When Modern Western Society was being formed, there came to be what was called "The Three Estates." In other words - there were three types of people in the world:
The Clergy - the Nobility - The Masses.
You were either, a priest, a prince, or a nobody. Life was that simple.
I think the church at that point had forgotten its roots. It forgot that Jesus was part of the third estate, a nobody, a poor person with a social agenda. I don't think we ever really got it back.
The church has always had an identity problem. It is caused by the fact that Jesus was poor and talked about helping the poor - but the church is almost exclusively made up of middle-class folks, and ruled by the societal elite.
I know we do not want to hear this - I know so many pastors, clergy, priests - who over and over claim they are just common ordinary folk.
Well. No.
Like it or not - we are different.
And I do not mean made holy and set apart by God. That is either a construct of our powerful hierarchy or it is something we say to make ourselves feel better.
I mean we are different in that we are part of the ruling elite - we are just not paid enough for it to be part of the societal elite in our hyper financialized class structure.
Clergy are hyper-educated. Even the minority of people who go straight into the first estate have a minimum of two University Degrees. Many of us have a whole other career we trained for as well, and a huge percentage of us have more than two degrees.
Secondly - we get decision making power in a society that is really out of tune with the average jane. I can talk to the mayor about how I think something should be done - and they will probably consider it. People listen to me for advice on everything from how to bake bread to whether or not to leave their spouse. A clergy person has a scary amount of power when it comes to influencing.
People tell us their secrets. Almost everyone.
All of this, for as long as there have been professional religious leaders, has gotten us into trouble repeatedly. Think about Rasputin in the Russian Court or Richelieu in the French Court. Think about paedophile priests and native residential schools.
I wonder if it causes more problems now than it ever did.
And I wonder if this is because we pretend it is not true.
The current pandemic is changing the social landscape. I no longer think it will last long enough to change it permanently. But something else will probably happen and continue the work the virus began.
Which is the work of rebalancing society?
And what we are discovering is that the third estate, the ones we always discount as being not the elite of society, are the only ones making society function. I mean, if you take away a priest or a politician from a local community - there will still be food, and water, and fire, and shelter... as long as there are farmers, carpenters, labourers... There will still be joy and spiritual depth as long as there are still poets and musicians...
Here is the secret that everyone has always known - the third estate, the huddled masses, the poor... they are the ones who matter the most.
And when we use religious language, when we sing hymns from hymn books, when we make prayers responsive and use words that no one understands - we shut everyone out from experiencing what Religion is all about.
Greta Vosper talked about removing the magical language from religion and stop making it like we are talking to some other "being" like the great Santa Clause in the sky... and this was a good corrective.
But I think there is another step necessary here. We need to strip religion of class. That is the far more dangerous aspect of what we do - maintain a class structure that no longer serves anyone well.
We need to abandon religious trappings and become "plain" in what we do. We need to realize that the Quakers and Mennonites were the ones who best understood Luther and the whole point of the church reformation back in the early 1500's. They were trying to make faith accessible to the common person.
So no more words like epiclesis, exhortation, benediction, or sacrament. No more reading King James Bibles from the pulpit as if those words meant anything to anyone any more. No more robes and collars and ridiculousness.
If these days have taught us anything - it is that the stories of faith, the stories of goodness, the actions and language we need to use to change the world - are not ours, they belong to those who live life every single day from the gutter up.
I have a friend I have never met in Memphis - a guitar player who knows my wife - who was outside of a Walgreen's on the weekend and gave some Gatorade and protein snacks to a homeless guy... A minute later another homeless guy ambled across the street and the first one, now with a bag of groceries, says, "I got ya covered man" and hands him a Gatorade and Lunchable.
See - that is what Jesus was like. And that is what we should be like too. That is religion and those are the stories we need to tell.
Monday, 27 April 2020
Tuesday, 21 April 2020
We All Need Somebody... to Hay ay ate...
I posted a small philosophical rant on Facebook around the reality of mass shootings. Or perhaps the prevalence of mass shootings. In those short paragraphs, I suggested that it was once not a part of my reality at all - but the shootings in Montreal at the Polytechnique and in 'Merica at Columbine began a slippery slope in which mass shootings happen more often and in more places.
So what happened?
I should back up a moment and tell you that yes, I do realize this to be an oversimplification. I realize there was violence previous to this. The stonewall riots for example. Or the Northern Ireland conflicts. We have always been a species prone to violence.
But when I stop and examine what I am saying a little more closely - what has changed is the specificity of the violence.
"Back in my day," which I am getting old enough to actually say now, the targets of violence made sense. It was not correct. It was not moral. But... you could sit back in your armchair while watching the nightly news and say - oh... they are after the blacks again. Or the gays. It was domestic violence. It was... you see what I am saying - there was a rhyme and a reason.
But now, buddy in Nova Scotia kills 18 or more people whom he randomly pulls over. A guy drives a van through a crowd. In Las Vegas a man takes random shots into a concert crowd - and we sit back trying to figure out what in tarnation caused them to decide to go on a shooting spree. Usually never finding an answer.
