AMERICA

                                 THIS WEEK'S POSTING IS LENGTHY

                                         PLEASE TAKE TIME FOR IT,

                                             AND TIME WITH IT.

                            THE FOCUS IS ON GETTING THINGS RIGHT

                                                  RIGHT HERE

                          RIGHT NOW THINGS ARE NOT AT ALL RIGHT

                                                  RIGHT HERE..

                                                                                                 THANKS!




Hi There!

So, Bruce Springsteen was "Born in the USA."

Lee Greenwood is "...proud to be an American."

Bruce Springsteen is "...embarrassed to be an American." ( Melbourne, Australia, 02-12-17).

How is it with you?

More widely, how is it with us as American people,

and the question isn't limited to embarrassment?

Nor is it a question about partisan politics -

this personality, these policies favored over that and those.

It is a core question.

When stripped naked, what does America look like right now?

Even deeper, it's a spiritual question ( not a religious one ).

"Spiritus" in Latin means " breath of life."

What "spirit," what non physical energy, animates us as a people right now?

How are you doing with all this?

It's a pivotal question because we live out our deepest selves,

our spiritual lives together on the street of everyday living called America.

So, again, how's that going for you?

Lots of people answer that right now in lots of different ways:

                        - We're "Loaded and locked," ( Donald Trump)

                           and so are the North Koreans.

                           Will Kim Jong-Il or Donald Trump actually pull the trigger

                            and ignite a global conflagration  way worse than the one in which

                            asteroids destroyed the face of the earth sixty six million years ago,

                            its sheer intensity making our planet's surface momentarily like liquid?

                            Put another way, do we have a future here,

                            not just in America, but on this planet?

                          - Can we agree to be different and disagree about it,

                            or will more 20 year old James Alex Fields, Jr.'s of Ohio

                            drive to Thomas Jefferson's backyard in Virginia

                            and plow into a crowd protesting

                            white nationalists, the Klu Klux Klan,  and neo-Nazis?

                         - Just how much are racism and violence a part of our American DNA?

                         - I'm doing quite nicely, thank you.

                           My investment portfolio prospers.

                         - How do we figure our way forward financially?

                           10 % of us now average nine times more than the bottom 90% of us.

                           Those in the top 1% of us average 40 times more than the bottom 90% of us.

                           ( Inequality.org, "Income Inequality )

                           Will we, our children and grandchildren "Owe our souls to the company store"?

                           That sounds like Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons" of worry weight.

                         - Whatever happened to truth, objectivity, beliefs based in fact and reality?

                            Will politicians, the media, the merchants, the academics ever tell it like it is,

                            or will they tell it like they want it to be.

                            Are we in now in Fantasyland forever?

                            Have a lot more than one cuckoo flown over the nest?

                           See the September issue of The Atlantic: "Believe" (Conspiracy Theories,

                           Fake News, Magical Thinking. How America Went Haywire).

                           See: "Is Truth Dead?" ( Time magazine, April 3, 2017 )

                           And to think Pilate wondered, "What is truth?"

                        - We live in a comfortable, safe neighborhood with good schools

                           and lots of sports for the kids.

                        - There are real issues before us, but this is "the land of the free,

                          and the home of the brave." We'll make it. We always do.

                        - I just can't deal with all the questions and conflicts in America right now.

                          I don't even watch the news anymore.

                          I want stability and serenity.

                          I (that's the fourth "I") do things that make me feel good, and so do a lot of others.

                         I ( that's number five ) favor socially acceptable things to make me feel good.

                         With others its sometimes other:

                                                      - yoga                     - Bourbon

                                                       - religion                - volunteering at The Thrift Shop

                                                       - Tai Chi                 - porn

                                                       - vacations              - drugs

                                                       - hours of T.V.        - collectables
                                                    
                                                       - texting, tweeting, SnapChatting

                                                         Instagramming, Facebooking

                                                         my way to numbness and nowhere fast, sad to say.

And on and on it goes.

 All this is quite pertinent to our spiritual lives.

We are people living among people in a place called America.

 People and place are not only our context, they affect us and we them.

It's make or brake, more likely some of both for our soul selves, our core selves.


In the " For What It's Worth" department, a few notions:

                    - What we are going through right now is the "right  now"

                      of the American Phenomenon.

                      As  in A Tale of Two Cities, it is "...the best of times, the worst of times."

                     - some days more of one than the other.

                      That's our pattern and history.

                      There was the horrendous genocide of the Civil (???) War.

                      We Americans slaughtered 750,000 of ourselves ( Guy Cugliotta,

                       04-12-12, The New York Times ).

                       Contrast that with the American standard of living during the Eisenhower Era.

                       In the 1950's the economy grew by 37%.

                       The median family had 30% more purchasing power

                       at the end of the decade than at the beginning -

                       lots of Chevrolets in the driveways of Levittown.


                   -  The American phenomenon has many moments and motions - positive and negative.

                      They are the living out of both our Original Blessing,

                       freedom and justice for all, well, ok, not quite all,

                       and our Original Sin, slavery and greed.

                       Right now we are have a cultural crisis

                       We're not all that united as states of mind and heart.

                       "E Pluribus Unum" right now is more "pluribus" of persuasions and pushes
           
                        than "Unum" of spirit and practice.


                    - We do well to remember that those who do not remember history are bound to repeat it

                       ( Edmund Burke ).

                       Right now we are an empire.

