place called Eden fatally leads us astray from understanding that we are called to become Beings of Divine Compassion?
Take nothing in the Bible “literally”. There is NO SUCH THING as “literal truth”. Only an invitation to open the heart and mind to Mystery.
Brian+
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Friday, September 7, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, September 8, 2007
Even Tom Sawyer had a girlfriend and to talk about adults
without talking about their sex drives is like talking about a
window without glass.
- Grace Metalious, author, (“Peyton Place”) ,
born on this day, 1924
You’ve heard about kids reading by flashlight under the covers. Right? I only did that once; did you ever do it? I don’t remember what age I was. But I read “Peyton Place” under the covers. Whoa! Terrific. Why? Because Grace had written a book that I was reading at a time when I was blossoming into a human being, including sexuality. Well, it wasn’t about my sexuality, but it was about the reality of sexuality - and I was thrilled! Have you ever heard about Grace Metalious since “Peyton Place”? I don’t think she ever wrote anything else that was “famous”. She didn’t need to. She exposed the soft underbelly of America - the hypocrisy that our roots in American Puritanism led us to ….. and in which we still live. It is a cultural core that has twisted and tortured and made us liars. Therefore, she is one of my heroes; she forced us to look at the Truth.
Think about it. Countless “religious Christian” Americans rail piously against sexuality – and yet support and maintain a culture that feeds off of sexuality. Why? Because we have never dealt with it - and so it dominates us. Our icons are Tammy Fay Baker. Pious Christian – but a mascara-laden sex queen, Marilyn Munroe, Steve McQueen, Dr. Kildare..
The Bible is full of sexuality. Most people turn a blind eye - how absurd. “Human” and “sexuality” are inextricably bonded. To deny that is to condemn ourselves to a life of lies. But, America is committed tyo a life of lies, on many levels.
Church people - even Episcopalians! - hate it when their clergy talk about sexuality. Good Lord, I became an Episcopalian because I thought “they” were the best hope of honesty! What a disappointment this has been throughout the years. Episcopalians are just as willing as anyone to cower in falsehood.
Friends: Christ is about Truth. And there is no other foundation for Truth than Love. And vice versa.
If you can’t face the truth about what it is to be Human, there is NO salvation.
Be sexy. That’s the road to Freedom.
Brian+
Even Tom Sawyer had a girlfriend and to talk about adults
without talking about their sex drives is like talking about a
window without glass.
- Grace Metalious, author, (“Peyton Place”) ,
born on this day, 1924
You’ve heard about kids reading by flashlight under the covers. Right? I only did that once; did you ever do it? I don’t remember what age I was. But I read “Peyton Place” under the covers. Whoa! Terrific. Why? Because Grace had written a book that I was reading at a time when I was blossoming into a human being, including sexuality. Well, it wasn’t about my sexuality, but it was about the reality of sexuality - and I was thrilled! Have you ever heard about Grace Metalious since “Peyton Place”? I don’t think she ever wrote anything else that was “famous”. She didn’t need to. She exposed the soft underbelly of America - the hypocrisy that our roots in American Puritanism led us to ….. and in which we still live. It is a cultural core that has twisted and tortured and made us liars. Therefore, she is one of my heroes; she forced us to look at the Truth.
Think about it. Countless “religious Christian” Americans rail piously against sexuality – and yet support and maintain a culture that feeds off of sexuality. Why? Because we have never dealt with it - and so it dominates us. Our icons are Tammy Fay Baker. Pious Christian – but a mascara-laden sex queen, Marilyn Munroe, Steve McQueen, Dr. Kildare..
The Bible is full of sexuality. Most people turn a blind eye - how absurd. “Human” and “sexuality” are inextricably bonded. To deny that is to condemn ourselves to a life of lies. But, America is committed tyo a life of lies, on many levels.
Church people - even Episcopalians! - hate it when their clergy talk about sexuality. Good Lord, I became an Episcopalian because I thought “they” were the best hope of honesty! What a disappointment this has been throughout the years. Episcopalians are just as willing as anyone to cower in falsehood.
