Thinking or Doing?

By Walter Wink

• The early church did not seek to formulate a theory of illness; instead, it healed the sick.
  

• It did not attempt to explain how the demonic could exist in a good world made by a good God; instead, they cast out demons.

• They had no hypotheses about how prayer works. They simply prayed….
  

• Their attitude was not anti-rational or anti-theological, but merely concrete. They looked, not for adequate ways to conceptualize the Kingdom, but for ways to actualize it.

Source: Engaging the Powers

Watching Radio - Again

Garrison Keillor and Prairie Home Companion were in Rochester, MN, last Saturday for their live show. If you listened, that was me applauding from Row BB in the upper level. What fun it was. Keillor is such a charming host and his style exudes calm and wonder, tinged with irony for good measure.

What struck me first was that his warm-up is just like the show. About 4 years ago we went to the Letterman show in New York. There the warm-up was noisy and boisterous. Jokes got us going. Yelling and cheering and clapping along with the band playing loud music. Just exactly what you would expect on a TV show.

But the PHC warm-up was Keillor coming out on stage, talking in his down-home style, then singing a couple of duets Andra Suchy as they walked up the center aisle. In other words it was just like the show.

Link to picture of warm-up duet.

The second neat thing was watching him pace around the stage when he wasn't on himself. he's watching and checking and talking to a stage manager. He would then sit and listen to the music. Then he would roam a little more moving to the music being played. He truly seems to enjoy what he is doing and likes the music. His foot is always tapping time, even swinging out and stomping a little as he started the opening theme.

Probably the neatest part was watching him tell the News from Lake Wobegon. He stands center stage front and starts talking. He roamed back toward a music stand two times, seeming to check an obviously very short outline. No notes in hand; no apparent script. He just tells us the story. At one point he moves around front and sits on a park bench, leaning back and talking as if it was just coming out of his head for the first time.

Link to picture of GK on the park bench.

Such storytelling is a lost art. To see someone like Keillor do it is to have your faith renewed in the possibilities of stories as an oral medium.

Then, there was even a 5-7 minute post-show song with the local singers, Sweet Dreams. It was nothing short of wonderful.

Link to picture of GK with Sweet Dreams after show.

All in all, it sure is fun to watch radio.

Link to page of last week's show: Zumbro Olmsted and The Mighty Mayo

Overheard in Recovery: Not Just Me

I heard this conversation a few weeks ago. The first person speaking had just explained that she has come to an understanding of her alcoholism/addiction. The second is another person talking with her.

I am fighting a battle against addiction.

Let us help you. That's what recovery communities are all about.

No one can fight the battle for me.

I didn't say we'd battle it for you. We will battle it with you.

Oh, how difficult it can be to see that we are in life together; that it is not a one-person show against all odds (literally!) We get overwhelmed by having to succeed and do it all alone. Even sitting in a community of other people fighting the same fight we are fighting we resort to this default and ultimately disastrous mode.

That all made me think about the ads for the Army and the Marines that have been around. The Army tells us that each person is

An Army of One.

The Marines on the other hand are looking for

A Few Good Men.

Of course when you get to basic training in either branch the Marine ad is more realistic. Even Mel Gibson needed all those thousands of troops in Braveheart in order to win. But the lone warrior ideal leads us to discount other people's assistance, wisdom and support.

By the end of the above conversation the person who felt overwhelmed was beginning to feel a little more hopeful.

Which is what the whole idea of community can do.

In Memoriam: Howard Zinn

You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train

A 20-Year Memory: And the Champion is...

January 28- Super Bowl XXIV at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. The San Francisco 49ers led by Joe Montana crushed the Denver Broncos 55-10.

The 49ers' 55 points were the most ever scored by one team, and their 45-point margin of victory was the largest ever. The 49ers are the only team in a Super Bowl to score at least two touchdowns in each quarter. They are also the only team to score 8 touchdowns in a Super Bowl.

It Isn't Always as Bad as We Think

This is a chart that Andrew Sullivan posted last week. It is the approval ratings of presidents during their two years in office. The bold blue is Obama. The bold red is Reagan.

Reagan was in the middle of a long recession. He had polarized the country. Yet today, even some of us who were not particularly supportive of him, would certainly not say he was as "bad" as those ratings would indicate. (Note: This does not mean I approve of what he did. I'm looking at the national trends. Such polls, as Bush would say, do not make a person a "bad" president. Also, the lowest line, well below Reagan- Harry Truman.)

Andrew points out, correctly I believe, that Reagan's advisors would not have recommended to him what they are recommending to Obama. They, then, told him to fight- even against popular opinion. They told him to stand for his principles even when the polls show him down.

The only difference between then and now? Those same advisors don't agree with Obama. Therefore he better do what they told Reagan not to do.

Ain't politics fun?

Finding God in the World

Barbara Brown Taylor is a remarkable writer. At one point she was considered one of the top preachers in the country. But she left the parish a number of years ago to teach in college. Her book about that, Leaving Church was quite a memoir and challenge. In the past year she published another book, An Altar in the World which I just finished. She has lost none of her spirit or style.

