Yearly Archives: 2008

Faith and Spirituality

Religion Is the Least Interesting and Most Common Expression of Spirituality

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21  59%  23%  1mph E  bar29.99  steep fall windchill20  Winter

              First Quarter of the Cold Moon

A friend from California called me to ask, “What is the difference between religion and spirituality?”  This is an often asked question.  In part its puzzle represents what I believe is a category mistake.  There’s an assumption implicit in the question that religion and spirituality represent aspects or spheres of the same thing.  They don’t, at least as I understand the terms. 

Religion, for me, identifies the institutional, external vehicle necessary for the transmission of religious beliefs, teachings, history and insititutional form.  In the instance of the Roman Catholic Church, a familiar example, then, religion is everything from the institutional forms like the parish, the episcopacy, the Vatican, monasteries and convents to the magesterium (teachings) to statues and artworks and liturgy.  It may also include the inner life of an individual when that inner life attempts to conform itself to those forms and teachings.

Spirituality, on the other hand, is always an inner journey, but never one in which the goal is forcing that journey down a certain path.  Spirituality is about the freedom of the human spirit to search where it will for nourishment.  It may be that some of that path will include methods conceived by others:  contemplative prayer, zazein meditation, dream work,  psychoactive drugs or ecstatic dancing for example.  The end, though, cannot be forseen for the spirit is the essence, the heart, the soul of freedom and its seeking can never be constrained.  This is why spirituality is often seen as inimical to religion; it refuses boundaries and escapes from dogma like air leaving a punctured tire or a deflating balloon. 

In this understanding it is possible that religion and spirituality have nothing to do with each other, though I think the reality is otherwise, but the reverse of what most people imagine.  Spirituality, as I said, is often seen as an aspect or sphere of religion, when, in fact, religion is the least interesting and most common expression of a vital spirituality.  In this I follow Max Weber who referred to religion as institutionalized charisma.  The Christian church in all its expressions, according to Weber, represents the institutional accretions that grew up around the extraordinary work and teaching of the man Jesus.  According to Weber, the further and further we get from the original charismatic individual or group, the less and less vital and more and more bureaucratic a religion becomes.

 Let me know what you think.

Our Land and Home, Weather +Climate

Put on the Mad Bomber, Baby. It’s Cold Outside.

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-3  78%  27%  0mph WNW bar30.16  steady  windchill-3  Winter

            First Quarter of the Winter Moon

“Explore, and explore. Be neither chided nor flattered out of your position of perpetual inquiry. Neither dogmatize, or accept another’s dogmatism.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

La Ñina, el ñino’s cooler sister, has forced the jet stream to the south, leaving us without atomspheric protection from the frigid arctic air.  There is nothing but water and tundra between us and the North Pole, so when this happens our temperature plummets.  It was -9 at 7:00 AM this morning.  Though no one who doesn’t share our winter understands it, this is the weather that defines us as Minnesotans and most of us look forward to it.  It requires coping skills passed on from generation to generation and from natives to newcomers.  In the old days we brought our car batteries inside, bought engine block heaters.  Now we buy wicking thermal underwear, Mad Bomber hats, Sorel boots and put our cars in garages if we can.  When I moved to Minnesota in 1970, the seminary housing had electrical outlets in front of each parking spot in the student residence parking lot.  I thought, oh, my.

The snow cover has faded, though it’s still there. If we don’t get more snow, I’m going to have to lay down straw in a few spots, though the areas I had concerns about, mostly the newly planted garlic bed, already have their mulch.

Art and Culture

Warning! Radiation Hazard.

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10 59% 24% 3mph W bar30.28 steady  windchill6  Winter

            Waxing Crescent of the Winter Moon

Doing research for an article on touring and poetry, I wandered through the galleries this morning seeking out objects with poetry written on them, objects inspired by particular pieces of poetry and objects with poets.   The list is long and varied, much longer than you would think at first blush.  This suggests an intimate connection between literature and art in our collection.  The linkage goes deeper when we move beyond poetry and look at objects with, say, a biblical theme or a sutra or a story from any of the rich mythological traditions.  This area turns my crank.

The galleries have a wonderful emptiness on Mondays though there is activity.  In the Ukiyo-e gallery the scissor platform supported a cleaner taking care of a case.  In the Minnesota artists gallery crews from the registry officer had Ta-Coumba Aiken’s work down and had begun to prep the galleries for a new exhibit. The medieval gallery had lights and cameras as the staff photographer shot a madonna and child.  Most interesting, and a first time for me, was the sight of radiation hazard cones in the third floor gallery that connects the wings of the old McKim-White building with the newer building.

What were they up to?  We have a statue on a pedestal someone thinks may have an incorrect orientation.  This guy usually sits next to the elevator on the third floor, though after a long search I could find no description or name for him.  Does he really look toward the sky, rather than the northern wall?  Inquiring minds want to know so x-rays are the order.

With these exceptions, the galleries are empty and provide a kind of sanctuary filled with wonderful objects.  Sometimes I like to just browse, wait for an object to catch my eye or tickle some inner fancy, then spend time with it. 

