Category Archives: Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant.

Commentary on Religion, Faith and Spirituality, Family, Jefferson County, Judaism, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Third Phase

An Ancientrail, A Walk Along It

September 30, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Fall New (Hunter) Moon

images My fellow traveler shoes are beginning to get a lot of mileage on them at Congregation Beth Evergreen. The Rabbi there, Jamie Arnold, is a very sweet guy, empathetic, bright, learned, good singing voice. At the Mussar midday session yesterday we looked again at the first chapter of Mesillat Yesharim. There are many important ideas in it, two stand out for me right now.

The first is that delight and pleasure are primary to our lives. Why? Because the contentment and serenity they provide give us a life in which we can focus on what matters. I love the notion of joy as a, or even the, core attribute of our day to day existence.

The second idea is that we can be tempted, pulled away from delight and joy, by both prosperity and adversity. Recalling this simple, but far from obvious truth about the human condition helps us see that our material advantages are not the core focus of our lives. Our material success is incidental to the spiritual journey-unless it distracts us from it.

When the hour long learning session is over, we go into vaad, which is personal sharing. Yesterday’s sharing was so profound. The level of trust and intimacy in this group, a testament to Jamie’s leadership, is deep. When a person finishes, we say shimat, “I have heard you.” (I think that’s right.)

Commentary on Religion, Dogs, Faith and Spirituality, Family, Friends, Great Wheel, Holidays, Jefferson County, Judaism, Memories, Original Relation, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Third Phase

Springtime of the Soul (& the Equinox)

September 29, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Fall Harvest Moon

“Just as we can experience the Death and Resurrection of the God in the Easter season in spring, so can we experience in the autumn the death and resurrection of the human soul, i.e. we experience resurrection during our life on earth…” Festivals and Their Meaning, Rudolf Steiner

The Archangel Michael (left), Gabriel (right) and Raphael accompany Tobias. Francesco Botticini, 1470; Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Source: Joachim Schäfer — The Archangel Michael (left), Gabriel (right) and Raphael accompany Tobias.
Francesco Botticini, 1470; Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

Today is Michaelmas, the feastday of Michael the Archangel. British universities start their terms today, the Michaelmas term. Following Steiner, I have, for some years, seen Michaelmas as the beginning of a long period for soul cultivation. It is not, I think, an accident that the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, falls in the same period.

These are, too, harvest festivals, falling near the autumnal equinox. It makes sense to me to begin the New Year as the growing season ends. Samain, Summer’s End, in the Celtic calendar, marks the finish of the harvest festivals and the beginning of the fallow time. It is also the Celtic New Year.

Last night at Congregation Beth Evergreen I waited for Kate while she took Hebrew. Where I chose to sit filled up with religious school kids, bouncing with tweeny energy. Rabbi Jamie Arnold came down to talk to them about the shofar and the upcoming New Year. He talked about Rosh Hashanah and described it as a moment when the creation can begin anew. It is possible, he said, for each of us to start life anew on Rosh Hashanah. I like this idea and the question it poses: Who do you want to be in the New Year?

I’m going to consider this question over the next few days before Kate, Jon and I attend the Rosh Hashanah service on October 2nd at Beth Evergreen.

Another way to pose this question is, how do I want to nourish my soul in this, its springtime? What practices can I use? Kate and I have begun to seriously wrestle with the Jewish spiritual practice of Mussar, as I’ve mentioned here before. It will be one lens through which I approach the possibility of a new being, a new me.

Yet. That new me will have a strong relation to the man who harvested years of friendships over the last week in Minnesota. He will have a strong relation to the man who hears, Grandpop!, from Ruth and Gabe. He will have a strong relation to the man who loves Lynne Olson, and Kate, too. He will have a strong relation to the man who is several dogs’ companion. He will have a strong relationship to the man who writes novels. He may be a new man, yet still the old one, too.

Commentary on Religion, Faith and Spirituality, Family, Jefferson County, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant.

Lectio Divina

September 16, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Lugnasa Harvest Moon

lectiodivina Interesting intersection of past and present yesterday. In my Christian days, I explored many different forms of spiritual practice, including a Benedictine form called lectio divina. Turns out a Rabbi is teaching a version of lectio to other rabbis for use, in particular, with Torah study. Bonnie, a rabbi in training who attends Beth Evergreen, modified it to use in our Mussar study.