She takes a chapter each to discuss the ways an altar can be found or made in the world of daily living. She riffs off Jacob's first dream in the wilderness when he saw angels ascending and descending stairs into heaven. When he awoke he built an altar there since "God was surely in this place."At first I was afraid it was going to be one of those "just look around you and see God" kind of spiritual advice, self-help books. But I couldn't believe that Brown would write that kind of book.

I read through the first chapters, enjoying her writing but finding it a little dissatisfying. Until I reached the chapter on wilderness. That caught me. She talks later about pain. For when she gets down to the areas of life that are most troublesome and challenging, she is nowhere near the "self-help" genre. She is seldom glib, and never stops with the easy answers. At first glance they may seem that way, but she takes it and moves forward with depth and hope.

It is a wonderful book that will not leave you unchanged. I found myself identifying situations and times in my life that were like the ones she talks about. Yes, those were moments when, if only in hindsight, I was convinced that God was there. The world is the only place, in the end, where we can most fully discover the ways of the soul.

If Only We Could Ignore

Back on January 1, Salon posted their Top Ten Quotations of the last decade. Some are scary, none make sense. Perhaps my favorites:

6. As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know they're some things we do not know. But there're also unknown unknowns; the ones we don't know we don't know. -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Feb. 12, 2002, effectively telling us that the government had no idea what it was doing by invading Iraq.

4. The investment community feels very put-upon. They feel there is no reason why they shouldn't earn $1 million to $200 million a year, and they don't want to be held responsible for the global financial meltdown. -- Daniel Fass, chairman of Obama's financial-industry fundraising party on Oct. 19, 2009, insisting that despite wrecking the economy and then being handed trillions of bailout dollars, Wall Street is a victim.

1. It doesn't matter. -- Vice President Dick Cheney on Nov. 5, 2006, referring to polls repeatedly showing the majority of Americans oppose the Iraq war -- a sign the ruling class truly does not care about the demands of the public.

We will we ever learn?

Time Moves On

I didn't try to take the cake away from her. Not with that look on her face. After all, it was her first birthday.

Is Football Immoral?

There has been a lot of press this year about the NFL and the dangers of concussions by football players. As the League talks about it, others want to hide it. Is it fair to the players? Is it something the fans should be concerned about? Are we all complicit in something that may be immoral?

That was the question raised by Hugo Lindgren a column in a recent edition of New York Magazine.

Unlike baseball or basketball, injuries aren’t incidental to football—they’re a natural outcome of a game in which giant men collide with all their might. But it also presents a paradox. The reason we love the sport, after all, is its speed and violence. Players destroy themselves to win, which makes it like nothing else in life, except perhaps actual combat, which is rarely well filmed.

So how can we go on watching?

The point is that this is one of the reasons we watch in the first place. It is the supposed thrill of possible injury that makes it interesting. I disagree with that to a great extent. I think we watch in spite of our awareness that these guys may get hurt. We push it out of our minds. We ignore the very real danger because we are distanced. It's not us.

The greater immorality may be in that we expect people to put themselves into such danger for our pure entertainment. Yes, they get paid well. Very well. Although so do the baseball players. But is money a reason to put oneself in such an obviously personally precarious position? Is our entertainment desire so great that we are willing to let them continue to do so?

Obviously. Many are getting rich from it. Some are getting obscenely wealthy. It is business and as long as it is business, it will continue. The League continues to try to do something about it, though. But the injuries, visible and hidden, short-term and long-term, will continue. It is something to think about.

So, having said all that, if you will excuse me, I have a couple games to watch this afternoon.

Read the column: Why Football’s Threat of Bodily Harm Is One of the Reasons We Watch -- New York Magazine

We Destructive Humans

Live Science yesterday had a post titled: Understanding the 10 Most Destructive Human Behaviors. While not an in-depth look at them, it is interesting to see what we do to ourselves as a species. As the article points out:

Compared with most animals, we humans engage in a host of behaviors that are destructive to our own kind and to ourselves. We lie, cheat and steal, carve ornamentations into our own bodies, stress out and kill ourselves, and of course kill others. Science has provided much insight into why an intelligent species seems so nasty, spiteful, self-destructive and hurtful.

So sad, but so true. The behaviors range from gossip to stressing out to bullying to clinging to bad habits to craving violence. It includes the ancient but oh so postModern trend of tattoos.

Take for example the understanding of why we cling to bad habits:

-- Innate human defiance

-- Need for social acceptance

-- Inability to truly understand the nature of risk

-- Individualistic view of the world and the ability to rationalize unhealthy habits

-- Genetic predisposition to addiction

People tend to justify bad habits, she says, by noting exceptions to known statistics, such as: "It hasn't hurt me yet," or, "My grandmother smoked all her life and lived to be 90."

Sure sounds familiar to this addictions counselor. But there is also this about tattoos (actually all cosmetic procedures including nip and tuck. Didn't see that as part of the same thing until I read this):

Perhaps the strongest motivations nowadays are to be beautiful, however one might define that, or simply to fit in with a particular group.

Oh, so simple. No wonder we miss it. But for me this one is the most telling in human history- craving violence:

Many researchers believe violence in humans is an evolved tendency that helped with survival.

"Aggressive behavior has evolved in species in which it increases an individual's survival or reproduction, and this depends on the specific environmental, social, reproductive, and historical circumstances of a species. Humans certainly rank among the most violent of species," says biologist David Carrier of the University of Utah.