Friends: Christ is about Truth. And there is no other foundation for Truth than Love. And vice versa.
If you can’t face the truth about what it is to be Human, there is NO salvation.
Be sexy. That’s the road to Freedom.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, September 07, 2007
Love - love is strange
lot of people take it for a game
Once you get it - you're in an awful fix
after you've had it - you never want to quit
Many people don't understand, no no
they think lovin', yeah yeah - is money in the hand
Your sweet lovin' - is better than a kiss, yeah yeah
when you leave me - sweet kisses I miss
- Buddy Holly (lyrics his), born on
this day, 1936
Born in Lubbock TX he was. At age 13, sang with a friend at local clubs and high school talent shows. Saw Elvis sing in 1955. He opened for Bill Haley & his Comets, turned to Rock & Roll, and, with the Crickets, opened (accidently!) at the Apollo in Harlem! After a gig in Duluth, a small chartered plane crashed, killing Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) and the pilot. Buddy Holly was 22.
You get maybe 22 years (or less). Maybe 101. Most of us get “educated”. How? What were you taught? About Life, I mean? When I think about it, I was “taught” by my early education to conform. Are we all, even today? No one ever taught me about the road “less travelled by” (Frost) ….. unless that Teacher was inside me. Maybe I heard it from sitting in First Presbyterian Church and listening to Jesus say to His disciples, “Come, follow Me, and they left everything and followed Him”.
Oh, you could stay in the same physical place all your life. But within oneself, for the inner Journey, I believe that the Journey can never even begin until the voice is heard to “take the road less travelled by”. Becoming fully human, fully Oneself (“one traveler”), will never happen on the road that doesn’t diverge in the yellow wood.
“Church” (of whatever religion) is about being equipped for the “road less travelled by”. Or should be. Even if the plane crashes early on, you’ll have done what was needed - become Human, really Human. Buddy implies it’s about Love and not quitting.
Brian+
Love - love is strange
lot of people take it for a game
Once you get it - you're in an awful fix
after you've had it - you never want to quit
Many people don't understand, no no
they think lovin', yeah yeah - is money in the hand
Your sweet lovin' - is better than a kiss, yeah yeah
when you leave me - sweet kisses I miss
- Buddy Holly (lyrics his), born on
this day, 1936
Born in Lubbock TX he was. At age 13, sang with a friend at local clubs and high school talent shows. Saw Elvis sing in 1955. He opened for Bill Haley & his Comets, turned to Rock & Roll, and, with the Crickets, opened (accidently!) at the Apollo in Harlem! After a gig in Duluth, a small chartered plane crashed, killing Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) and the pilot. Buddy Holly was 22.
You get maybe 22 years (or less). Maybe 101. Most of us get “educated”. How? What were you taught? About Life, I mean? When I think about it, I was “taught” by my early education to conform. Are we all, even today? No one ever taught me about the road “less travelled by” (Frost) ….. unless that Teacher was inside me. Maybe I heard it from sitting in First Presbyterian Church and listening to Jesus say to His disciples, “Come, follow Me, and they left everything and followed Him”.
Oh, you could stay in the same physical place all your life. But within oneself, for the inner Journey, I believe that the Journey can never even begin until the voice is heard to “take the road less travelled by”. Becoming fully human, fully Oneself (“one traveler”), will never happen on the road that doesn’t diverge in the yellow wood.
“Church” (of whatever religion) is about being equipped for the “road less travelled by”. Or should be. Even if the plane crashes early on, you’ll have done what was needed - become Human, really Human. Buddy implies it’s about Love and not quitting.
Brian+
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, September 6, 2007
To live for some future goal is shallow.
It's the sides of the mountain that sustain
life, not the top.
- Robert Persig, writer, born on
this day, 1928
Robert Persig wrote a book called “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. In the 70’s, I think. I loved it - though I knew nothing about motorcycles, and equally little about Zen, then. The book was, by Robert’s own sub-titling, “an inquiry into values”. I’ve been reading that sort of stuff for years. “Values” is a fascinating subject. Especially in America. There’s a book we may do a study on, about Jesus’ “family values”. I can’t imagine that, in America, given the dominant politics, there could possibly be any correlation.