So there were replies to my post. There was a fairly good discussion. But I had another discussion with a colleague in the background that made me wonder about another possibility.
Something we do not say out loud.
Maybe we were happier when there was someone to look down on.
I am not advocating what I am about to say. I am examining it from a philosophical and sociological point of view. So bear with me just a second and reserve judgement in terms of writing this off.
You see, once upon a time - in my lifetime... black people, indigenous people, gay people, women, poor people, welfare recipients, mentally challenged people and even crippled people were inferior to me. It was shown to me in subtle and overt ways. Jokes and movie portrayals, right through to outright acts of belligerence. They were all sort of normal because, well, they were inferior.
Again - this is not how I feel now, nor do I believe it "should" have been how I felt then.
But back in the day, it was politically correct to find someone in another category of life, and determine that they were the enemy, or at least if not the enemy, then inferior to me.
Which in turn allowed me to feel good about myself.
There was an old prayer once in one of our religious traditions, I won't call them out, but it was a famous prayer that you said when you woke up in the morning and part of it said "Thank God I am not a woman, I am not a..." it was an actual, written prayer, counting blessings, by pointing out that if God had hated us, he would have made us.... (black, female, gay, poor...)
And by default - being a white male person of privilege was to be blessed.
I wonder, if by creating political correctness, we took away, not only the easy target, but also our own self-worth. Certainly, we have heard men, in particular, speak like this as feminism was taking root in the '80s and '90s. If we were not the superior species, then what were we? All of a sudden there was a crisis of identity. And it was necessary, and it was good, and the way men are now is way, way, way better. But...
Think of this on a global scale. Now, no matter who you are - woman, indigenous, gay, white, crazy... no matter who you are, we live in a society where everyone is equal and everyone has value.
On the surface that is a wonderful thing. But is it also forcing those people on the outer edges of sanity to not be able to make peace with their own inner demons?
Was the ability to express anger and outrage at another "group" one of the safety factors that vented hostility which would otherwise be focused on the self?
I keep feeling I have to go back and say, once more, I am not advocating a return to racism, sexism, classism, ableism, heteronomous though or anything of the sort. I am merely trying to ask if we might see this as a possible turning point in society from whence came crazy unfocused violence.
Is it really rage at the self, at the parts of the self we do not like, outwardly manifested as a shooting spree?
And is this rage exacerbated by the fact that there is no one we can focus that negativity on? Did hating gays at least allow me to repress the violence I felt towards my own homoerotic ideas? for example.
Did hating women allow me to feel that at least as a man I had built in masculinity and power and so I did not feel weak and powerless?
I wonder...
I wonder if that is behind the rise of random violence?
And the solution, by the way, if I am even close to correct, would not be going back to a less egalitarian way of thinking. The solution would be to recognize that there is darkness in people that we are not addressing.
I think perhaps whenever we change systems or ways of thought we tend to gloss over some of the negative consequences and feel they will just go away. No one wanted to admit that there was actually a sociological reason why having a group be "lesser" helped soothe the ego of people in the group that was "greater." And because no one ever admitted that, no one worked at finding other, healthier ways, for us to cope with our inner demons.
As an aside, the more I thought about this the more other factors of modern society have clicked into place for me. Again, no science behind any of this, just observational data and it could be false - but I am an op/ed writer, not a scientist.
For example, the rise in populism within politics and the way Donald Trump, and now others, gathered large swathes of supporters simply by putting other people down.
Does this back up what I am saying? We are actually hungry for someone to hate so that we can feel better about ourselves. And in a world that tells us, it is so terribly morally wrong to hate anyone - we feel lost. But along comes Trump and essentially ignores the last 40 years. Women, gays, blacks, Mexicans, Islamic folks, they are all the enemy now...
And it makes the listener feel like, finally, I am the winner! Without having to do anything to earn that praise. By being a white, racist, male, I am perfect! And so there is a rise of self-worth, a rise of pride, and we jump on the bandwagon.
It is not America First that Trump actually sold. It is a white male first.
Seeing how effective this rhetoric was for him, and others only solidify my assumption that there is something dark and unaddressed in the modern human psyche that has to do with my need to feel better than others.
How do we fix this?
So what happened?
I should back up a moment and tell you that yes, I do realize this to be an oversimplification. I realize there was violence previous to this. The stonewall riots for example. Or the Northern Ireland conflicts. We have always been a species prone to violence.
But when I stop and examine what I am saying a little more closely - what has changed is the specificity of the violence.
"Back in my day," which I am getting old enough to actually say now, the targets of violence made sense. It was not correct. It was not moral. But... you could sit back in your armchair while watching the nightly news and say - oh... they are after the blacks again. Or the gays. It was domestic violence. It was... you see what I am saying - there was a rhyme and a reason.
But now, buddy in Nova Scotia kills 18 or more people whom he randomly pulls over. A guy drives a van through a crowd. In Las Vegas a man takes random shots into a concert crowd - and we sit back trying to figure out what in tarnation caused them to decide to go on a shooting spree. Usually never finding an answer.