Hurting ourselves or hurting others seems to be something we humans will find it difficult to stop doing. Whether it be politics, war, or self-change we can be a strange breed indeed.

And Conan Is the Winner

I have never been a fan of Leno and I never really got into Conan. Letterman is my host to watch. But watching Conan the past two evenings as he ended his shortened stint on The Tonight Show I was impressed. He comes away as the winner of the Tonight Show Wars. He was a class act last night even as he shredded NBC the night before. Leno ends the whole thing appearing selfish and arrogant. He gets his show back, unwilling to go do something new and different.

Conan simply had fun. Pee Wee Herman, Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Will Ferrell, Tom Hanks, and Neil Young gave a great line-up. Conan laughed and jumped, and played his old tricks. more a postModern Letterman than a Jay Leno. He choked up when thanking the audience.

He's young and a class act. He comes out the winner.

Behind the World of Pandora and James Cameron

Thanks to The Awesomer, here is a 22 minute video from Yahoo! Videos on Creating Pandora. If you haven't seen Avatar yet, it is probably good to avoid the clip. You may never forgive yourself if you miss this experience. It has already won Golden Globe for Best Drama.

(Should it be the Best Drama? Probably not for its acting or story line. If it goes on to win Best Picture there will be a big controversy, I am sure. As I said in my review the other week, it is the best film making of the year. But only in 3-D.)

Making Music Spiritual or Making Spiritual Music

I read the other day made a comment about music being a good source of spiritual motivation and growth. I agreed. Then they commented that it was Reggae music that first did the trick for them.

Huh? Music that has become so connected with the use of marijuana? A way, without using the drug, to get connected spiritually?

That started me thinking. Needless to say I thought of Bob Marley. I found myself thinking, "Yeah, he is one of the great spiritual musicians of the past 40 years." Hear it in "Redemption Song."

Next I remembered Hank Williams III on American Routes the other week talking about his grandfather as one who was deeply in touch with the spiritual. Not exactly one of the great spiritual icons, either. But Hank III was right. You can hear it in "I Saw the Light."

What is it that makes music spiritual? Or what is it that makes spiritual music? That may be a better way of talking about it. So I thought of some people who have made spiritual music:

• John Coltrane
• Bob Marley
• Hank Williams, Sr.
• Johann Sebastian Bach
• Enya
• John Newton
• Charlotte Elliot

There is something in all of their performances, all of their singing, all of their compositions that cries out. Sometimes it is crying out in pain. Sometimes it is in joy. Sometimes it is just the incredible way one note follows in front of the previous and leads into grace of some sort.

It happens when playing some music for those of us lucky enough to be able to do that. You can get in a zone and the music flows through the instrument. You realize when it is over that it was unique.

It isn't just with words. In fact some of the greatest spiritual music is instrumental. You are moved by it and you don't know why. It is mystery.

For me it often comes back to that simple word- mystery. It is beyond me. It is "spirit" or "soul" or "grace." I know it when I hear it, even in music that may not be my favorite style. I can tell it by the way my inner being is touched by something far greater than myself.

Thank God for music. What a sad life and world it would be without it.

Remarkable and Scary

From the AP this morning:

A US Airways passenger plane was diverted to Philadelphia on Thursday after a religious item worn by a Jewish passenger was mistaken as a bomb, Philadelphia police said.

A passenger was alarmed by the phylacteries, religious items which observant Jews strap around their arms and heads as part of morning prayers, on the flight from New York's La Guardia airport heading to Louisville.

When fear is the ruling emotion, emotions become even less logical.
When we are always afraid, peace looks like a threat.
When we live expecting the worst, even prayer is suspect.

Only One Year

Very seldom does the true legacy of a president show up in the first year. I would say this would be especially true of a president facing truly divisive issues and trying to overcome years of highly partisan debate.

Today is the beginning of year two for President Obama. The world has not changed as much as many of his supporters hoped. Nor has it changed as much as his opponents claim. He is no more- and no less- a politician than his predecessors. He is no less- or no more- a savior of the nation than any president. He is neither a monster or a saint. He is a human being.

Sure. I am one of those disappointed- though not surprised- at his first year. I believe that our nation will continue to show its strength in working through the next few years. Yes, Democrats may lose seats- or they may win them- in this year's elections. The vote in Massachusetts may kill the health care reform.

In other words- politics.

But perhaps, somewhere along the line in these next few years the extreme voices at either end of the spectrum (which at times may include my own voice) may temper their rhetoric and move from ideology to community. Hatred and division like we have seen this past year will not build a strong country. It will only undermine the power that "we the people" have.

So, Mr. President- Happy One Year Anniversary. Keep on doing what you think this country needs. Bring us along. Move us.

A 30-Year Memory: Sports History Made

January 20 – Super Bowl XIV: The Pittsburgh Steelers become the first NFL franchise to win 4 Super Bowls, defeating the Los Angeles Rams 31–19 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

Snatch Defeat From the Jaws of Victory

Perhaps only the Democrats could have done it- losing the Kennedy Seat in Massachusetts. Arrogance, overly self-assured, or who knows what? Somehow or another the Democrats have managed to let the Republicans have the upper hand. Sure, that is not unusual in an off-year election cycle. Sure, there are many months until the fall elections. But the defeat tonight of the Democrats in Massachusetts will not make it any easier.