I agree with Persig. It is the sides of the mountain that sustain Life. The “top” of the mountain is about the ultimate goal or purpose. But you can’t get there apart from the sides. As I have said before, you can’t get to “Heaven” without the fully authentic living of this Earthly Life.
The point is: the “future goal” and “the living of this Earthly Life” are inextricably intertwined. As the song says, “You can’t have one without the other”. But, I completely disagree with Persig that “to live for some future goal is shallow”. Perhaps he was just making his point. The reality is, living daily mundane Life (the sides of the mountain) and living “for some future goal” (the top) are the very same thing. This is an example of the Christian truth that, once one has “died with Christ and been raised with Him”, there is no break between what we do here and what we hope for beyond this Earthly Life. They merge, become part of the same Reality.
What I do today has both its own integrity, and is woven into the great tapestry of building the community of Compassion. If you should get to the place where you can’t distinguish between today and forever, you have become whole. You have become One with all Creation.
Brian+
To live for some future goal is shallow.
It's the sides of the mountain that sustain
life, not the top.
- Robert Persig, writer, born on
this day, 1928
Robert Persig wrote a book called “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. In the 70’s, I think. I loved it - though I knew nothing about motorcycles, and equally little about Zen, then. The book was, by Robert’s own sub-titling, “an inquiry into values”. I’ve been reading that sort of stuff for years. “Values” is a fascinating subject. Especially in America. There’s a book we may do a study on, about Jesus’ “family values”. I can’t imagine that, in America, given the dominant politics, there could possibly be any correlation.
I agree with Persig. It is the sides of the mountain that sustain Life. The “top” of the mountain is about the ultimate goal or purpose. But you can’t get there apart from the sides. As I have said before, you can’t get to “Heaven” without the fully authentic living of this Earthly Life.
The point is: the “future goal” and “the living of this Earthly Life” are inextricably intertwined. As the song says, “You can’t have one without the other”. But, I completely disagree with Persig that “to live for some future goal is shallow”. Perhaps he was just making his point. The reality is, living daily mundane Life (the sides of the mountain) and living “for some future goal” (the top) are the very same thing. This is an example of the Christian truth that, once one has “died with Christ and been raised with Him”, there is no break between what we do here and what we hope for beyond this Earthly Life. They merge, become part of the same Reality.
What I do today has both its own integrity, and is woven into the great tapestry of building the community of Compassion. If you should get to the place where you can’t distinguish between today and forever, you have become whole. You have become One with all Creation.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Nomad Exquisite
As the immense dew of Florida
Brings forth
The big-finned palm
And green vine angering for life,
As the immense dew of Florida
Brings forth hymn and hymn
From the beholder,
Beholding all these green sides,
And blessed mornings,
Meet for the eye of the young alligator,
And lightning colors
So, in me, comes flinging
Forms, flames, and the flakes of flames.
- Wallace Stevens
I was just too ….. I don’t want to say “tired”, last night, to compose the Reflection for today. It sort of annoys me when people say, “I’m tired”. As soon as I feel that annoyance, of course I then have to ask myself, “What’s going on with you, Brian”. It always - or mostly always - comes back to us, doesn’t it. (Statement, not question.) I pondered it.
“Forms, flames, and the flakes of flames.” What it is, is that I want Life to be chock-full of “green sides and blessed mornings”. Not frantic. It could be quiet, tranquil. Like now, as I write. The Arizona morning is taking shape out of the night. I can’t yet tell if the sky is clear or a textured grey. The doves are sitting calmly on the stones beneath the platform feeder waiting, I fancy, for ….. me to bring them breakfast! When I’m away, I think of them there, disappointed. In the olive trees out front, some Great-tailed Grackle is squawking about something. My tea is cooling in the bone china cup beside me. In California, my beloved is off to work.
If there are going to be “green sides and blessed mornings” in our lives, oh yes, those things are offered. That, I choose to believe, is how God, or the Universe, works. But we must welcome them, see them. And I recall, a friend’s PET scan yesterday came back, “Nothing Wrong”. A flake of flame!
