Faith and Spirituality, Great Wheel, Great Work, Weather +Climate

A Gospel for These Heavens and This Earth

January 18, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

-10 59% 23% 0mph WSW bar30.36 steep rise windchill-12 Winter

Waxing Gibbous Winter Moon

How low will it go? Pretty low. These are the days for staying inside, watching movies, drinking hot chocolate, reading and studying. I’ll do all these tomorrow.

Driving into the MIA this week, on Monday and then again today, I saw sundogs. A sundog creates a rainbow like lens, in this case pointing toward the west. As I understand the presence of a sundog indicates ice crystals in the air which act as a prism. Just checked, that’s right. Also, it says they always form at 22 degrees on either side of the sun.

Both days an earth centered faith was on my mind, as it often is these days, in fact, these last few years. It is not, perhaps, most accurate to say earth centered, since the sundog itself is a good reminder that any faith which grounds itself in the material reality of this world also relies, for life itself, on the heat and energy received from the sun. So, I don’t know, perhaps a solar system centered faith. The earth’s orbit around the sun orchestrates the seasons and the moon pulses the oceans through bays and onto beaches with tidal flows. Even a rudimentary understanding of the creation of the solar system acknowledges the intimate nature of our relationship to other planets that share Sol. So, there’s a puzzle here in terms of where to focus, but I don’t think the parameters are much wider than the solar system, although there is the whole star formation, interstellar dust cloud thing which makes us part of the ongoing galactic reality. Even so, those relationship are distant both in distance and in terms of direct affect, if any on our daily lives, where Sol makes our life possible and its planets are our neighbors.

Anyhow, more thoughts on the notion of Ge-ology. What I might write, rather than a Ge-ology, is a gospel for these heavens and this earth, a faith focused on the intricate and delicate and complex interdependence between and among life and the inanimate yet critical context in which it exists; a celebration of the wonderful and the awesome we experience each day. Our heart beats. The winds blow. A lover or a child smiles. The sun warms our face. We recall times that seem long ago; we think and imagine. The stars shine. Snow falls. These are miracles which do not require walking on water, a Pure Land or a night ride to Jerusalem. No exodus or burning bush.

Gospel means good news. I see this faith as good news for all humankind and for all living creatures on our planet. It means we can turn our face toward each other and our hands toward the earth in love, not lust.

As I see it, this is the ur-faith, the one prior to all the others. It came naturally to indigenous communities through faith traditions like Taoism, Shintoism, Native American faiths, the faith of those who painted Lascaux and who erected Stonehenge. Are all these the same, no, of course not; are they all similar in their insistence on loving attention to the reality within which we dwell and move and have our being? Yes. This is the ur-faith because it was one we all know in our deep heart; it is not exclusive, if you want to follow the path of this ancient faith and the way of Jesus or Buddha or Shiva or Mohammad, there is no conflict.

Art and Culture, Faith and Spirituality

Buddha Natures Come Out

January 18, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

-1 47% 24% 0mph WNW bar30.21 steady windchill-5 Winter

Waxing Gibbous Winter Moon

Today I used the Templeman Tea Service and I went in early to find the damned thing. It was in the hall where the period rooms are, not in with the other silver. No wonder I couldn’t find it last week. Well, now I know. Two very different groups: white bread Catholics from Coon Rapids (near home) and a group of African-American, African, and Asian kids, three with headscarves. The Catholics got the highlights tour and the diverse group wanted a Taste of Asia.

The diverse group, sixth graders, had a street-wise look and I wondered if they’d pay attention at all. Turns out I had to pry them out of the Japan galleries. They got interested in the Buddha and then the bodhisattvas, how to identify them, what enlightenment was. They got me off my route entirely, so we went in the Wu family reception hall and spent time figuring out Chinese families lived. By the Shiva Nataraja, the last object, their attention had begun to wane, but they were delightful. Both groups were wonderful.

It’s cold now, the windchill has dropped to -8 and we’ll see lows of maybe -20 by tomorrow. This is Minnesota.