It could be a very long year!

Overheard in Recovery: Tornado Spotters

The guy sitting next to me was talking about what he knew was important for his ability to maintain sobriety.

What I need in my life are tornado spotters. You know, people around me and something in me that do what storm chasers do. Look out for the signs and symptoms of a storm heading my way and issue the warning.

Needless to say it caught my attention, being a trained storm spotter. I thought about the training I had from the Weather Service and Ham Radio instructors. They showed me pictures of things to watch for in the skies and in the air. They explained how to think about tornadoes when the sky is still blue and there isn't a sign of a cloud in the sky. They urged me to be cautious and always be on guard- aware and mindful about quickly changing conditions.

Which is what my friend needs- as does anyone who wants to maintain sobriety. He needs a way to be warned when the illness of addiction begins to look for ways to sneak back into action. As we talked we realized that there are three indications that Bill W. and the first AAs saw as important indicators of the presence of alcoholism: Being restless, irritable, and discontent.

They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks....

--Alcoholics Anonymous, The Doctor's Opinion, pp. xxvi-xxvii

So, among the things the Tornado Spotters of the Sober Soul needs to look for are those three:

• Am I restless? Are things just not grabbing my attention?
• Am I irritable? Is life just bothering me? Are people bugging me for no reason?
• Am I discontent? Is nothing satisfying me?

If any of these are the case, do something about them.

• Be grateful for what you have.
  
• Take time to slow down.
  
• Talk to friends.
• Read a good book.
• Listen to some good music.
  
• Connect with your Higher Power.
  
• Enjoy the day. It is the only one you have.

Oh, and you don't even have to be a recovering alcoholic or addict. I'm told this works quite well for everyone.

A Yearly Reminder

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

from Nobel Peace Prize speech,
December 10, 1964

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today's motor bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaimed the rule of the land. "And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid." I still believe that We Shall overcome!

This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.

Today I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed dedication to humanity. I accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace and brotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my heart I am aware that this prize is much more than an honor to me personally.

Every time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful journey possible - the known pilots and the unknown ground crew.

So you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit. You honor, once again, Chief Lutuli of South Africa, whose struggles with and for his people, are still met with the most brutal expression of man's inhumanity to man. You honor the ground crew without whose labor and sacrifices the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth. Most of these people will never make the headline and their names will not appear in Who's Who. Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age in which we live - men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization - because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness sake.

I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners - all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty - and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.
--Link

The Life of the Party

Consider this, my variation on my wife's sermon start this weekend:

They signed up to do God's work. That's what it was all about, wasn't it? The political junkie was ready to overthrow the oppressive government. The fisherman was looking for people to convince. The quiet mystic was thinking about those hours in contemplation of the ways of God as it is taught by the Rabbi. Others are looking for adventure or a change of scenery.

So where does he take them?

To a wedding.

And what does he do first?

He changes water into wine.

That doesn't sound like either the Jesus of Sunday School teaching or the Big Hairy Audacious Goal-incarnation of MISSION. Instead it's an earthy, commonplace celebration of life. Maybe all work and no play is as real for followers of Jesus as it was for whoever made it into a parable. Come to think of it, a lot of Jesus' miracles were down-to-earth. After all, they were with people facing the down-to-earth problems of living and dying.

But a party? Is that mission? He even keeps it a secret.

But it isn't about him- it's about the Kingdom of God. The way the world can become more and more the place where God is present. What's wrong with God being present at a wedding and helping them celebrate?

Tony Campolo, in a sermon titled The Kingdom of God is a Party, tells the story of throwing a birthday party at 3:30 in the morning for a local prostitute. When asked what kind of a church he preached at, he answered

"I preach at a church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning."

"No you don't," said one of the others. "I would join a church like that."

Which Tony points out, is exactly the kind of community Jesus came to start!

That is the Kingdom of God!

Stop

By Hafiz

What
Do sad people have in
Common?

It seems
They have all built a shrine
To the past

And often go there
And do a strange wail and
Worship.

What is the beginning of
Happiness?

It is to stop being
So religious

Like

That.

Source: The Gift

It's a Noisy World.... or....

Overcoming Denial.

Did you know that pneumatic automatic door closers hiss?

Or that when you scratch your head above your ears it sounds like rubbing on a fine sandpaper?

Oh, you did, huh?

Well, I had forgotten, if I ever paid attention and knew it. For the past several weeks I have been trying not to think about what was to happen this past Wednesday. Call it denial or minimizing or just plain hiding my head in the sand. But this past week I got hearing aids.

Now, I could still hear you, of course. Quite well, I kept telling myself. Unless of course you were talking normally in a crowded room or (God forbid) you were talking softly in a quiet room. It was more so if you had a higher pitched voice or the TV was a little too loud, or....

Well, that's the picture. I have mild to moderate high-end hearing loss. That should come as no surprise to anyone, especially me. I have played in concert bands for most of the last 48 years, sitting in the trumpet section, often with drums right behind me.

I have worn headphones when on the radio back in college, or to listen to music for the past 44 years. And, yes, even classical music can be too loud- say, for example, the rousing finish of the 1812 Overture.