She read short passages three times, emphasizing different words each time and we all listened silently. She then gave us a brief time and introduced two questions about the passage. The idea was to react to the feelings generated, not the intellectual content. This is congruent with what I know of lectio in which language, often as little as one word, functions as a mantra rather than a message.

images I found myself slipping into a comfortable place, going inside, considering my inner journey. It felt good. I hope we use the process more.

Kate has had her second Hebrew lesson. We plan to attend at least some of the high holy day services, beginning with Erev Rosh Hashanah, the first service of the Jewish new year.

Commentary on Religion, Faith and Spirituality, Great Wheel, Holidays, Jefferson County, Minnesota, Mountains, Plants, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Shadow Mountain, Travel, Weather +Climate

Harbingers

September 12, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Lugnasa Harvest Moon

orion2 Black Mountain, which is covered in lodgepole pine and actually green as a result, has small gold flecks this morning. Those few aspen groves on its slopes have begun to turn, as have more and more aspens between here and Evergreen, but not those on our property. Too, Orion appeared in the southern sky a week or so ago, the early morning southern sky. On Shadow Mountain Orion and the changing of the aspens are true harbingers of autumn.

The splashy colors of a Minnesota fall, when the remnants of the Big Woods flash their deciduous glory, are absent here, but Denverites flock to the mountains anyhow, going on “color” tours. The transformations of the Great Wheel, in all temperate latitudes, stimulate celebrations, holidays, ad hoc personal adventures.

Autumn, with its temperature changes, plant senescence, calm blue skies, the ongoing harvest and the beginning of school is one of my favorite seasonal transitions. Cooler weather increases my intellectual and spiritual energy, underscoring for me the upcoming holiday of St. Michael the Archangel on September 29th. I think it was Rudolf Steiner who referred to Michaelmas as the springtime of the soul. I know it was Tom Crane who introduced me to the idea.

I will be lucky enough to be in Minnesota in a week and a half. I’ll get a chance to visit that Midwestern fall, get pictures for the folks here in Colorado.

Aging, Beyond the Boundaries, Commentary on Religion, Faith and Spirituality, Family, Humanities, Jefferson County, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant.

Living Consciously

September 9, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Lugnasa Harvest Moon

Two great quotes yesterday. One from our mussar group: I never saw a U-Haul trailer behind a hearse. The second from a comment on a NYT article on the meaning of life: You say No Matter, I say Never Mind.

Mussar. It’s September, the days are cooling down and years of Septembers have me getting ready to accelerate my study. This year a focus will be mussar.

Mussar is defined here by Rabbi Ira Stone, of the Mussar Leadership Program: “The most accurate translation of the word mussar into English is “discipline,” defined in all three ways we use the word in English. Mussar defines a discrete area of study, like the discipline of physics. It describes a practice, as in “it takes discipline to practice piano every day.” It also describes the act of correcting behavior, as in “you must discipline the child.””

In our study of the Way of the Just, begun yesterday at Congregation Beth Evergreen (CBE) and led by Rabbi Jamie Arnold, we talked about the purpose of life. Rabbi Jamie offered what he said was a traditional Jewish perspective: Experience happiness fully. Experience sadness fully. And in the times between be content. Works for me.

It feels good to have some anchors in Evergreen now. Our work with Bear Creek Design will introduce us to the contractors who do work for them. Kate’s study of Hebrew and our mutual study of mussar has begun to open up relationships at CBE for CBE. This means Evergreen is no longer a destination only for restaurants and shopping, but also for community.

Commentary on Religion, Faith and Spirituality, Memories, Minnesota, Politics, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., US History

A Fellow Wanderer

September 7, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Lugnasa Harvest Moon

Caspar David Friedrich Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (1818) — Caspar David Friedrich
Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (1818)

Fellow traveler. Back when America was great, like the 1950’s or sometime, fellow traveler was an epithet that indicated a person with sympathies for the communists. To be a fellow traveler meant shared understandings if not complete agreement. The aim of communism, an egalitarian society with the basic needs of all met, is still my dream. But, how to achieve it is as muddy to me now as it has been all my political life. True: I voted for Gus Hall for President in several elections.

There is, though, another sense to this term. A fellow traveler can also be one who is with, but not of, a particular group or thought-world. It occurred to me this morning that being a fellow traveler is an important part of my life.

This may be a deep flaw, but it is and has been an ancientrail on which I have walked often in my life. Let me explain. The most salient example right now is my involvement with Congregation Beth Evergreen, or CBE as they often shorten it. Being a fellow traveler with Jews and Judaism has been a consistent thread in my life since early college. That is, I admire Judaism as a culture and have found many friends among observant and non-observant Jews-not to mention a wife. Jews tend to approach the world as curious, skeptical, engaged people, people embedded in history and tradition. That worldview has appealed to me since my first anthropology assignment took to me a synagogue in Muncie, Indiana.