So there were replies to my post. There was a fairly good discussion. But I had another discussion with a colleague in the background that made me wonder about another possibility.
Something we do not say out loud.
Maybe we were happier when there was someone to look down on.
I am not advocating what I am about to say. I am examining it from a philosophical and sociological point of view. So bear with me just a second and reserve judgement in terms of writing this off.
You see, once upon a time - in my lifetime... black people, indigenous people, gay people, women, poor people, welfare recipients, mentally challenged people and even crippled people were inferior to me. It was shown to me in subtle and overt ways. Jokes and movie portrayals, right through to outright acts of belligerence. They were all sort of normal because, well, they were inferior.
Again - this is not how I feel now, nor do I believe it "should" have been how I felt then.
But back in the day, it was politically correct to find someone in another category of life, and determine that they were the enemy, or at least if not the enemy, then inferior to me.
Which in turn allowed me to feel good about myself.
There was an old prayer once in one of our religious traditions, I won't call them out, but it was a famous prayer that you said when you woke up in the morning and part of it said "Thank God I am not a woman, I am not a..." it was an actual, written prayer, counting blessings, by pointing out that if God had hated us, he would have made us.... (black, female, gay, poor...)
And by default - being a white male person of privilege was to be blessed.
I wonder, if by creating political correctness, we took away, not only the easy target, but also our own self-worth. Certainly, we have heard men, in particular, speak like this as feminism was taking root in the '80s and '90s. If we were not the superior species, then what were we? All of a sudden there was a crisis of identity. And it was necessary, and it was good, and the way men are now is way, way, way better. But...
Think of this on a global scale. Now, no matter who you are - woman, indigenous, gay, white, crazy... no matter who you are, we live in a society where everyone is equal and everyone has value.
On the surface that is a wonderful thing. But is it also forcing those people on the outer edges of sanity to not be able to make peace with their own inner demons?
Was the ability to express anger and outrage at another "group" one of the safety factors that vented hostility which would otherwise be focused on the self?
I keep feeling I have to go back and say, once more, I am not advocating a return to racism, sexism, classism, ableism, heteronomous though or anything of the sort. I am merely trying to ask if we might see this as a possible turning point in society from whence came crazy unfocused violence.
Is it really rage at the self, at the parts of the self we do not like, outwardly manifested as a shooting spree?
And is this rage exacerbated by the fact that there is no one we can focus that negativity on? Did hating gays at least allow me to repress the violence I felt towards my own homoerotic ideas? for example.
Did hating women allow me to feel that at least as a man I had built in masculinity and power and so I did not feel weak and powerless?
I wonder...
I wonder if that is behind the rise of random violence?
And the solution, by the way, if I am even close to correct, would not be going back to a less egalitarian way of thinking. The solution would be to recognize that there is darkness in people that we are not addressing.
I think perhaps whenever we change systems or ways of thought we tend to gloss over some of the negative consequences and feel they will just go away. No one wanted to admit that there was actually a sociological reason why having a group be "lesser" helped soothe the ego of people in the group that was "greater." And because no one ever admitted that, no one worked at finding other, healthier ways, for us to cope with our inner demons.
As an aside, the more I thought about this the more other factors of modern society have clicked into place for me. Again, no science behind any of this, just observational data and it could be false - but I am an op/ed writer, not a scientist.
For example, the rise in populism within politics and the way Donald Trump, and now others, gathered large swathes of supporters simply by putting other people down.
Does this back up what I am saying? We are actually hungry for someone to hate so that we can feel better about ourselves. And in a world that tells us, it is so terribly morally wrong to hate anyone - we feel lost. But along comes Trump and essentially ignores the last 40 years. Women, gays, blacks, Mexicans, Islamic folks, they are all the enemy now...
And it makes the listener feel like, finally, I am the winner! Without having to do anything to earn that praise. By being a white, racist, male, I am perfect! And so there is a rise of self-worth, a rise of pride, and we jump on the bandwagon.
It is not America First that Trump actually sold. It is a white male first.
Seeing how effective this rhetoric was for him, and others only solidify my assumption that there is something dark and unaddressed in the modern human psyche that has to do with my need to feel better than others.
How do we fix this?
Thursday, 16 April 2020
Quarentine Roulette
I have posted memes on Facebook which amount to saying this: Things were broken, let's not go back.
The black and white divide between the past and the future I am calling out is, of course, artificial. And I have attributed those posts to economics, capitalism, lack of socialism, broken health and tax systems... a number of "culprits" who when taken at face value, are probably not to blame.
The other thing I have seen over the last few weeks is a so called divide opening up between introverts and extroverts. Those who are okay with being locked in a house and those who are needing to leave.
Now this divide is also artificial but has equally black and white factors attributed to it. I need to see people, I need a hug, I never liked people anyway, I read books, I have a cat... all kinds of people saying all kinds of things as if they were the one and only answer.
A problem with social media has always been presentation of ideas. How I present something makes a difference, and in social media most people present "opinions" as not merely "facts" but as somehow brought down from the mountain on stone tablets.