I have gone to concerts and stood in the front row by the speakers in order to get good pictures. But even sitting further back at a Cream concert at the Spectrum in Philadelphia is still a jolt to the ears.

In short the years catch up. To everyone but me, naturally.

So, to skip the details, I was told that hearing aids would be beneficial. I got them this past week. They programmed them for my hearing and showed me how to take care of them. And I walked out into a world that had gotten much noisier in the previous 45 minutes. I heard people behind me talking, and I could understand them. I heard the rustling of my arms against the jacket as I walked. I even heard the keys in my pocket jingling. I didn't know they did that. I thought they just sat there quietly waiting for me to use them.

What a surprise. You don't know what you've been missing until it comes back. I lost it slowly and never noticed. There were still a lot of things I could hear, but I have had others returned.

It was quite a blow to my image of myself, though. Old people wear hearing aids. I was not walking around saying, "Huh?" or "what did you say?" Or was I? The amazing electronics available today in digital hearing aids is remarkable. I am stunned by what I can now hear.

Then last evening I went to my first band rehearsal since getting them. Even more amazing. At one point I could actually hear the bassoon. I always thought that I couldn't hear some of those instruments because I wasn't up front so the sound wasn't coming at me, which is true, but.... At one point I turned them off just to see the difference. The sound deadened. There was no life in it.

It is, though, a novelty at this point. I can go back and have them adjusted, like the equalizer on my stereo, so it does the best job possible. I am realizing, even after just a few days, that the ability to hear a wider-range of sounds is a "quality" of life issue for me. I have 45 days to decide whether to keep them, whether they do what I need, or whether I really am still a youngster.

But what I can't return, or actually get back to, is that young guy up there in those old pictures. The word for that has to be acceptance. Living life on life's terms as you often hear around 12-Step meetings. But you know, now that I can hear, I may actually be able to more attentive to my world and my surroundings. I may even have an increased appreciation for what I didn't know was still around me.

It's a noisy world, but it's the one I got- and for that I am grateful.

No Words Are Possible

Haiti.

The pictures on TV show only a small, small view of the immensity of the tragedy and the fragility of our lives. No pact with any devil can bring about that kind of natural disaster. No pact with God can protect from the possibilities. Only trusting in God can bring people through with any amount of hope.

But I am not there- and it is not my family, my friends, my house, or city, or country lying amidst such devastation. All I can do is cry for those who are unable to do so for themselves.

In your mercy, O Lord, grant them your peace.

A 20-Year Memory: Another Barrier Broken

January 13 – Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.

Find The Spot

Barbara Brown Taylor is a deeply inspiring writer. A spiritually enriched and enriching presence. She does not get complicated, but rather allows the simplicity of life with God to shine through.

No one longs for what he or she already has, and yet the accumulated insight of those wise about the spiritual life suggest that the reason so many of us cannot see the red X that marks the spot is because we are standing on it. The treasure we seek requires no lengthy expedition, no expensive equipment, no superior aptitude or special company. All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need. The only thing missing is our consent to be where we are.

Many years ago now, a wise old priest invited me to speak at his church in Alabama. “What do you want me to talk about?” I asked him.

“Come tell us what is saving your life now,” he answered.

The answers I gave all those years ago are not the same answers I would give today—that is the beauty of the question—but the principle is the same. What is saving my life now is the conviction that there is no spiritual treasure to be found apart from the bodily experiences of human life on earth. My life depends on engaging the most ordinary physical activities with the most exquisite attention I can give them. My life depends on ignoring all touted distinctions between the secular and the sacred, the physical and the spiritual, the body and the soul.

What is saving my life now is becoming more fully human, trusting that there is no way to God apart from real life in the real world. In a world where faith is often construed as a way of thinking, bodily practices remind the willing that faith is a way of life.

Whoever you are, you are human. Wherever you are, you live in the world, which is just waiting for you to notice the holiness in it. So welcome to your own priesthood, practiced at the altar of your own life. The good news is that you have everything you need to begin.

-An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor.

I Would Never Have Forgiven Myself...

...if I had missed this one....

Avatar.

James Cameron has become King of the Universe (of movies, anyway) with this sci-fi action epic. I finally saw it yesterday afternoon in 3-D (which is the minimum requirement, I think. More below.) It was worth the extra cost and the time.

• Time was irrelevant. It was engaging.
  

• It would have been only fair in 2-D. It therefore does set new standards and directions for movie making. It is the 3-D that does that. I found myself pulled into the world of Pandora and at one point I thought, "Hey, this is like a National Geographic special on a newly discovered world." My daughter (who saw it on Imax 3-D) thought the 2-D sections weren't as good technically. She said they looked like 2-D characters pasted on 3-D. That wasn't quite as noticeable to me on a normal big screen. But the 3-D sections weren't as alive and suffered from the contrast with the 3-D. But then again, James Cameron doesn't leave anything to chance. I have a hunch that was on purpose. The 3-D realness had me more on the edge of my seat during the final third of the movie than it might otherwise. It also had one really interesting moment when an explosion (I think) sent an object hurtling out of the screen- and I ducked. Or when I went to swat away an insect. Very effective.
  

