Tag: Dreams
Where else can we jointly examine our deepest values and ideals?
Allow me to restate my argument that religion is important, along with a confession that in too many ways, at too many times, its proponents have betrayed its radical promise and its progressive direction, whatever their professed faith.
At its best, religion gives us individually and collectively a place to examine our hopes, dreams, and possibilities of a healthier, more justful, and more harmonious world. In short, moral and ethical guidelines. It can also provide the necessary foundation of community for pursuing and nurturing that goal.
Some of the sharpest critics of its practice at worst are prophets found in the Bible.
To see some examples of how that worked within the Quaker movement, visit my blog, As Light Is Sown.
Looking for the pearls
When I first began reading contemporary poetry (for pleasure, independent of classroom assignment), I often sensed the poem existed as a single line or two, with the rest of the work as window dressing.
Now I read the Psalms much the same way, for the poem within the poem, or at least the nugget I’m to wrestle with on this occasion. Psalm 81, for instance, has both the “voice in thunder” and “honey from rock.” What exactly are those in my own experience?
Add to my once idealistic expectations, there was this
My goal of having our family operating on a Quaker Meeting decision-making process.
Yes, trying to find concesus with young children in the house. We’re all on board, right?
Let’s just say I failed here. My, was a naïve when I jumped in as a stepdad in my mid-50s!
Not just because of a rebellious younger member, whom I deeply adore. But also because of the parent/adult dynamics and tensions.
No doubt, I pictured myself as the clerk, that is moderator. The mother, however, is what the one in the movie My Fat Greek Wedding Declared, the throat, ultimately rules.
Saint Paul should stand fully corrected regarding the head of the household. The mother’s is great theology.
Just how are decisions really made in families? I’d love to listen in on the discussions.
There’s a flip side
I’ve been on a flippant streak.
Hope others have seen it as light-hearted or even funny rather than offensive.
Vacuuming in the greater scheme of the universe
Usually, it’s to get either the spiders she fears or the dust she’s allergic to.
Yes, some chores can be seen as acts of love or devotion.
Even if I would rather avoid housekeeping altogether.
How’s your interior sense of time working?
This thing of feeling a day off, morning after morning. You know, thinking it’s Wednesday when it’s Tuesday … or the other way around.
Or feeling you’re a month behind the calendar. You rarely feel you’re ahead, do you?
Sometimes we’re even on the same page that way.
If we were ever to speak again
You’re not the artist you thought you were.
Or musician.
Often, you were much better.
Or my standards were too low.
My secret occupation?
Mapmaker of the Spirit.
Who said anything about my fiancée?
My question was only, “What’s going on with someone who has” a certain sun sign with these rising and moon signs.
The astrologer, Hollywood actress, then told me, “Let her go. She’s trouble. You love her very much, don’t you.”
I had witnesses who were astonished. My question had been gender-neutral.
Jnana's Red Barn 