                      So were the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Russians and the British.

                      All are gone.

                      Like the many Chinese Empires, most tended to last a few hundred years

                      and then fall apart.

                     Brings to mind the notice of Paul: " You have here not a lasting city." ( Hebrews 13:14 )


So how do we get our bearings, stay upright, move forward as "spirited" people

in this current American context?

Some thoughts and approaches:

                     - Live in the "now."  It's all we have.

                       We can't live in the past, air brushed or otherwise.

                       We may/may not have a future.

                        But we do have a "now."

                        Make sure to be there.

                      - "Bloom where you are planted."

                        It's there, or not at all.

                      - "Be wise as a serpent, and as guileless as a dove." ( Matthew 10: 16 )

                         Be smart.

                         Be pure.

                      - "Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven,

                          and all else will be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)

                          (Kingdom of Heaven = Fullness of Being).

                       - Be willing to be spiritually lead ever deeper, ever wider, ever higher -

                         smart enough to open to endless enlargement - beyond immediasies

                         into the unending.

                       - Take to heart and practice the wisdom of Gandhi:

                         " Be the change you want to see."

                       - Live "real," spiritually and socially.

                       - Learn from Martin Niemoller.

                         He was a German clergyman and theologian.

                        Niemoller spoke out vigorously against the racism and evil of the Nazis government.

                        That lead to solitary confinement in a concentration camp.

                        In his cell there is this quote:

                                         First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out -

                                         Because I am not a Socialist.

                                         Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out -

                                         Because I am not a Trade Unionist.

                                         Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -

                                         Because I am not a Jew.

                                         Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me.

                         

                      - Social media yes, but people meeting more.

                      - Use freedom to free those trapped by:

                                                                                   - fear

                                                                                    - anger

                                                                                    - ignorance

                                                                                    - disadvantage.

                         -  Be alone regularly in reflection.

                         - Be together regularly in communal sharing

                           ( neighborhood groups, religious gatherings, extended family, social action groups )

                          - However you do it, pray.

                            Allow yourself to be embraced, absorbed by  Limitless Love (a.k.a. God).

                            In that intimacy, embrace all people, especially the most difficult.

                            Be full of gratitude for all the blessings of America.

                            Seek health and healing for America.

                            Put prayer to practice by doing what you can, where you are

                           to counter ignorance, fear, and violence, injustice,

                           to open dialogue, work for justice, seek reconciliation,

                           champion unity in diversity

                                                                 America! America!

                                                                  God shed His grace on thee

                                                                  And crown thy good with brotherhood

                                                                  From sea to shinning sea.


                                                                  America! America!

                                                                  God mend thy every flaw,

                                                                  Confirm thy soul in self control,

                                                                  Thy liberty in law!


                                                                   America! America!

                                                                   May God thy gold refine,

                                                                   Till all success be nobeleness,

                                                                    And every gain divine!

                                                                                              America the Beautiful



During this week let's reflect on us, on America:

                             - the people and place we are

                             - the current condition and context in which we live

                             - its effect on us and our effect on it spiritually

                             - how best to "be" right now in America, because

                               "to be, or not to be (sure as heck) is THE question."


As we reflect, please help yourself to the  Meditation Markers that follow.


Last of all, let's draw from that ancient wisdom

                               Illagitimi non carbourundum.

                               Don't let the bastards get you down.


For those of our Blog Community who live in countries other than America,

what does this blog say about where and how you are?


Be blessed!

See you next week.

Holding America and all people in

God's Dear Love,

    John Frank


********************************************************************************


                                              MEDITATION MARKERS


From the Sufi Mystic, Hafiz


- "Fear is the cheapest room in the house.

    I would like to see you living in better conditions."


- "I felt in need of a great pilgrimage, so I sat still for three days."


- "When all your desires are distilled, you will cast just two votes: to love more, and be happy"


-"What is the difference between your experience and that of a saint?

    The saint knows that the spiritual path is a sublime chess game with God

     and that the Beloved has just made a fantastic move

     that the saint is  now continually tripping over joy and bursting out in laughter

     and saying: 'I surrender!' Whereas, my dear, I am afraid you still think

     you have a thousand serious moves."



From the Christian Tradition:


Give Center Self to attitudes on how "to be,"

The Be-Attitudes

as translated into our contemporary, American English.

Google:  Matthew 5;1-12,

               The Message

               (that's the translation)



From contemporary literature:


To better understand the genesis of the frustration and anger that begets nativism,

and white nationalism read

The End Of Eddy

by Edward Louis.

The story takes place in France,

but the experience takes place right here in America also.



From the Sufi mystic, Rumi:


- "Let the beauty of what you love be what you do."


-" Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world.

    Today I am wise, so I am changing myself."


-"Raise your words, not your voice.

   It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder."


-"Yesterday is gone and its tale told.

    Today new seeds are growing."


-" Run from what is comfortable.

    Forget safety.

    Live where you fear to live.

   Destroy your reputation.

    Be notorious."


-"As you start to walk, the way appears."


-"Why are you so enchanted by this world, when a mine of gold lives within you?"


-"When you do things from your soul,

   you feel a river moving in you, a joy."



From the media:


Check out

"Conversations with People Who Hate Me."

  It's a podcast by Dylan Marron.

  He is a delightful Venezuelan American, gay, young man.

  Dylan has a great way of connecting and communicating with quite hostile folks

  The podcast are on YouTube.