Maurice Denis Jacob Wrestling with the Angel — Maurice Denis
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel

Kate’s a converted Jew and feels herself part of this ancient tribe. I do not. But Judaism continues to speak to me in its ethics, its ability to withstand constant suffering and abuse, its tribalism and in its ritual and spiritual practices. I am gradually becoming in, but not of, Beth Evergreen.

Even in seminary, I felt more like a fellow traveler with Christianity. Though I did immerse myself in the Christian tradition and its beliefs, its intellectual and cultural practices, its political message was more important to me than its metaphysics. Let justice roll down like an everflowing stream. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Suffer the children to come unto me. What you do to the least of these, you do to me.

I tried to merge my political passion with a religious sensibility, but in the end it became clear that I had got the stick wrong end round. Political purpose preceded religious conviction. Within any religious way that’s backwards. As a result, over time I became more of a fellow traveler with my colleagues and friends in the Presbyterian Church than a true believer. Throughout my ministry after ordination in 1976 I felt in, but not of, the church. Eventually, the tension between my purpose and the church’s purpose became too strained and the link between the two broke.

Politically I feel and have felt in, but not of, mainstream American politics. That is, political action has been another key ancientrail in my life, but I’ve had to engage it from a stance left of even the further edges of liberalism.

There are other examples, but you see the point. It is my habit to be with groups, but not of them. This is the deep flaw I referred to above. That same curious, skeptical, engaged, embedded in history (but not tradition) fellow feeling I have with Judaism keeps me just to the side of certainty, a seeker with little probability of arriving at his goal. By this point in my life I find this outsider role familiar and, for the most part, comfortable. But I wonder what it would be like to enter the world of the convinced, the believer? Am I missing out on an important element of life? I don’t know.

Commentary on Religion, Faith and Spirituality, Family, Jefferson County, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant.

Mussar. More.

September 2, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Lugnasa New Harvest Moon

Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (ramhal) Wall painting in Acre, Israel

Yesterday in our Midday Mussar gathering we chose a book for study during the next year, The Path of the Just, “the Mesillat Yesharim an ethical (musar) text composed by the influential Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (1707-1746).” Amazon tagline for the book.

I was in favor of using this text because Mordecai Kaplan, an early 20th century rabbi who founded the Reconstructionist Movement in Judaism, translated it in 1936. Studying his translation of this key mussar volume will help me understand the Reconstructionists as well as the spiritual practice of mussar. A twofer.

Though I have little use anymore for God (and, yes, if he/she exists, he/she may not have use for me anymore), spirituality and the search for a good and compassionate life are still critically important to me.

This mussar class is, too, something Kate and I attend together. It’s good to have a spiritual discipline, an ethical path to discuss and practice. The class itself provides us with some exposure to more mountain folk, increasing the possibility that I will eventually find a friend or two up here.

Faith and Spirituality, Jefferson County, Mountains, Politics, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Shadow Mountain

Elevation

August 30, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Lugnasa Superior Wolf Moon

The World Is Too Much With Us

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

Sitting up here on Shadow Mountain, as I’ve said before, the world can seem far away, down the hill: lodgepole pine, aspen, mountain streams, rocky hillsides, mountain peaks, wandering elk and mule deer, bobcats and mountain lions and moose show up on Pinecam.com postings. There’s also a lot of talk about our mountain lifestyle, though I’m not sure just what that is.

In a presidential election year the world can be too much with us. Trump seems to be gaining back some purchase in the polls, but not enough to win, not even close. His candidacy has shaken and stirred Republican politics like no other in recent memory. So much so that more than one article has wondered about the death of the GOP. The constant heavy breathing from the punditocracy can make any election year seem portentous. This one actually seems to be. I’m glad to start gaining altitude when driving out of Denver.

Gaining altitude is my new equivalent to turning north. When I traveled from Minnesota by car, whenever the return journey changed direction toward Canada, toward the north woods, I would feel a certain relief, a sense of imminent homecoming. When we cross into the foothills from the end of the great plains, our Rav4’s four cylinder engine begins to work harder, as if it too is eager to get back, clawing its slightly underpowered way back to its stall.