A long nap and now some treadmill time.

Politics

A Recession? We’ll Know When It’s Over.

January 17, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

2 74% 23% 0mph WSW bar29.84 windchill2 Winter

Waxing Gibbous Winter Moon

This is not my area of expertise, but the economy is something none of us can afford to ignore. A recession for some of us is a depression for others. While poking around on the net about just what constitutes a recession, I happened onto the following information.

The folks who make the official decision about whether or not we are in a recession work at the National Bureau for Economic Research. They gather in an aptly named Business Cycle Dating Committee. Here are the criteria they use:

“The National Bureau’s Business Cycle Dating Committee maintains a chronology of the U.S. business cycle. The chronology identifies the dates of peaks and troughs that frame economic recession or expansion. The period from a peak to a trough is a recession and the period from a trough to a peak is an expansion. According to the chronology, the most recent peak occurred in March 2001, ending a record-long expansion that began in 1991. The most recent trough occurred in November 2001, inaugurating an expansion.

A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. A recession begins just after the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends as the economy reaches its trough. Between trough and peak, the economy is in an expansion. Expansion is the normal state of the economy; most recessions are brief and they have been rare in recent decades.”

The most interesting part to me is that they never “call” a recession until the data is available. In a Q & A on their website is this entry:

Q: Typically, how long after the beginning of a recession does the BCDC declare that a recession has started?

A: Anywhere from 6 to 18 months. We never consider forecasts. In general, the BCDC does not meet until it is reasonably clear that a downturn has occurred.

This means we probably won’t know for sure we’ve been in a recession until we’re just about out of it since recessions tend to be brief. According to the Business Cycle Dating Committee.

Family

RIP Aunt Dorothy

January 17, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

Aunt Dorothy was a bright, vital, strong presence in our family and remained so until her death. A loss for us all.

The last of my aunts and uncles (with the exception of a divorced uncle by marriage). My cousins and I are now the older generation, that body of relatives standing between the young ones and death. A sobering, bracing position. I like it.

Dorothy Louise McGregor Brown, 100, passed away January 16, 2008. She was born October 26, 1907, in “Wheatland Territory,” Indian Territory, to Charles and Jenny Ellis. She was the oldest of two brothers and three sisters. Growing up, she worked hard on her grandparent’s farm, milking, harvesting wheat, corn, hay, and apples, and canning vegetables and fruits. She loved music and played the piano for her church and funerals, played basketball, and was on the debate team. She was the high school class president at Union City. Dorothy watched her mother teach and chose teaching as her career too. She attended both Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma to receive her teaching certificate. She began teaching in a one-room school house in Lone Star, OK, then taught in Mustang. She received her lifetime teaching certificate from Edmond’s State Teacher’s College, before taking a teaching position in Bartlesville. In Bartlesville, she met and married James Wilson McGregor and they had four children, three sons and a daughter. She was active in the church, teaching Sunday School and attending Women’s Guild, in the lives of her children, serving as scout leader and helping at school, and in the community, volunteering for the Mutual Girls Club board. In the 1964, she received her bachelor’s degree from Tulsa University in History. She resumed her teaching career in Bartlesville and taught a total of 14 year there. After 37 years of marriage, she was widowed in 1972. Always adventurous, she began attending church camps, traveling abroad extensively, and participating in Elderhostels, with her sisters and friends. In 1980, she moved to Norman to help with her grandchildren. She joined the First Presbyterian Church where she soon was recognized as an Outstanding Presbyterian Woman. She continued her travels and learning adventures. She audited carefully selected (choosing only the best professors, she shared) University of Oklahoma college classes. She wrote a book about her life and dedicated it to her children. She met Dr. Harley Proctor Brown at First Presbyterian Church and they were married on October 26, 1997, her ninetieth birthday. They continued to travel, learn, and enjoy plays and concerts together, then moved to Rivermont Retirement Community in 2005, and to the Gardens at Rivermont in 2007. She celebrated her centennial birthday and tenth wedding anniversary in October, 2007.

