In my reflections, if a bona fide member of the academy comments that my reflection contains either an original thought or argument, I will note it in that reflection. Also, if it is brought to my attention that what I have said is also mentioned in another source, I will also note it. My intention in these reflections is to stimulate inquiry, imagination, and broadening of horizons.- JP
Note: The most recent reflection is at the top and my first is at the bottom. You can either start at the bottom of the well and swim up or start at the top and dive in, your choice. – JP
13 Hours
Challenge, Guilt, or Invite 2 December 2018
The plethora of emotional subjects to reflect on at this time of year have the potential of debilitating any prospective and reducing it to cliches and nullifying any potential prophetic thoughts. That being said, there is one object of my affection that sticks out in this morass, FaceBook. I actually enjoy communicating with friends either directly or by lurking on Face Book, but the one thing about some posts that seems at odds with the “friend” status is either the challenge or guilt presented, e.g., I bet most of you won’t share this, or only 3% of you will take action, or you’re not a patriot if you don’t agree.
I will refrain from the short, insensitive reply I could give to these challenges, and invoke that prophetic saying, you get more with honey than vinegar. How about saying, “I invite those who agree or are moved by this to share it”, or “I am passionate about this and I hope you share my passion”.
Yes, there are times I shake my head because I don’t understand positions people take, but that doesn’t mean I can just write them off. It means I have to find a way to communicate with them to at least try to understand and share viewpoints. And in that communication, we both can learn.
So the next time you post, don’t bet me, don’t guilt me, invite me and you have a much better chance of spreading your message. BTW, Happy Winter Solstice.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent – Welcome to My World 05 OCT 2018
OK, I’m going to open a can of worms here, but, with how flippantly ‘Guilty until proven innocent’ is being tossed around, I offer this perspective.
Several of my seminary classes specifically addressed clergy abuse of parishioners and consoles, and how to protect yourself from accusations of inappropriate behavior. That’s right, ‘protect yourself’. Six to eight percent of accusations are false. When I was in the Air Force, there was AFR 2020, Ethical Behavior, which is extremely detailed in how to avoid ethical and legal violations and concludes with the paragraph, ‘Even if you have complied with this regulation and are still perceived to have done something wrong, you’re still screwed (my paraphrase). So why would one embark on a vocation that lives under a Sword of Damocles? It goes with the territory.
In more than one play, Shakespeare demonstrated how one could be falsely accused. The audience knew the accusation was false, the protagonist knew it, but could not prove it because there was no person or situation that could corroborate their innocence. So how to get through life in a vocation that could drive you to extreme paranoia or just live life? Three ways. One, don’t do anything inappropriate, and if you’re not sure about it, ask a colleague, research, pray. Two, pay close attention to every situation you enter. Three, pay close attention to one and two.
So rather than hide under a rock and hope that someone will say at your memorial, Well, he was really not an abuser, pull up your big boy pants, know yourself, live honestly, be a person no one doubts and share yourself.
It is my personal take that those who are lamenting that we live in an age where Guilty Until Proven Innocent is the norm are either guilty of something, or have given up on the greatest principle this society is built on. It is also my position that when a person claims they were abused, believe them and do everything you can to be with them, even if you find their claim is false which makes it even more imperative to help.
Be the Golden Rule.
Read the Label 29 AUG 2018
OK, I have to admit that I am not always as “with it” as I think I am. After twenty years of seeing the flight surgeon every year like clockwork, I was sure that I knew my physical condition to a tee. Well, as chronology catches up, maybe not so much. I will not subject you to the complete medical details, but the fact that I wasn’t sure if it was full blown gout, vascular disease, or food allergies did give me pause. For three years I did everything to deal with the symptoms and if you have ever need to apply a uni bandage to you leg, you get the picture.
Well, several months ago, one of the medications I was taking did not arrive as scheduled, so I went to the doc and had the scrip rewritten. While I waited another few months, just being cantankerous to see how long it would take, I woke up one morning and felt awake, not foggy and my legs did not hurt. What is this?
You see the drug ads that have more disclaimers about side affects than what the positive reasons are for taking the drug and wonder, “Why would I want that”? And then it hits, why not see what the side effects of that drug you are not now taking are?
Fluid retention, most likely in the leg, depression, not clear thinking and a serious case of dumb a#$ for not READING THE LABEL!