After this, over to Common Roots for a gathering of a group interested in literature and the arts.  Sounds good to me, though the meeting reminded me of the  many I sat through with community and church groups when I used to participate in such groups for pay.  It was fun nonetheless.

Great Work, Our Land and Home

A Root Cellar in Andover

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19  65%  26%  1mph W  bar30.10 rises  windchill19  Winter

                Waxing Crescent of the Winter Moon

I like Sundays.  My workout schedule is 6 days a week and Sunday is a day off.   Much of my life Sunday, especially Sunday morning  was a work day, so to have the day off is a special treat in my world. 

Of course, like most Sundays, I will write today and spend some more time on the garden plan.  Might even watch a play-off game.  How ’bout them Packers?  Winning in the snow.  Northern football.  Brett Favre comes from Mississippi; must have been a shock when he first started in Green Bay.

Yesterday I looked over plans for root cellars.  Kate and I plan to put one in this next growing season.  I’m not sure where quite yet.  One book recommends digging into a hill, which makes sense, and I have a hill right outside the window here.  The problem is, if I dig it by hand, there are difficulties.  First order of business is to kill and remove the poison ivy.  Then, since this hill has seven oaks trees on its crest and a few stubby ash and oak there will be woody roots to remove.  Not to mention the actual digging.  That could be a good workout, though.

None of this is impossible, of course.  The question is whether I’m willing to do all the work by hand.  If we put the root cellar in the back, we could have a backhoe come in and do the heavy lifting, then all we’d have to do is frame it out, make steps and a floor, put in a roof and call it a cellar.  To get to the hill area I’d like to use, any heavy equipment would have to come over lawn and I’m not sure I want to do that.

 Noticed in the paper today that the election has world attention.  As well it might.  Having spent the last presidential election in Singapore, however, I can report that even then taxi drivers gave a damn about whom we elect as President.  Many foreign nationals are eager to see the Bush era come to an end.  I’m with them. 

Faith and Spirituality, GeekWorld

BMI 25.1, Blood Sugar 98. Yes!

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22  82%  28%  2mph NNW bar30.06  wincdhill21  Winter

            Waxing Crescent of the Winter Moon

These next three weeks are, on average, the coldest weeks of the year.  I’m glad to see them come.  I love the snug as a bug in a rug feeling of very cold days, work I love and a home place to do it.

Weighed in this morning.  My BMI is now 25.1 and my blood sugar is 98.  I’ll continue on with the nutrisystem at least for the rest of this month, then I’ll have to have a good maintenance plan in place because I will head off for the Dwelling in the Woods, then 3 weeks in Hawai’i.  Hawai’i should be ok because the fish, fruit and vegetable type menu is common there.  It would not be the same if we were headed to, say, England or Austria.  I feel good about this effort so far.  The challenge now will be a healthy long term eating plan, one I strayed from too far for too long.

Still no joy on the sound system.  I had the DVD player sending signals through the five speaker set up, so I know I have them connected and working.  When I exchanged the Toshiba HD DVD player for a Panasonic Blu-Ray player, however, I eliminated the sound success I had made.  Since I won’t get the Blu-Ray until next week, I don’t know yet whether I can convince it to communicate with the speakers.  I know, right now, that the coaxial cable I got to connect the DVR/HD box to the receiver did not produce instant results.  Sigh.  I may have to talk with the folks at Ultimate when I go in to pick up the Blu-Ray.  This is part of the learning curve, less steep now than when I opened the first box, but steep enough to block my vision so far.

Today is more work on the Faery Tale and garden planning.  This is the work I love.t

Faith and Spirituality

Off to Dreamland

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20 88%  27%  0mph WSW bar29.87 windchill20  Winter

             Waxing Crescent of the Winter Moon

Day is done; gone the sun. 

The time before bed has a peculiar poignancy.  We lay down the work of this day, set it aside for a period of sleep.  We give up our apparent agency in the waking world for a sleeping world in which we seem to become passive participants in jagged scenes made up of pieces of daily life intermingled with invented plot lines and sometimes extreme emotion.

The dream world has always fascinated me and I’ve gone through parts of my life where I kept nightly dream journals.  Sometimes I would work with these dreams with a Jungian analyst.  Other times I worked with them on my own in a journal keeping process I learned in workshops designed by Ira Progroff, an American Jungian who believed in self-directed forms of analysis and self-care.

A couple of years ago I participated for a full year in the Jungian Seminar, an intense Saturday long class that runs during the academic year.  It is taught by Jungian analysts for the most part and can serve as part of certification for Jungian analysts in training.  A wonderful, rich time, one I gave up when I took up the docent training program as too much, for me a lot like too much chocolate cake.  We worked on dreams a lot.

In spite of my project manager I try to keep the activities of the day confined to that day.  I’m not always successful, like early this morning, but I try to resolve differences of opinion or strong feeling before bedtime if it is at all possible.  We never have more than this day, this hour, this minute, this moment. Ever.  Hard to keep that up front, but I try.

Good night, and as Edward R. Murrow used to say, good luck.