Now. Carry this into the day.
Brian+
Nomad Exquisite
As the immense dew of Florida
Brings forth
The big-finned palm
And green vine angering for life,
As the immense dew of Florida
Brings forth hymn and hymn
From the beholder,
Beholding all these green sides,
And blessed mornings,
Meet for the eye of the young alligator,
And lightning colors
So, in me, comes flinging
Forms, flames, and the flakes of flames.
- Wallace Stevens
I was just too ….. I don’t want to say “tired”, last night, to compose the Reflection for today. It sort of annoys me when people say, “I’m tired”. As soon as I feel that annoyance, of course I then have to ask myself, “What’s going on with you, Brian”. It always - or mostly always - comes back to us, doesn’t it. (Statement, not question.) I pondered it.
“Forms, flames, and the flakes of flames.” What it is, is that I want Life to be chock-full of “green sides and blessed mornings”. Not frantic. It could be quiet, tranquil. Like now, as I write. The Arizona morning is taking shape out of the night. I can’t yet tell if the sky is clear or a textured grey. The doves are sitting calmly on the stones beneath the platform feeder waiting, I fancy, for ….. me to bring them breakfast! When I’m away, I think of them there, disappointed. In the olive trees out front, some Great-tailed Grackle is squawking about something. My tea is cooling in the bone china cup beside me. In California, my beloved is off to work.
If there are going to be “green sides and blessed mornings” in our lives, oh yes, those things are offered. That, I choose to believe, is how God, or the Universe, works. But we must welcome them, see them. And I recall, a friend’s PET scan yesterday came back, “Nothing Wrong”. A flake of flame!
Now. Carry this into the day.
Brian+
Monday, September 3, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, September 4, 2007
In hatred as in love, we grow like the thing we brood upon.
What we loathe, we graft into our very soul.
- Mary Renault, English-born South African author,
born on this day, 1905
Mary Renault is a hero of mine. She was a writer. And by God she was honest. What a refreshing thing. As a young person, I inhaled her books, especially her trilogy on Alexander the Great. She made the Classical Greek world come alive for me. She made me dream. She made me understand that there was a genuine glory in being who you really were as a human being. I think that I have read “The King Must Die” at least five times. Oh, the tale was rivetingly absorbing! But she helped me understand something mystical that lies at the core of the Christian myth (“faith/truth story”). “The God dying” (Jesus on the Cross) points to the fundamental truth that we and what we call the Divine are part of the same reality. I don’t “hoard” books - but Mary Renault’s works rest on my shelves, critical to understanding Life.
Jesus is reported to have said, “Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth, where rust and moth corrupt …. Where your treasure is, there will your heart also be”. Mary Renault is correct. Her words remind us that we become what we choose to value ….. or to devalue. For example, if we loathe those who are not like us, we become ourself something to be loathed. And since there is so much of ourselves we fear to embrace and to integrate, we have chosen the path of self-destruction.
Joshua said to the people of Israel as they were poised to enter the Promised Land (alas, a wicked interpretation of the Bible!), “Choose today Whom you shall serve.” I say, Choose Love. Love what is vulnerable; what is fragile; what is confounding; what is humbling; what is disturbing; what eradicates division; what raises our hackles; what makes us afraid; what angers us; what makes us contemptuous; what urges arrogance; what stimulates pride; what urges judgmentalism. Loving these things leads us to cherish our brokenness - and in that embrace we will be led to glory.
If we brood upon what we loath (and fear), our soul withers. If we brood upon Love, our soul is shaped into the image of Compassion.
Do not brood on anything but Gentleness and Kindness. Rejoice in the strength of your vulnerability. You will become unconquerable, and a blessing.
Brian+
In hatred as in love, we grow like the thing we brood upon.
What we loathe, we graft into our very soul.