Sooooo, before the prescription is even written, ask the doc what the side effects are so you won’t write the symptoms off to chronology. And it isn’t only medications that can have side effects if you don’t read the label. Take for example, religion.
Find a faith expression which can write it all down unequivocally and it will be the only one everyone subscribes to. There are always side effects. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Realize that loving money is the root of all evil. Sell everything that posses you. Be hospitable to the alien. Take care of the widow and orphan. Do not let your up come at the expense of anyone else’s down. Pay it forward.
Your prescription is ‘Life’, READ THE LABEL!
Living Through the Fog Season of Pentecost, Ordinary Time, 2018
So, having to sit a lot with my legs elevated to reduce swelling, I have been watching the CNN series on the Sixties, Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, plus a Netflix Original, The Mercury Thirteen. Suffice it to say, I missed a lot. Missed in the sense that I was focused on one goal and although I was aware of what was happening, I wasn’t living it.
Maybe most of us in those High School, Undergrad college years, don’t understand the gravitas of what is happening or the tentacles and consequences of events. But rather than lapse into envy of those who did ‘get it’, I have come to the point where I can be happy for them and glad that I can start to catch up. The saying is correct, The First Seventy Years of Childhood are the Hardest. The next seventy years however, are going to be years of joyous discovery. The one discovery / epiphany I experienced is understanding that life is not compartmentalized. Life is life.
When I first started Sunday School, everything was black and white, good or bad, either this or that, and oh by the way, don’t show or have any emotions. I mention Sunday School because church was, without knowing it at the time, the formative influence in my life. Had I known that Sunday School was started in England during the industrial revolution by socially conscious people who saw that as the only day the children working in the factories and mines had time to learn anything, I might have started to ask questions earlier and not have been in the fog so long.
Questioning is the key. Not questioning to be a contrarian, although there are times that can be short range satisfying, but questioning to expand participation in life, in being. Questioning not to determine right or wrong, but to delve into discovering, Why? We all ask, Why. Asking, Why, is the key to our being. I do not agree with all the conclusions of the things I read, see, or hear, but I do find in asking why that person comes to that conclusion, I encounter life.
I am sure that those who walked with Jesus, asked many questions. “Did he say blessed are the cheese makers?” (Life of Brian). I am also sure that had I questioned that ‘moving mountains’ thing, I would have bought stock in Caterpillar and payed more attention in physics class about the vibratory nature of matter. And since Jesus is also responsible for creation, why aren’t there any passages in scripture about the order of the cosmos, black holes, higgs boson particles, the alignment of the Great Pyramid, and, oh wait … The Book of Enoch … Never mind (Rosann Rosanna Danna).
Jesus did, however, make it abundantly clear that if we could not learn to live in community, none of that other stuff would matter. We can not, not ask why? We can not, not live in community. Only by treating others as we want to be treated, loving others and loving ourself can we experience the joy of life and what we discover. Live through the fog and live.
Eastertide 2018
Rather than lead gently into what Easter is about, I will open with the conclusion so you don’t have to read any further, unless you want to. You don’t need to be saved because you were never lost. If you are continuing to read this far, here is the rest of my reflection.
I am of the mind that when Source became aware, Source experienced delight as posited in The Life Divine written by Sri Aurobondi. Source, God, made the choice to exercise that delight by manifesting creation. God could not experience delight without also either acknowledging or experiencing the opposite of delight and could not manifest a creation that did not deal with the tension of experiencing delight and its opposite simultaneously. As spiritual manifestations of God’s conscious thought, we inexorably also deal with that balance.
I am also in agreement with Pierre Teilhard de Chardin that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. So as products of the conscious thought of God, we cannot be lost or destroyed because that would mean God would have to allow for part of God’s self to cease to exist. So why Jesus?
As a manifestation of God in this dimension, we are discovering that balancing delight and its opposite isn’t all that easy. In fact, we find it easier to not hold them in balance and follow a path of least resistance. That path of least resistance allows us to accept the feeling of being separate from God. I am also of the mind that God does not want any of God’s manifest being to remain in the state of feeling separate. So what to do? How about a deliberate wake up call?
Incarnating conscious delight in the dimension of humanity is the way to go. By demonstrating in that dimension the balance of delight and its opposite, humanity will see that accepting the feeling of being separate is not the intention of creation. By a tangible and spiritual experience, humanity will be ‘saved’ from feeling separation is the characteristic of creation. That’s why Jesus.