• The story is weak, but not for a sci-fi fan. Sure, it's not Lord of the Rings. Not many movies (or books) are. I found myself wondering how Cameron was going to pull this off. When it became clear, it fit. Sure it was a deus ex machina but isn't that the whole point of movies like this?

• Spirituality is basic to the movie. Some of put it down as New Age mumbo-jumbo or the like. "Tree-huggers." That kind of thing. Sci-fi has always dealt with significant spirituality issues, like, say A Canticle for Leibowitz. Or the Speaker series by Orson Scott Card. Sometimes human Sometimes the spirituality was a stand-in for our historic human religions and sometimes they stood in contrast. But...
  

• It is a cautionary tale. Some more conservative types have been arguing with the supposedly anti-military, anti-human approach. But, hey, it's a parable. It is right where sci-fi has always been. I remember reading an anthology of the great science-fiction short stories. Following WW II and the atomic age starting all the great sci-fi stories began to deal with those issues. Alien worlds have always stood for what we fear- or those we have to face. They have shown our best sides and our worst sides.
  

• If it isn't nominated for an Academy Award, it will be a shame. It is not a great film, it is great film making in a new day and age. It is like the first talking picture or the first in Technicolor or the first record in stereo or surround-sound. It is a new world. As a great movie- no. But it could get an award for The Movie of the Year. In the old days (like last year) when only 5 movies were nominated it would be more difficult to nominate it. But this year... it should be a shoo-in for one of the ten.
  

A 40-Year Memory: Is This an Omen for This Year?

January 11 – Super Bowl IV: The Kansas City Chiefs beat the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings 23–7.

Especially since the Vikes have to face an incredibly hot Dallas Cowboys next Sunday.

Here's One to Ponder

Koan (Japanese)
A technical term used in Zen Buddhism referring to enigmatic or paradoxical questions used by teachers to develop students’ intuition. Also refers to religious problems encountered in daily life.

Here's an example for me from the life of the Trappist Monk, Thomas Merton (as found in Spirituality of Imperfection by Kurtz and Ketcham.)

One of Merton's favorite figures was Tan-hsia, a ninth-century master who often is pictured warming his bare backsides at a fire which he had made with a wooden image of the Buddha. In the Zen tradition, it is understood that idols of every sort are to be relentlessly smashed- whether they be one's dependence upon the ego, doctrine, scriptures, or even the Buddha.
--p. 123

What do I worship even more than God? What would I not be willing to lose? Now those are questions that border on heresy.

There's Always Next Year

Another Packer season ends with one of the oddest basketball football games I have ever seen.

Packers 45
Cardinals 51

on a fumble in overtime. A win by the Cardinal's defense when they finally showed up after 60 minutes of play. Kurt Warner and Aaron Rodgers got to play pitch and catch until then, run the ball up and down the field and set all kinds of records.

But in the end last year's champs came out on top and the Pack ends a far better season than anyone thought they would have about 8 weeks ago. At mid-season they were 4-4. They went on a 7-1 run that was great. It showed a young and growing quarterback and team falling into place. It showed a defense that, until today, was tops. Double A-Rod is a consistent and quality leader after only two seasons. We can only look forward to more years like this.

So, into the off-season we go. Thanks, Pack, for a good year.

And, if you're counting, it's only 92 days until Opening Day at Target Field.

Before There Was Avatar...

there were the oceans of Planet Earth. At least that's one way of reading what Live Science posted recently:

Dolphins are among several animals that use tools. But studies have shown they can do much more. Dolphins name themselves and they can recognize themselves in mirrors. They think about the future, can learn a basic symbol-based language, and behave more socially than was known. One dolphin taught to tail-walk in captivity later spread the trick to wild dolphins. Dolphins may even think about thinking.

"The scientific research . . . suggests that dolphins are 'non-human persons' who qualify for moral standing as individuals," says Thomas White, professor of ethics at Loyola Marymount University.

Non-human persons. An interesting concept. Especially since we have often had trouble seeing some of our own species as persons. Usually if they are different from us.

The Mystery of Writing

I just finished Stephen King's writing memoir, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. It is an easy read and actually a lot of fun. It originally was published ten years ago now and was finished as he was recuperating from a near fatal accident when he was hit by a van while walking along a back road in Maine. The first part is a memoir of his youth and writing career. He then spends most of his time talking about the craft of writing and then ends with recounting the accident and how, in essence, writing got him through.

There was not a lot in the book that I didn't know about writing. He covers in his own unique style some of the important tools of writing- grammar, theme, etc. But what was refreshing about the book was his personal approach and a reaffirmation for me of the craft of writing.

One particular piece was affirming to my own style of writing stories. I have often described it as while stories flow from the imagination, they also have a life of their own. Each story has a plot line, or a starting point, or even a vague understanding of where it might be going. But sooner or later in the crafting of the story it gets out of hand. The characters begin to say or do things that no one, least of all the writer, expected. People appear and disappear but the story continues on to its appropriate ending.

King described a very similar process. He talks about it as it was an archaeological dig, unearthing things that are hidden. In the action of putting words down in some sequence or theme, the writer is actually digging through the story and telling it, describing what he or she sees.