Carved in stone truth for everyone is rarely found in social discussion.
But we sort of know that.
So I wonder what is really behind the messages. What is at the root of thrive or failure to thrive in the pandemic world?
I am going to present some ideas born from discussion with my wife and consideration of our families and see if they might not round out some of the edges of what is causing problems both now, before, and potentially after.
None of this might ring true for you - but I think good discussion makes you think, and so I am presenting this as something to think about.
Extrovert and Introvert is a false label. Or rather, has become a shortcut, used to describe very limited understandings. To be an extrovert means more than needing to go outside. To be an introvert means more than needing to be alone.
Here are some issues around that - how comfortable are you reflecting on your own life? How comfortable are you in your own house? How much do you need to be around other people? Do you like to be in a crowd? When new ideas crop up in your head do you need to talk to other people about them? How much television is actually healthy?
You see - the ideas are complex. And when we say, I am an introvert I am ok - it could mean SO many different things that there is no easy label on why that is true.
Take me, I am somewhat introverted in that I recharge emotional energy by being alone. However, I cannot for the life of me sit in one place for longer than, say, half an hour. In the round of a week I usually travel, say, 400 km just driving from one place to the next - sometimes for no reason.
I cannot not have my mind occupied - so I need to be "doing" something all the time. But is that an extrovert quality or ADHD?
I have anxiety and PTSD but that does not mean that I do not thrive off of constant newness. I do not even drive home from the store using the same route I took.
So jsut for myself, there is no easy label. And I imagine that is true for others as well.
How about the economy, social safety net, etc.
I say it was broken but the reasons I say it was broken may not resonate with anyone else.
I think it sucks that the main point of most of our lives is sustenance employment. It takes two breadwinners most of their week to earn enough money to provide human basic needs. That should not be true. We should have way more time to paint, make music, love, food, etc. Or at least that is how I feel.
I always thought communal living would be a better answer. Still do. If we were in groups of 10-15 now instead of groups of 2-4 would that not be better? But again, that is me.
I do not value "stuff" the way others do. I wear old clothes and buy most of what I own at Giant Tiger. But I need high end tech and expensive rum, as well as trips across the country.
What we value and why differs from each person, and it differs greatly.
I guess when I say the old system was broken I am meaning the system that said getting rich was the plan, having 1.4 kids was the plan, working more than 40 hours per week was the plan, always buying the next new thing was the plan... these are the things I am glad have been taken away by the pandemic.
Now what is important is keeping healthy. What is important is finding joy where you are. What is important is spending time with family. What is important is making do with what you have.
And in those ways I feel joy in my heart.
But "I" think, and again, this is an opinion, that what needed to change, and may yet perhaps change in this - is that our value system needs to change.
And it is not about how we run an economy, it is not about whether we are introverted or extroverted, it is not about rich or poor, gender, sexuality, or anything that we have been fighting over before...
What needs to change is the recognition that each individual person is just that. And what I need, how I meet those needs, and how I fit in with others is unique to me alone. And I wish we could create a society that valued that - the individual and how they fit into the common good without losing their identity.
That is why I keep saying I want to go back to the hippy movement. I think they were on to something when they claimed that each person was a wonderful person just for being them.
But maybe I am wrong...
Either way - each of us needs to find how THEY thrive in this new world. I don't think we will go back to the way it was two months ago - there will be more diseases, more natural disasters, more political turmoil in the months and years to come. And they will change us. So maybe be patient with each other and try hard to help everyone be the best person they can be.
The black and white divide between the past and the future I am calling out is, of course, artificial. And I have attributed those posts to economics, capitalism, lack of socialism, broken health and tax systems... a number of "culprits" who when taken at face value, are probably not to blame.
The other thing I have seen over the last few weeks is a so called divide opening up between introverts and extroverts. Those who are okay with being locked in a house and those who are needing to leave.
Now this divide is also artificial but has equally black and white factors attributed to it. I need to see people, I need a hug, I never liked people anyway, I read books, I have a cat... all kinds of people saying all kinds of things as if they were the one and only answer.
A problem with social media has always been presentation of ideas. How I present something makes a difference, and in social media most people present "opinions" as not merely "facts" but as somehow brought down from the mountain on stone tablets.
Carved in stone truth for everyone is rarely found in social discussion.
But we sort of know that.
So I wonder what is really behind the messages. What is at the root of thrive or failure to thrive in the pandemic world?
I am going to present some ideas born from discussion with my wife and consideration of our families and see if they might not round out some of the edges of what is causing problems both now, before, and potentially after.
None of this might ring true for you - but I think good discussion makes you think, and so I am presenting this as something to think about.
Extrovert and Introvert is a false label. Or rather, has become a shortcut, used to describe very limited understandings. To be an extrovert means more than needing to go outside. To be an introvert means more than needing to be alone.
Here are some issues around that - how comfortable are you reflecting on your own life? How comfortable are you in your own house? How much do you need to be around other people? Do you like to be in a crowd? When new ideas crop up in your head do you need to talk to other people about them? How much television is actually healthy?