                                           -30-

Art and Culture

One Month and Three Belt Notches Later

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22  80%  28%  0mph WSW bar29.78  windchill 22  Winter

         Waxing Crescent of the Winter Moon

Fifth graders today from Harambee Community Culture School.  We marveled at Shiva’s four arms, heard a Tibetan monk who happened to be in the gallery explain the Mandala, walked through the Celebration of Bestowed Glory and looked at the four noble professions.  We investigated the scholar’s study and found implements for calligraphy, poetry, painting and music making.  We teased out differences between the Greco-Roman influenced Ghandara Buddha and the Japanese depiction of Amitbha Buddha.  Both groups were fun, responsive.  My questions helped somewhat, but generally I just went with the flow, answering questions, prodding, making linkages.  So my project manager can rest easy about this one.

Of course, there’s that highlights tour and another Asia tour next week…  But, shh.  We won’t tell him just yet.

The second nutrisystem order came. It is a sensible, straight forward weight loss program.  It works.  Don’t know how much I’ve lost but I’ve gone in three belt notches and can wear pants I gave up on long ago.  Tomorrow I plan to weigh in and take my fasting blood sugar.

Art and Culture, Faith and Spirituality

This Is Your Project Manager Speaking!

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22  78%  33%  0mph SSW bar29.74  windchill21  Winter

            Waxing Crescent of the  Winter Moon

(Moon names this year from American Colonists)

Wide awake at 5AM this morning.  Oh, man.  I really love that.

Why?  Three things rolling around.  First, I want to improve my use of the inquiry method, so I’m focusing on the questions I’ve created for the Asia tours today.  At 5AM my inquiring mind wanted to know:  what are they?  Oh, brother.  Then, as these things go, another, bigger task, more fun, but more work trundled itself forward:  What ever happened to the influence of the Judaeo-Christian tradition in modern and contemporary art?  In March I have to present a discussion on this topic to the Docent Book Club.  What will I say, my mind wondered?  As if I could think clearly enough at 5AM to solve this riddle.  As I pushed it down to later in the day, when I can read and take notes, the third item leaped up to be noticed:  Ralph Waldo Emerson: A Transcendent Unitarian.  This is also a for March project, capsulizing transcendentalism, Emerson’s role relative to it and his influence on early Unitarianism.

You might reasonably wonder why these other two projects were on my mind (in my mind?  on top of my mind?) on January 11th, 2008.  On February 6th, I leave for a retreat with my fellow Woolly Mammoths at the Dwelling in the Woods in northern Minnesota.  I leave from there for Hawai’i where I will stay until February 29th.  In my mental world that means I have a choice between finishing the Art and the Emerson projects before I leave for Hawai’i or trying to finish them as I return. 

My mind keeps a project manager running at all times.  Most of the time it works in the background, following my work, assigning priorities and evaluating progress.  Some times it moves into the foreground, like at 5AM on January 11th.

OK. OK.  I sleepily ran through the objects:  Jade Mountain, Shiva Nataraja, Gandhara Buddha, Mandala, Ceremonial Gate, Studio of Gratifying Discourse, Korean bronze Buddha, Amitbha Buddha. What were the questions for each one?  I dutiful recalled them.  When I finished, the project manager let go and slipped beneath the surface again, content to work in the background.  I went back to sleep.

Family, General

Between the Legs

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29  85%  31%  1mph WNW bar29.64 windchill27  Winter

                New Moon

The new grandchild is a boy.  Here’s a poem composed by the proud parents for the occasion.   

What is it?

We went to the doc for the ultrasound
And what we saw was quite profound.
There was the heart, the brain, the spine and all
And between the legs was a penis and balls.

IT’S A BOY!!!!!!!!!

Sheepshead this evening.  If you don’t know what sheepshead is, there’s a link on the right.  Two consecutive times now I  have hit the positive column.  These are a great bunch of guys.  We had a lot of fun tonight.  Jokes, pro-Packer football talk (I listen.), analysis of doing in the Roman Catholic Church and events in each others lives.

GeekWorld

Has Your Light Gone Out Yet?

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32  72% 27% 1mph N bar20.68 steady windchill32  Winter

                    New Moon

Simplicity.  Ah.  About two hours ago I called Comcast to activate the new digital box I got downstairs because the old one, according to Comcast, was a non-responding box.   So, I call this guy.  A disembodied voice that asks me all the usual questions:  phone number, address, name, size of my boxer shorts and my ring finger.  As he talks, he says he’s aboot got my account up. 

I say, so, you’re in Canada.  Yes.  I am.  How did  you know?  An o or two that stayed longer than usual for my ear.  Oh.

We talk about Stratford and his fiance and how they want to go their once.  How Chatham, where he lives, has just had a remodel.  He thinks it will become an art city like Stratford.  Then he sends a jolt to my box from Chatham, Ontario.

It should go out.

It hasn’t.

I’ll send another one, a stronger one.  This from a guy in Chatham, Ontario.  He’s communicating directly with my TV converter box.

Still not out.

Well, wait about 20 minutes. That should do it.  If it doesn’t, just call back.

It’s not out yet–an hour and a half later.  So, I’ll call back. Talk to someone else in Chatham.  Start over.