General

Clear, Bright and Cold

January 17, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

7 53% 22% 0mph WNW bar29.81 steep fall windchill3 Winter

Waxing Gibbous Crescent Moon

Busy day so far. Rechecking and reading questions for the highlights tour and the Asia tour tomorrow. Editing and revising a very short article for the Muse on poetry and touring. Beginning to tease out some graphics for my discussion session on whatever happened to religion’s influence in art?

Got a note today from Headwaters Parish, reminding me of my April 13th date with them and requesting more info. Have to get a topic to them soon. I’ll probably go with either some version of the Transcendentalist presentation I plan to give at Groveland in March or a version of the religious influence in contemporary art. I might, however, choose something completely different.

The day is clear, bright and cold. Saturday looks like it will be quite chilly, at least -14, probably colder up here in the northern suburbs.

General, News of the Strange, Politics

Which is More of A Health Threat: Al-Qaeda or Homeland Security?

January 17, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

1 64% 25% 1mph WNW bar29.97 windchill-1 Winter

Waxing Gibbous Crescent Moon

OK. This is interesting.

Which is more of a threat to your health: Al Qaeda or the Department of Homeland Security?

“An intriguing new study suggests the answer is not so clear-cut. Although it’s impossible to calculate the pain that terrorist attacks inflict on victims and society, when statisticians look at cold numbers, they have variously estimated the chances of the average person dying in America at the hands of international terrorists to be comparable to the risk of dying from eating peanuts, being struck by an asteroid or drowning in a toilet.

But worrying about terrorism could be taking a toll on the hearts of millions of Americans. The evidence, published last week in the Archives of General Psychiatry, comes from researchers who began tracking the health of a representative sample of more than 2,700 Americans before September 2001. After the attacks of Sept. 11, the scientists monitored people’s fears of terrorism over the next several years and found that the most fearful people were three to five times more likely than the rest to receive diagnoses of new cardiovascular ailments.”

The article goes to identify roughly 10 million people affected by the, what else to call it, fear-mongering of the Department of Homeland Security. Can anyone say Committee of Public Safety? I agree with the article and the physicians that the health consequences to individuals are significant and in themselves alarming; but, I believe the larger health problem is that of the body politic. 10 million voters with a fear of terrorism so significant that it affects their personal health represent a voting bloc, a demagogues paradise. Now let me see, have we had anyone playing the terrorism card in recent elections?

Going to the Walker Art Center tonight to see the TEAM, a group of performance artists who have a work called, Heartland. I’ll let you know how it was.

Faith and Spirituality, Family, General

I’m Feeling Born Again!

January 16, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

20 65% 23% 1mph WNW bar30.04 steep rise windchill 19 Winter

Waxing Gibbous Winter Moon

The truck had to go in today for repairs to its CV boots. Which were leaking. And its sway bar linkage. And some plug somewhere on the differential. But it’s all better now. Carlson Toyota has some more cash.

Kate and I went to the grocery store together for the second time in a month or so. I do the grocery shopping, almost always alone, so it feels strange when we’re there together. OK, but strange. She likes to drive the grocery cart, so my role changes. I know the store better than she does so I go find things while she forages among the vegetables and fruits.

Back home I worked on an article for the Docent Muse, trying with some frustration to find objects with poems translated. I didn’t write down the label copy on Monday when I did my research since I thought I could find it online. Not so easy. There’s plenty of material for another article on poetry.

If we accept prevailing health notions as a secular form of salvation (Latin root word, salve, to heal or make whole), then I’m feeling born again. My weight is down. My exercise schedule continues to work. My eating patterns have become downright healthy. I have interesting intellectual work and creative work. The relationships in my life are at an all time calm. Hallelujah, brothers and sisters!

Faith and Spirituality

Religion Is the Least Interesting and Most Common Expression of Spirituality

January 15, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

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.

January 15, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

-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.

January 14, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

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.