- Mary Renault, English-born South African author,
born on this day, 1905
Mary Renault is a hero of mine. She was a writer. And by God she was honest. What a refreshing thing. As a young person, I inhaled her books, especially her trilogy on Alexander the Great. She made the Classical Greek world come alive for me. She made me dream. She made me understand that there was a genuine glory in being who you really were as a human being. I think that I have read “The King Must Die” at least five times. Oh, the tale was rivetingly absorbing! But she helped me understand something mystical that lies at the core of the Christian myth (“faith/truth story”). “The God dying” (Jesus on the Cross) points to the fundamental truth that we and what we call the Divine are part of the same reality. I don’t “hoard” books - but Mary Renault’s works rest on my shelves, critical to understanding Life.
Jesus is reported to have said, “Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth, where rust and moth corrupt …. Where your treasure is, there will your heart also be”. Mary Renault is correct. Her words remind us that we become what we choose to value ….. or to devalue. For example, if we loathe those who are not like us, we become ourself something to be loathed. And since there is so much of ourselves we fear to embrace and to integrate, we have chosen the path of self-destruction.
Joshua said to the people of Israel as they were poised to enter the Promised Land (alas, a wicked interpretation of the Bible!), “Choose today Whom you shall serve.” I say, Choose Love. Love what is vulnerable; what is fragile; what is confounding; what is humbling; what is disturbing; what eradicates division; what raises our hackles; what makes us afraid; what angers us; what makes us contemptuous; what urges arrogance; what stimulates pride; what urges judgmentalism. Loving these things leads us to cherish our brokenness - and in that embrace we will be led to glory.
If we brood upon what we loath (and fear), our soul withers. If we brood upon Love, our soul is shaped into the image of Compassion.
Do not brood on anything but Gentleness and Kindness. Rejoice in the strength of your vulnerability. You will become unconquerable, and a blessing.
Brian+
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, September 3, 2007
"May God forgive you for what you have done".
- Albino Luciani, installed on this day, 1978,
as Pope John Paul I
Cardinal Patriarch of Venice (something, I confess, I wouldn’t have minded being!! What fun to make pastoral visits in a gondola!)), Albino Luciani was surprisingly elected Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. His health was, unknown to most, not too good - though it was later written in print that he might have been murdered. He became known as “The Smiling Pope”. He reigned for only 33 days.
I have only this to say. Most churches and religions today could do with leaders who are a little more like Albino Luciani. Though Cardinal Patriarch of Venice, he was out of the power structure. This probably contributed to the apprehension he felt at being elected Pope. He was known often to ask, “Why did they elect me?” But, I am tired of people being elected to positions of authority in religious organizations who are “in” the power structure. Christ certainly wasn’t. The Buddha gave it up. Most of the religious leaders who have contributed the most to their faiths weren’t into power. And, in my humble opinion, the mess we are in the world today is exacerbated by the wrong kind of leaders.
Luciano’s quoted words certainly remind one of Jesus’ words from the cross. But a person who can utter such words is just the kind of person I would trust to be a faithful guide.
I think if the word had had John Paul I for some years, the world would be a better place now that what we ended up with.
Brian+
"May God forgive you for what you have done".
- Albino Luciani, installed on this day, 1978,
as Pope John Paul I
Cardinal Patriarch of Venice (something, I confess, I wouldn’t have minded being!! What fun to make pastoral visits in a gondola!)), Albino Luciani was surprisingly elected Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. His health was, unknown to most, not too good - though it was later written in print that he might have been murdered. He became known as “The Smiling Pope”. He reigned for only 33 days.
I have only this to say. Most churches and religions today could do with leaders who are a little more like Albino Luciani. Though Cardinal Patriarch of Venice, he was out of the power structure. This probably contributed to the apprehension he felt at being elected Pope. He was known often to ask, “Why did they elect me?” But, I am tired of people being elected to positions of authority in religious organizations who are “in” the power structure. Christ certainly wasn’t. The Buddha gave it up. Most of the religious leaders who have contributed the most to their faiths weren’t into power. And, in my humble opinion, the mess we are in the world today is exacerbated by the wrong kind of leaders.
Luciano’s quoted words certainly remind one of Jesus’ words from the cross. But a person who can utter such words is just the kind of person I would trust to be a faithful guide.
I think if the word had had John Paul I for some years, the world would be a better place now that what we ended up with.
Brian+
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