You see - the ideas are complex. And when we say, I am an introvert I am ok - it could mean SO many different things that there is no easy label on why that is true.
Take me, I am somewhat introverted in that I recharge emotional energy by being alone. However, I cannot for the life of me sit in one place for longer than, say, half an hour. In the round of a week I usually travel, say, 400 km just driving from one place to the next - sometimes for no reason.
I cannot not have my mind occupied - so I need to be "doing" something all the time. But is that an extrovert quality or ADHD?
I have anxiety and PTSD but that does not mean that I do not thrive off of constant newness. I do not even drive home from the store using the same route I took.
So jsut for myself, there is no easy label. And I imagine that is true for others as well.
How about the economy, social safety net, etc.
I say it was broken but the reasons I say it was broken may not resonate with anyone else.
I think it sucks that the main point of most of our lives is sustenance employment. It takes two breadwinners most of their week to earn enough money to provide human basic needs. That should not be true. We should have way more time to paint, make music, love, food, etc. Or at least that is how I feel.
I always thought communal living would be a better answer. Still do. If we were in groups of 10-15 now instead of groups of 2-4 would that not be better? But again, that is me.
I do not value "stuff" the way others do. I wear old clothes and buy most of what I own at Giant Tiger. But I need high end tech and expensive rum, as well as trips across the country.
What we value and why differs from each person, and it differs greatly.
I guess when I say the old system was broken I am meaning the system that said getting rich was the plan, having 1.4 kids was the plan, working more than 40 hours per week was the plan, always buying the next new thing was the plan... these are the things I am glad have been taken away by the pandemic.
Now what is important is keeping healthy. What is important is finding joy where you are. What is important is spending time with family. What is important is making do with what you have.
And in those ways I feel joy in my heart.
But "I" think, and again, this is an opinion, that what needed to change, and may yet perhaps change in this - is that our value system needs to change.
And it is not about how we run an economy, it is not about whether we are introverted or extroverted, it is not about rich or poor, gender, sexuality, or anything that we have been fighting over before...
What needs to change is the recognition that each individual person is just that. And what I need, how I meet those needs, and how I fit in with others is unique to me alone. And I wish we could create a society that valued that - the individual and how they fit into the common good without losing their identity.
That is why I keep saying I want to go back to the hippy movement. I think they were on to something when they claimed that each person was a wonderful person just for being them.
But maybe I am wrong...
Either way - each of us needs to find how THEY thrive in this new world. I don't think we will go back to the way it was two months ago - there will be more diseases, more natural disasters, more political turmoil in the months and years to come. And they will change us. So maybe be patient with each other and try hard to help everyone be the best person they can be.
Tuesday, 24 March 2020
Sufficient Unto the Day...
I have always had this sense that everything was going to be all right.
People accuse me of being too laid back, and I get that. I do not worry or panic about the things that normal people worry or panic about.
(as an aside - the things I DO worry about are weird as well. I worry about what the "best" thing to have for supper is. I worry about how to get 8 hours of sleep. I worry about which shirt to wear today. I worry about whether strangers think I am attractive... But when I get cancer, when there is a pandemic, when the money runs out... no worry at all)
I would love to be able to claim this is the result of faith - that I let go and let God - or put it at the feet of Jesus or some other trite and meaningless convention of faith. But it has nothing to do with faith in that sense.
I have been thinking in the midst of this pandemic and I guess the way my mind works is basically this:
That is it in a nutshell.
So it totally explains my worries and lack of worry. I really do not care about tomorrow at any deep level. I really do not care about yesterday at any deep level. If it is happening today, then it means everything to me.
Now, as I said, this is not classical faith the way it has evolved through theology - but I wonder if it is closer to the way Jesus intended us to see the world. Is this in fact what "being religious" means?
As you can imagine, I am weathering the pandemic fairly well because I am focused almost completely on today. And today is absolutely no different from any other day in my life - except for some minor variations, and every day has minor variations, so it does not surprise me.
And because of that, I would like to make the case for ancient spiritual wisdom actually giving us the tools we need in times like this.
In my own tradition there is this whole speech Jesus gives where he says that birds of the air and flowers of the field do not worry about tomorrow - and yet they have magnificent lives. He follows this up by saying "sufficient unto the day are the evils thereof" (in the old fashioned way of our bibles) or perhaps if he was speaking to us now he might say - "there is enough to worry about right in front of you - for my sake - let it go."
And the other big spiritual gurus were pretty clear on the same thing... from Buddha who essentially said that concentrating on the here and now is the path to salvation through all the rest of them.
Live in the present. Give thanks for the present. Celebrate the goodness you see.
That is faith in action.
It is hard to do. But it is not impossible. And I guess that is where I hope we can get to. An ability to wake up and see the snow falling outside our windows, where we are locked away from the pandemic, and think - wow, pretty - and go make some toast.
The moment is all that there is. Make the most of it. That is what Jesus would have done.
People accuse me of being too laid back, and I get that. I do not worry or panic about the things that normal people worry or panic about.
