Friday, June 1, 2018
DIFFERENTLY TOGETHER
Hi There !
So, Kyle came over for dinner
the other night.
Guaranteed, you'd really like him.
He's seventeen, big and strong.
That goes for his soul, mind,
and ever ready smile as well.
As Kyle moved into
his second generous portion of
"Hammered Chicken,"
(a family favorite)
flavored orzo, avocado
and lettuce salad,
home made bread, asparagus,
(and while keeping
an eager eye on
the chocolate cake waiting
over on the server),
we got to talking about school.
Kyle shared how grateful he is
that he has been home schooled.
Among other things,
it has allowed him
to hold to Creationism,
and not be forced to accept
other understandings.
Now, it so happens that
I understand and speak
about creation
quite differently than Kyle.
I chose not to speak
those differences at the table.
That wasn't to play it safe,
nor be polite.
It was to widen our sharing
rather than shut it down.
Neither Kyle nor I were around
at the get go of creation.
We both believe that God
is the creative power.
Just how God did it,
or in my view is still doing it,
is way bigger than
any human explanation,
or doctrinal encasement.
Like everyone else,
Kyle and I draw from
the multiple and varied
takes of
astrophysicists,
geologist, religious texts,
philosophers, theologians,
biologists and
my barber, Harry.
None were primary
to the occurrence.
So, rather than play God,
arguing human articulations,
Kyle and I had a good time
talking about the gifts
and wonders of God's creation,
( including that
delicious chocolate cake ).
Glad we did that.
That approach
faces differences
and looks to fields
of sharing and support.
Right now our societal setting
is stuck in aggressive defense/offense
of difference, and that to the peril of
sharing and support,
if not our continuance.
It's down right dangerous and lethal.
Things have not only "gone ballistic,"
they threaten to go nuclear,
metaphorically and actually.
It's pervasive:
politics, religion, morals,
economics, governance, and racial,
ethnic to international relations.
It's a cultural war.
( See Ross Douthat's Op Ed piece,
NYT, May26,2018
for one view of this war).
In this belligerent, toxic atmosphere
we try to live out our spiritual lives.
And this belligerent, toxic atmosphere
is right where we can
freshen and free up things
for our choking, warring
constricted society.
It comes down to what
Kyle and I experienced:
face differences
and look to fields
of sharing and support.
"Live and let live "is good,
but it is not good enough.
We need to
"Live and help live."
Let's frame it this way.
We all share existence.
How we interpret,
explain and live it varies.
Those variables are not
of the essence of existence.
Dealing with, allowing for
difference is imperative.
It's "Live and let live,"
perhaps better put as
"Live and let live to keep living."
If, however, we stay
on the surface of things,
our differences will destroy us.
If we go deep,
think and act from
the Center of
our shared existence,
we can deal with difference
and sprint together
to fields of unitive engagement.
That's spirituality
for the street in our right now -
all manner of differing people
gathered, facing their differences
and focused
beyond those differences -
shoulder to shoulder,
busy doing good things together
and thus truly "being" together.
" To direct the mind towards
the basic unity of all things
and to divert it from
the seizing of difference -
therein lies bliss."
Tejo-Bindu Upanishad
This comes about in all
manner and modes
of teaming up
to share and support:
- working together to get
a group of inner city kids
to summer camp
- forming a local writers'
and artists' colloquium
- campaigning together for
the political party
of your shared persuasion
- organizing a community garden
that grows enough extra
to feed local needy
- developing a support group
for single parents -
spotting each other
for child care,
providing social settings
and activities
for single parents
and their and kids
- mounting a week long,
inter-religious,
conservative/liberal
work team repairing homes
in Appalachia
( if you do, please
let me know
and I in turn will alert
Fox and CNN !! )
- enjoy regular Food Fests,
serving and savoring
each other's different ethnic
and regional foods
- putting together
a mentoring team
for at risk teens
- visiting each other's
religious services.
- fielding a sports league
with Jews, Moslems,
alt-left and righters,
Hindus, Christians,
agnostics, atheists,
and anybody passing by,
on every team and then
name the league
"Differently Together" -
(be sure to serve
veggie dogs and
beanburger along
with the hot dogs
and hambergers)
- hiking, going to concerts
and museums together
- hosting Insight Evenings
where people explain
their traditions
and rituals in an open,
informative,
non-persuasive way
- sharing an away, silent,
spiritual retreat
- frequently holding
each other's babies
Working together,
walking together,
brings together.
God is One,
and we are invited
to be counted in!!
Glad we are together here.
In God's Dear Love,
John Frank
If you have the time and interest,
please consider the
Addendum that follows.
*****
This week we had our first ever
participation from Ecuador.
Good to welcome you and
be welcomed by you.
- "frankly speaking is
posted every week on Friday and
is delivered by email on Saturdays.
- Online it is available at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be bookmarked for easy access.
Sign up for automatic,
weekly email delivery
is at the top right of the online version.
Past postings are available from the
Blog Archive at the bottom right
of the online version.
Thanks to all who have shared
"frankly speaking" with family and friends.
******************************************************************************
ADDENDUM
Honesty and Humility
We really need to be
honest and humble,
not claiming absolute,
divine or scientific certainty
and completeness
for our limited, human attempts
to explain things way bigger
than we are so far.
Biblical and scientific matters
are a clear example of that today.
Humans are indeed inspired to reveal.
We catch on to a goodness
and express it our way.
Our way is limited.
Einstein regularly reminded us
that there is a vastness and mystery
way beyond where we are or can go.
We certainly can be on to
deep insight and critical truths,
but we cannot know
or express them fully.
Consider the biblical writers
of Genesis.
They conveyed a central truth -
God's creative love and action.
That more than qualifies
as a divine revelation,
a revelation "about,"
but not exhaustive
of God's creation.
It is described,
is toned, colored and limited
by what the writers
had available to them
in their time and culture.
Their metaphorical description of
God's Six DayWork Week,
and a good rest on the seventh day,
put it well for
the working people
of their time.
It is also a variation
on a number of Creation Myths
current in their region at the time.
Myth does not mean untrue.
It means a truth expressed
in a metaphorical story.
It's important not to confuse
the package for the content.
It works the same way for science.
Read centuries of scientific history.
A scientific theory or fact
is refined or replaced
by a clearer one,
and that repeatedly
by more and more over time.
Remember The Peking Man.
Scientist are dealing with
the mystery of energy.
They tell it the best they can
with the understandings.
the calculations
and articulations
available to them at the time.
With time, those expand and change.
Whether it's biblical or scientific writers,
philosophers, psychologist, theologians -
the whole troop of thinkers and teachers,
I 'd say we are getting pretty good
at understanding and describing a leaf,
a leaf on one branch
of one tree
in the forest of existence.
Honesty and Humility.
Different peoples understand, describe,
and live out the mystery of existence
in different ways.
We need to face those differences
and focus on sharing and supporting
as together we start to deal with
the second leaf
and endlessly more
in the forest of existence.
*****
.
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