In the end, as I have said before, these stories can often be far more true than any collection of facts. They go beyond facts to the truths- paradigms, hopes, fears, myths, wisdom- of humanity.

That's One Way of Describing It.

Jessica Hagy at Indexed manages to put things so well.

I think this is a corollary to my definition that "old" is always 15 years older than I am.

And that the "Good, Old Days" were probably none of those.

Oooh Boy. Can't Wait for THIS one!

This from Fast Company scares the living daylights out of me:

What if you could drink endlessly and stay buzzed but never get sloppy? And what if you could then pop a pill to let you drive home sober? It sounds fantastical, but scientists are actually working on a synthetic alcohol substitute that brings all the happy feelings of being drunk without all the nasty mood swings, headaches, and addiction issues.

The alcohol substitute, which is being researched by a team at Imperial College London, will be made from Valium-like benzodiazepines. While benzos furnishes drinkers with a feeling of wellbeing, they don't affect parts of the brain that control addiction and mood swings, and they're easy to flush out of the body (no more nasty hangover cures!). Perhaps most intriguingly, the chemicals can be "switched off" with an antidote. Eventually, researchers involved in the project envision a world where alcohol content in beer and wine is replaced with their synthetic substance.

Of course, it will take more than a research experiment to persuade people to give up traditional alcohol. And who's to say that synthetic alcohol will have exactly the same positive effects as a bottle of Jack Daniels? If it doesn't, it will be a hard sell. Thus far, drink companies haven't shown interest in the product--a bad sign for synthetic alcohol's prospects. Still, we're in support of anything that could cut down on the number of drunk drivers and alcohol-related accidents that happen every day.

Why? Because benzodiazepines are very much an addictive substance. They are as dangerous as alcohol. No more drunk driving? Yeah, right. Buzzed driving is just as dangerous. No more hangovers. Unless of course you get to using these regularly. Then the hangover, or more to the point, the withdrawal could kill you.

Many of the comments about this are positive- hey- get drunk without the consequences or the extremes. As the old saying goes- if it sounds too good to be true... it probably isn't true.

Powerful!

Another one of those awesome ads for Amnesty International. Rattles your socks!

Through the Holidays---

---and no worse for wear over eating. That's the good news! And it really is good news. With yesterday being 12th Night/Epiphany the holiday season is over. Since Thanksgiving I have managed to hold my weight in a good, narrow range. I never went back up over 200! And as of today I am exactly where I was before the holidays.

The bad news is I haven't been working out at all. I have managed simply to eat sensibly and even had a few hints of things like Moravian Sugar Cake and chocolate Christmas goodies. But the physical side has been neglected. So, it will soon be necessary to make the Big Move again. I am thinking about some changes in my fitness regimen but am not sure yet. If so it will be an exercise experiment. Mrs. pmPilgrim and I are pondering some of this and I will let you know if it bears fruit.

But I must admit that for today I am pleased with the holiday season and how I have managed. And I promise not to celebrate with that luscious looking death-by-chocolate dessert I saw in the paper the other day.

A 30-Year Memory: Sound Familiar

January 7 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation approving $1.5 billion in loan guarantees to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.

The Same Old Story?

I haven't seen it yet, but plan to this weekend. But found this on BoingBoing website. They called it Pocohontar. Why not.


Larger version here>> Link at 9Gag

Wrestling Time??

Listening to Speaking of Faith the other day, the guest mentioned Jacob's wrestling with the angel (or God) and the result was that his thigh was crippled in some way or another. As I heard that I realized that my hip has been hurting more than usual recently. Does that mean I, too, have been wrestling with God? Again?

Probably. That may be why my postings the past month have not been mentioning my spiritual journey. For any of you longer-time readers of pmPilgrim, you will know that I often work out some of my thinking and directions by writing here. That is, after I have worked on them in my head, my meditation and prayer, and my journal.

Which isn't to say that it has been a non-productive or even non-spiritual season. In fact it has been anything but. Which means that God continues to work on me as usual. I continue to try to figure out what God is saying and why. A week ago I pulled my Watchword for the Year, a Moravian tradition for the new year. It is meant as a guide, a direction, a reminder of the presence of God in my life in the new year. I posted it there on the right sidebar as I do every year.

Those who look to God are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.
Psalm 34:5 (NIV)

As I read it and thought about it I realized that this is talking about something more real than success, more hopeful than material things, more indicative of God's presence than voices from heaven or bolts of lightning from the sky. There is a radiance, a light, that seems to come from somewhere else yet deep within.

Many of us in the treatment field have seen a variation on this. When a person starts to get sober, when the whole immensity of the possibility of recovery begins to work on a person, their eyes change. They get life. Their eyes sparkle. And not just the eyes but the eyelids and eyebrows. That's one of the ways I know that recovery has a spiritual component. It shows up in people in ways they aren't even aware of.

So perhaps, I thought as I pondered the watchword, my spiritual goal for the new year is to stop wrestling and let God work. Perhaps the wrestling will only result in an injured thigh or hip. But in not wrestling there is a sense of calm. It is what can be called acceptance of the will of God and having the power to carry it out in my life.

The result will be a life that does not have to live covered in shame. Perhaps it is shame that dulls the eyes before recovery, a deep down awareness that something has taken life away and replaced it with the things that lead away from God. As one begins to get the way of God in their life, that covering begins to lift. The gray sameness of a life lived without hope gets less and less to be replaced by the many colors of life in the human face.