(as an aside - the things I DO worry about are weird as well. I worry about what the "best" thing to have for supper is. I worry about how to get 8 hours of sleep. I worry about which shirt to wear today. I worry about whether strangers think I am attractive... But when I get cancer, when there is a pandemic, when the money runs out... no worry at all)
I would love to be able to claim this is the result of faith - that I let go and let God - or put it at the feet of Jesus or some other trite and meaningless convention of faith. But it has nothing to do with faith in that sense.
I have been thinking in the midst of this pandemic and I guess the way my mind works is basically this:
I will probably be dead tomorrow. How do I have the best day ever today?
That is it in a nutshell.
So it totally explains my worries and lack of worry. I really do not care about tomorrow at any deep level. I really do not care about yesterday at any deep level. If it is happening today, then it means everything to me.
Now, as I said, this is not classical faith the way it has evolved through theology - but I wonder if it is closer to the way Jesus intended us to see the world. Is this in fact what "being religious" means?
As you can imagine, I am weathering the pandemic fairly well because I am focused almost completely on today. And today is absolutely no different from any other day in my life - except for some minor variations, and every day has minor variations, so it does not surprise me.
And because of that, I would like to make the case for ancient spiritual wisdom actually giving us the tools we need in times like this.
In my own tradition there is this whole speech Jesus gives where he says that birds of the air and flowers of the field do not worry about tomorrow - and yet they have magnificent lives. He follows this up by saying "sufficient unto the day are the evils thereof" (in the old fashioned way of our bibles) or perhaps if he was speaking to us now he might say - "there is enough to worry about right in front of you - for my sake - let it go."
And the other big spiritual gurus were pretty clear on the same thing... from Buddha who essentially said that concentrating on the here and now is the path to salvation through all the rest of them.
Live in the present. Give thanks for the present. Celebrate the goodness you see.
That is faith in action.
It is hard to do. But it is not impossible. And I guess that is where I hope we can get to. An ability to wake up and see the snow falling outside our windows, where we are locked away from the pandemic, and think - wow, pretty - and go make some toast.
The moment is all that there is. Make the most of it. That is what Jesus would have done.
Monday, 16 March 2020
The Good of the Many - Leads to Loneliness
I grew up watching Star Trek.
Well - obsessing over Star Trek.
I suppose I am lucky that I chose a show that reflected a deep sense of moral value back into the world. Or perhaps I was already someone who held the values of love and inclusion close to my heart and so I loved the show because I saw myself in it.
Nonetheless - I have lived 50 years with the idea of "do no harm" and that the good of the many outweighs the good of the one. I have lived my life believing that race does not matter and that interfering with the way another person saw the world was wrong.
So the measures being taken to flatten the curve already make sense to me.
I also have been reading about how the same things happened in the early 1900's around the Spanish Flu. The Universities and schools shut down, for example. And there are undoubtedly many other examples.
The real difference I suppose is ease of travel. Back in the day we had to wait weeks till the ship crossed the ocean. Now we are there this afternoon.
I will not pretend that I mind social isolation. I am not a gregariously needy person when it comes to social interaction. I prefer writing on my laptop or playing skyrim.
But my role in life is to interact and care for those who are vulnerable and who need attention. And to offer a spiritual dimension to the reality I witness. Being the op ed type of journalist who tries to delve deep into issues that others find impermanent - like art and faith and society - sometimes means taking a different view of things.
So here is a thought that I think you might all agree with but that not many are putting out there.
The world is a lonely place.
It has been becoming lonelier and lonelier as we spend more time at home, on the internet, as we move away from family and become a global citizens.
We already struggle to find meaningful connection. And this is going to make it worse.
I fear, not the loss of 20% of the population or whatever this pandemic may do in the short term (which, I do not dismiss, it is sad and scary - but reality) What I truly fear is the aftermath.
9/11 changed the world forever. In subtle but interesting ways. We became a nanny state where agreement with the majority became the greatest social value.
It changed us.
Looking back sociologists will be able to point to that one event and say that society was moving in one direction and the twin towers altered the trajectory of social development.
Somehow 9/11 also changed science. I do not know if you remember, but before that we could clone people, we could build space stations, teleportation was right around the corner...
A decade later people turned against science and now we cannot even convince people that the planet is getting warmer or that they should wash their hands.
So what will the outcome of the Corona virus Pandemic be? How much will this change who we are?
That is my fear. That perhaps social contact and the idea of togetherness is at risk. Perhaps we will come to see people who want to be around other people as abnormal. Perhaps we will no longer have group events, concerts, sports...
I don't know. Things never happen in obvious ways because human beings are bizarrely unpredictable. Witness the fact of toilet paper shortages with a disease that does not alter your "regularity" at all.
So I might be wrong about "what" will be forever changed. Still, I worry that something will be forever changed - and not for the better.
I guess my hope is that we continue to value the good things - love, peace, hope, joy and that we fight to remember to keep those things alive even as the world shifts beneath our feet.
Well - obsessing over Star Trek.