Wordsworth and the poem above, especially these lines: “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away…” convinced me long ago that I’m a latter day Romantic, one inclined to shrug off getting and spending for finding in nature what is ours. That’s the point of reimagining faith and I suppose you could call it a regression, a move backwards. To me it feels like a peeling away of the getting and spending layer of our third millennium lives, so we can see clearly what’s beneath, not a regression to a past framework, but a revealing of what is always.

As Wordsworth says further on:

“I’d rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn…”

And so I am.

Commentary on Religion, Faith and Spirituality, Jefferson County, Mountains, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant.

Beau Thai. Bear Creek. Beth Evergreen.

August 26, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Lugnasa Superior Wolf Moon

Bear Creek Designs has finalized our bathroom remodel plans. They start next week and estimate 4-5 weeks total. A zero entry shower may not be strictly necessary right now, but when it is necessary, I don’t want to have figure out if we have the money to make the change. We do now.

We went over to Bear Creek in Evergreen yesterday and discussed possible shower door options, an unexpectedly complicated chore due to the small size of the bathroom. The solution, move the shower valve to the opposite wall from the shower head, seemed counter intuitive until we explored all the other options. It allows us to maintain the zero entry which was the point of the remodel. So, we chose to do it.

Afterward we ate at Beau Thai. Get it? The food is better than the pun. It’s sister restaurant is a Himalayan spot only four doors away. Tom yum and green papaya salad. Since we still had a little time, we went to our favorite small shop in Evergreen, the Village Gourmet. Among many kitchen and home related items, the Village Gourmet also has a very nice truffle shop. We got four truffles plus some dishtowels and a plate to replace one broken over the weekend.

Then to Beth Evergreen for Midday Mussar. This was the fourth of four weeks in which we looked at classic texts in this long established Jewish spiritual tradition. Once we choose a text, next week, I’ll probably write more about mussar. It’s a very pragmatic discipline and worth knowing.

A woman we met recently was at the end of a four year saga waiting for a new kidney. She had diabetic neuropathy and finally found a kidney for transplant a few weeks ago. Her explanation of the transplant’s effect on her was eloquent. “I thought I knew about gratitude, but now I know I didn’t. This gift to me from a man who checked his organ donor box is beyond explaining. I now have to consider what I will do with the rest of my life. Which I will have. I’m going to live it to be worthy of the gift I’ve received.”

Commentary on Religion, Faith and Spirituality, Family, Jefferson County, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant.

A Ploy of the Devil?

August 19, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Lugnasa Superior Wolf Moon

A taste of fall here. 42 degrees right now and cool weather tomorrow, too. A soaking rain yesterday.

Step-son Jon took Kate and me out to Carra Viejta, a Mexican spot just off 285 at Windy Point. Kate’s birthday. Good food and good company. Jon’s in much better spirits these days as the divorce moves closer to resolution.

Kate and I drove over to Congregation Beth Evergreen yesterday for another session of mussar, led by Rabbi Jamie Arnold. Over the last three weeks we’ve been discussing possible texts to use as the basis for study over the next year. One more this next Thursday. The three texts so far are: The Palm Tree of Deborah, the Way of the Tzaddikim and the Way of the Just. These are completely unfamiliar to me, which makes them interesting.

I get surprised occasionally. Jamie said yesterday, “We’ll have to see what our ancestors saw in these texts.” Not my ancestors. It’s interesting to be in but not of the conversation, I like it. Also, when the conversation turns toward G-d, I stop internally. I have to engage in a reconfiguration of the idea. What does G-d mean to the author here? Does the idea bring anything unique to the conversation or does it serve as a placeholder for something like: This is really important; or, take this seriously, dude; or, this is the best we could do in figuring out why should we believe this; or, this idea links us to all those in our 5,000 + year history who have believed this.

My impatience with religions of revelation has not waned. Revelation, word and practices with the imprimatur of divinity, has created so much bloodshed, so much cocksure wrongheadedness, so much diminution of the other that it seems like the opposite of what it claims to be. If there were a devil, it would be a clever ploy to create texts reputedly authored by God and spiked with so much absolutism that adherents to the texts would consider themselves an exclusively correct clan.

Outside dogmatic adherence to the idea of revelation most religious traditions have also devoted a lot of thought and practice to the question of the good life. How might we live? What are behaviors that respect all of G-d’s universe? How can we navigate the often muddy waters of our inner life? This is mussar. And kabbalah. And lectio divina. And the Way of the Pilgrim. And meditation. And the four noble truths. And the Tao Te Ching. These approaches to life as we live it here and now are among the great gifts of the world religions. They distill the wisdom of generations of sophisticated and nuanced thinkers, practitioners. It feels good to be learning another one.