Like the star with the Wise Men on the first Epiphany, the words of my Watchword will hopefully guide me closer to my Lord and my God in the coming year. Again God's love is revealed in the face of Jesus. I need never be covered again with shame.

Thanks be to God!

Why Does This Gnaw At Me?

News Item:

Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church announced last week that his church was $900,000 behind for the year. Within the next several days he received over $2 million!!!! He called it a "miracle."

Something About Hollywood and New York

More from movie mash-ups as clips from 22 movies shows that Hollywood has one thing in mind- the celluloid destruction of New York over the past 40 years. (HT The Awesomer.)

Back for One More Monday Morning QB

Well, the regular season is over. For a while it looked like the Vikings' fans were going to see the Starting QB that Green Bay knew and loved. There were some bad weeks for them, but the Starting QB came back in the last game and a half looking like he is 10 years younger. He is truly an amazing QB and not even Packer Fans will disagree. Overall, the Vikings had a great season.

Then there's Green Bay's Double-A Rod (Aaron Rodgers). There were some difficult weeks in the middle of the season but the team did not quit. They are now ready for the post-season playoffs. Rodgers is as good as quarterbacks get. The offensive line has improved and it looks like they may not be running up the penalties like they did earlier. The defense has done a good job- especially in "take-aways," batted balls, etc. The Packers have also had a great season.

But what will happen next?

Who knows! As we all know any given team can beat any other given team on any Sunday. That is just as true in the playoffs. Either of the NFC North teams could find their way into the Super Bowl.

My guess is that (sadly) Arizona will come back next week and beat the Pack and then go all the way to the Super Bowl.* Indianapolis will show their strengths and get to the Big Game, too.

But don't quote me. After all, I'm not even a good Monday Morning QB.

*Sidebar note: My pick of the Cardinals next week is based on yesterday's over-powering win by the Packers. That can often spur the loser into an extra push to get back. The Packers are HOT, but the Cardinals have revenge in mind, I'm afraid.

Why Resolve?

Well, the only New Year's Resolution I made was not to make any New Year's resolutions.

Ooops. Missed again.

One of the biggest problems with making New Year's Resolutions is that it over-estimates the possibilities of will-power. No matter what most of us think- we don't have enough of it to do most of what we think we want to do. Things like boredom, laziness, over-confidence, and just plain apathy work against our ability to do what we think we want to do, especially when it is too much like too much effort. So all those non-lost pounds and those non-exercising hours take over and we give up.

Failures. Maybe next time....

That is why we need grace. The same is true for so much of our lives, not just the soon-to-be-forgotten resolutions.

Which brings me to a comment here on the blog on New Year's Eve. DC said:"Nothing stays the same.....except sin." Change is what we can expect in the new year, of course. There will be surprises and things we would never expect. Yet, in the end the same old inability to overcome our inabilities continues to undermine what we want and what we do. It may be an over-statement to say that giving up on resolutions is "sin."

But it takes us to Paul and one of his most profound observations:

The good that I want to do, I can't seem to get done. The evil that I want to stay away from, well, that's what I end up doing.

Sin. Missing the mark. Not living up to my own expectations of myself, let alone God's.

So God invented- and has lived- grace. God's love is so big and broad and deep that we can never earn it. But it is clear that God wants us to have it. That is why we were created. Because that love is so great, God gives it to us- even when we don't deserve it. If we deserved it, it wouldn't be grace.

As I start this new year that thought and experience will keep me going many times as it has in the past. I will know when I fail that I can return for forgiveness and love. I will also know that in Jesus Christ I will be able to live that love and grace.

Thanks be to God in this new year.

Dreaming

Over the past few months I watched them building a new section of rail trail east of town on the way to church. It is all but finished....

but it is obviously not "navigable" right now...

So I dream of warmer weather to try out this new section of biking trail.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Well, we have seen the up side of 10 degrees for the last time for a while. And every year when we reach the first really extended cold snap we go into this seizure of reactions. It becomes the topic of conversation. We wonder why we live here in the frozen north. We either bundle up like a kid who can hardly move or we try to act tough and go out with a spring jacket on.

And bloggers like me write about it since our brains our so frozen we don't know what to think.

Actually I know it is dangerous and we too often take it with too cavalier an attitude. We are not ready for or used to this weather anymore if we were ever able to. Back before better insulation and better furnaces and super heaters in cars, this was a deadly time of year. Now we hop in our car with frigid wind-chills swirling around us. We push up the fan on our car heaters to defrost (i.e. melt) the ice forming on our side windows and punch the electric heater for the back window as it too freezes from the warmer air we humans exude.

Somehow we have to find a sensible way of dealing with this. BIG HEADLINES can scare us, but they don't necessarily keep us aware. I was recently told that last winter during a particular cold stretch there were far more hospital admissions for cold-related issues than usual. We are more protected than we used to be- so perhaps we do get a little lackadaisical.

I for one am guilty of that- and then whining about the cold. In the end, however, in spite of all our modern conveniences and protections, old Mother Nature is a lot stronger than we give her credit for being.

Happy New Year 2010