I suppose I am lucky that I chose a show that reflected a deep sense of moral value back into the world. Or perhaps I was already someone who held the values of love and inclusion close to my heart and so I loved the show because I saw myself in it.
Nonetheless - I have lived 50 years with the idea of "do no harm" and that the good of the many outweighs the good of the one. I have lived my life believing that race does not matter and that interfering with the way another person saw the world was wrong.
So the measures being taken to flatten the curve already make sense to me.
I also have been reading about how the same things happened in the early 1900's around the Spanish Flu. The Universities and schools shut down, for example. And there are undoubtedly many other examples.
The real difference I suppose is ease of travel. Back in the day we had to wait weeks till the ship crossed the ocean. Now we are there this afternoon.
I will not pretend that I mind social isolation. I am not a gregariously needy person when it comes to social interaction. I prefer writing on my laptop or playing skyrim.
But my role in life is to interact and care for those who are vulnerable and who need attention. And to offer a spiritual dimension to the reality I witness. Being the op ed type of journalist who tries to delve deep into issues that others find impermanent - like art and faith and society - sometimes means taking a different view of things.
So here is a thought that I think you might all agree with but that not many are putting out there.
The world is a lonely place.
It has been becoming lonelier and lonelier as we spend more time at home, on the internet, as we move away from family and become a global citizens.
We already struggle to find meaningful connection. And this is going to make it worse.
I fear, not the loss of 20% of the population or whatever this pandemic may do in the short term (which, I do not dismiss, it is sad and scary - but reality) What I truly fear is the aftermath.
9/11 changed the world forever. In subtle but interesting ways. We became a nanny state where agreement with the majority became the greatest social value.
It changed us.
Looking back sociologists will be able to point to that one event and say that society was moving in one direction and the twin towers altered the trajectory of social development.
Somehow 9/11 also changed science. I do not know if you remember, but before that we could clone people, we could build space stations, teleportation was right around the corner...
A decade later people turned against science and now we cannot even convince people that the planet is getting warmer or that they should wash their hands.
So what will the outcome of the Corona virus Pandemic be? How much will this change who we are?
That is my fear. That perhaps social contact and the idea of togetherness is at risk. Perhaps we will come to see people who want to be around other people as abnormal. Perhaps we will no longer have group events, concerts, sports...
I don't know. Things never happen in obvious ways because human beings are bizarrely unpredictable. Witness the fact of toilet paper shortages with a disease that does not alter your "regularity" at all.
So I might be wrong about "what" will be forever changed. Still, I worry that something will be forever changed - and not for the better.
I guess my hope is that we continue to value the good things - love, peace, hope, joy and that we fight to remember to keep those things alive even as the world shifts beneath our feet.
Monday, 10 February 2020
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun! (They Just - a - wanna)
I'm having a hard time these days.
See - I am someone who does everything from the point of view of how wonderful life is.
I have been accused of Pollyanna thinking, and I do understand that. I do admit that even my own life is harder than I tell myself. After all, I have problems with my kids, I have health issues, I have failed relationships and I have suffered loss.
The thing is, Cyndi Lauper really got to me, and I think girls (and boys) just want to have fun.
Can I defend this theologically? No. Can I defend this sociologically? No.
My only possible defense is two lesser used biblical lines - Moses says to the people of Israel when they are almost done wandering around in the desert - I put before you this day life or death... Choose life; while Jesus has this whole I came so that you might have abundant life bit (Deuteronomy 30 and John 10 - just in case you want to fact check me)
But the thing is - I think we are supposed to look for the good in life - and we are supposed to soak up the sunshine, the sunsets, the moments that make life worth living - and relax and let go of the negativity which would kill our mood.
See - I am someone who does everything from the point of view of how wonderful life is.
I have been accused of Pollyanna thinking, and I do understand that. I do admit that even my own life is harder than I tell myself. After all, I have problems with my kids, I have health issues, I have failed relationships and I have suffered loss.
The thing is, Cyndi Lauper really got to me, and I think girls (and boys) just want to have fun.
Can I defend this theologically? No. Can I defend this sociologically? No.
My only possible defense is two lesser used biblical lines - Moses says to the people of Israel when they are almost done wandering around in the desert - I put before you this day life or death... Choose life; while Jesus has this whole I came so that you might have abundant life bit (Deuteronomy 30 and John 10 - just in case you want to fact check me)
But the thing is - I think we are supposed to look for the good in life - and we are supposed to soak up the sunshine, the sunsets, the moments that make life worth living - and relax and let go of the negativity which would kill our mood.
But, as I said, I am having a hard time.
I see so much negativity. So much hate. So much pain. And I see people reveling in it.
I see religious folks saying that treating others as "less than" is appropriate and right. I see boomers attacking millenials and vice versa. I see entire systems of leadership devolving to grudge matches.
And yet, day after day, week after week, I write columns, and articles, and sermons trying to point us towards the good.
I see so much negativity. So much hate. So much pain. And I see people reveling in it.
I see religious folks saying that treating others as "less than" is appropriate and right. I see boomers attacking millenials and vice versa. I see entire systems of leadership devolving to grudge matches.
And yet, day after day, week after week, I write columns, and articles, and sermons trying to point us towards the good.
And there are days I do not know how to justify it. If I write a column on winter tourism telling you to take in the ice caves on a hiking trail - or if I interview Dave Gunning and convince you to go to his concert - am I just promoting escapism from the real, painful, world we should immerse ourselves in?
If I preach a sermon and tell you that there are glimmers of good breaking through the cracks of a broken world am I just pulling the wool over your eyes?
A friend posted a question on the Facebook asking if Satan was beyond saving. It was not a metaphor - it was a religious question by someone who studies these things. And that led me down a rabbit hole of wondering about the good, the bad, and the ugly.
What is bad? What is good? How do you tell?
And is it pollyanna to say - we should be looking at how to enjoy ourselves in the midst of it all?
Just some pondering for all y'all.
If I preach a sermon and tell you that there are glimmers of good breaking through the cracks of a broken world am I just pulling the wool over your eyes?
A friend posted a question on the Facebook asking if Satan was beyond saving. It was not a metaphor - it was a religious question by someone who studies these things. And that led me down a rabbit hole of wondering about the good, the bad, and the ugly.
What is bad? What is good? How do you tell?
And is it pollyanna to say - we should be looking at how to enjoy ourselves in the midst of it all?
Just some pondering for all y'all.
Friday, 3 January 2020
My Way or the Highway?
The New Year has dawned.
Poets through the centuries have penned sonnets and limerick's galore as well as everything in between capturing the mood, the hope, the expectation, that a new year can bring.
For every rhyming couplet of hope there is also an exposition of danger. Writers and thinkers over the aeons have also put word to the dangers each year is fraught with from Isaiah in the older religious writings, through Nostradamus and his predictions, right up to Gary on twitter who posted that the world is on fire.
The Rabbinical way of engaging the world has always appealed to me. Whenever I have asked a Rabbi a serious question about anything they are quick to answer and make no bones about it. But then they are also quick to change their mind...
"Rabbi Jones, I killed this guy..."
"Killing is forbidden by the laws of God, it is a sin to take away the life that God has given."
"I know...."
"On the other hand..." the Rabbi continues, "tell me about this man you killed - perhaps death was too good for him..."
I think it is incredible that most deep thought can hold opposing viewpoints. On the one hand killing is always wrong - on the other, some people need killing... (just in case you have never met me - I do not think anyone deserves killing - I am using an extreme example because this is the way of it. No matter how outside the norm a question is to a Rabbi, they will still be able to consider the other side, and I love them for that)
Now
I see everyone posting New Years Resolutions. I see all the New Years Blessings and Well Wishes.
And I agree with each and every one. We are all on a journey to fulfillment that winds its way through different valleys and over different mountain peaks for each individual. And the idea of a new start during the change of a year, or a decade, is amazing.
I also see that Australia is on fire. The United States, or some part of it, just risked another world war by illegally taking out half of Baghdad, people are still not listening to Greta Thunberg the way they should be, and believe it or not, before dawn on New Year's Eve 15 people had been shot to death by strangers in different locations in the United States.
And I agree with each and every one. We are all on a journey to fulfillment that winds its way through different valleys and over different mountain peaks for each individual. And the idea of a new start during the change of a year, or a decade, is amazing.
I also see that Australia is on fire. The United States, or some part of it, just risked another world war by illegally taking out half of Baghdad, people are still not listening to Greta Thunberg the way they should be, and believe it or not, before dawn on New Year's Eve 15 people had been shot to death by strangers in different locations in the United States.
Hope and Fear, Joy and Pain. Not to wax too eloquent, but one wonders if they are merely sides of the same coin?
I wonder if we started embracing this idea that there are many, many, many sides to everything if we would find our lot in life easier to bear?
It might be hard for us. We live in an age of extreme polarization. Wherever we look someone is yelling to us that we either see the world as black and white or we are the enemy.
It might be hard for us. We live in an age of extreme polarization. Wherever we look someone is yelling to us that we either see the world as black and white or we are the enemy.
Don't believe them.
And perhaps in this one act of rebellion, where we move away from believing we ever have the definitive answer for anything, we would find it to be enough to tip the balance of 2020 to being a place where we can find joy and pain and be okay with both.
There is literally no highway. There is literally no my way. All ways are paths to the centre. All ways spiral in and out of reality, of usefulness, of destination. All ways are valid for the person in the moment they are in.... It is all they know.
And yet... there is so much more....
May this be the year that we discover new paths and are okay with the fact that they are still not the right ones to be on...
And perhaps in this one act of rebellion, where we move away from believing we ever have the definitive answer for anything, we would find it to be enough to tip the balance of 2020 to being a place where we can find joy and pain and be okay with both.
There is literally no highway. There is literally no my way. All ways are paths to the centre. All ways spiral in and out of reality, of usefulness, of destination. All ways are valid for the person in the moment they are in.... It is all they know.
And yet... there is so much more....
May this be the year that we discover new paths and are okay with the fact that they are still not the right ones to be on...
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