Idée d'jour

Don't judge men's wealth or godliness by their Sunday appearance.
— Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790)

Along similar lines, I recommend "Don't Go to Church", in which "Mr Preacher" makes a persuasive argument that our focus should not be GOING to church, but BEING the church.

Tenth Street Excercise

You with the four-square name
You with your hands in your pockets
and your head in the clouds
You with the empty promises
and the vile idle threats
You with the unfinished novel
You with the blank stare
in the evening
and the gaping mouth
in the dawn
Your heart is small as a black hole
Your black bird eyes are empty mirrors
Your oreo mania
Your hammered jello
Your seagull heartache
Your infinite inertia

You with the iron in your liver
and the mercury under your fingernails —
I don't recall your name

Questions

This entry was suggested by Reverend Mother. Apparantly, these questions are traditionally asked at the end of the program "Inside the Actor's Studio".

1. What is your favorite word?
   Dance
2. What is your least favorite word?
   Paradigm
3. What turns you on, creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
   1. New directions
   2. Silence
   3. Friends
4. What turns you off?
   Hypocrisy
5. What is your favorite curse word?
   F*ck. Rarely used, but frequently repeated when it is.
6. What sound or noise do you love?
   Music
7. What sound or noise do you hate?
   Alarm clock
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
   Teacher
9. What profession would you not like to do?
   Garbageman, or politician (And the difference is....?)
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
    Welcome home!

Dog Day Friday

Her ladyship was not interested in posing this week, and gave me permission to post a picture of an alternate species.

This handsome pooch is lounging at a store somewhere in southern Colorado. The picture comes by way of a co-worker who just returned from a visit.

Koan d'jour

A clearly enlightened person falls in the well. How is this so?
(from Workman Press' Zen Calendar, © 2005)

Idée d’jour

Jump into salvation while you are alive. What you call "salvation" belongs to the time before death.
— Kabir

Robertson Supports Miers Nomination

Pat Robertson, assasin for hire, has spoken out in favor of the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. Which is just one more reason, in an exceedingly lost list, to oppose the nomination.

However, I'll admit that I was among those whose first thought was, "Well, it could be a lot worse." And one positive thing about the nomination is how it has divided the ranks among conservatives and Republicans.

I'm in favor of anything that decreases their power.

But it's clear, from the number of Christian evangelicals who have supported Ms. Miers, that the sole reason she's been nominated to the court is to overturn Roe v. Wade. Which is a form of judicial activism I oppose.

I would join our conservative friends in asking for someone better. I just don't have any faith that the next person on the list will be any more palatable than Ms. Miers.

Yesterday

Yesterday was one of those rotten no-good days
when one darn thing follows another.
It began with a sinus headache.
I suppose the headache may have been a contributing factor
to all that followed.
But, it began with the sinus headache.
Of course, I took the drug cocktail that seems to help -
pseudoephedrine, (generic) claritin, ibuprofen -
that got the pain down to where I could walk straight.
As I was brushing my teeth, I noticed there was a stain on my shirt.
Right over the hollow of my right shoulder, a stain.
So I changed my shirt.
I was in a hurry, because I wanted to stop by the post office and then vote
before I went to work.
After I had rolled the car out of the garage,
I realized I'd forgotten my glasses.
I need those glasses to drive,
and need them even more to work.
I switched off the car, went inside, and got my glasses.
Post office and voting transpired without incident.
But then I had to wait for a train.
The train that runs north and south
a block east of Broadway,
and about three blocks west
of the parking garage.
Aside from wishing I could unscrew the top of my skull
(like Steve Martin in that movie),
the morning proceeded without incident
until about 10:00
when I realized
I had forgotten my watch.
Which is only an issue at lunch,
because there are no clocks
at the cafeteria where I eat.
The day was busy, which was good,
because it encouraged me to focus
on the tasks at hand
rather than my physical discomfort.
Got home.
I thought the meeting was at 7,
which meant I only had about an hour
to do everything I wanted to do.
Naturally, my elderly neighbor called
and needed help with his fancy phone.
That took about 20 minutes.
And I chose to write bills
and balance the check book
and print out the prayer I would say at the meeting.
I scarfed down a Healthy Choice entree for dinner.
Then I chose to stop by the post office (again!)
on the way to the meeting.
Rushing, rushing, rushing.
The meeting actually started at 7:30.
Happily, the meeting ended around 9:30.
I got home safely.
My headache is better today,
thanks for asking.

Tao d’jour

I have just three things to teach:
Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.
— Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Prayer Before Vestry

Those of you with long memories may remember that I am a member of the church board (called a vestry in the Episcopal Church). Different lay members are asked to say a prior before each meeting. Tonight is my turn. Naturally, I had to write a draft in advance.

---

Blessed are you, Lord God, Ruler of the Universe.
Blessed are you, Giver of Light and Life.
We give thanks for the opportunity to gather in Your Name.
Grant your indwelling Spirit so inspire our hands, hearts, and minds
that we may be focused on achieving your will in all things.
We especially seek your direction
as we consider the finances of this community.
We also ask that each of us gathered at this table,
as well as each member of our community,
honestly consider Your gifts freely given,
and how we may best employ those gifts
for the growth and strengthening of your Kingdom.
This we ask in your Holy Name.
Amen.

Haiku d’jour

An autumn evening;
It is no light thing
To be born [human].
— Issa

Idée d’jour

You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.
— H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

Cat Friday

We were unsuccessful in capturing the ideal shot last night. Happily, the lady obliged by climbing into the linen closet this morning and striking the poses recorded herein.

By the way, those are my towels the lady has appointed as her special bed.

DJ is doing her part to help me keep depression at bay by persistently meowing until I get out of my chair and start playing with her. Mighty thoughty of her, don't you agree?

We've got a new game similar to bowling. It involves paper sacks and one of two balls. We're still working out the rules.

The Canoe

The water is rising.
The tide raises the boats.
The levees weep.

The water is walking -
a pillar by day,
a column by night.

The pillar grows stronger,
feeds on the water.
It moves the pleasure palace.

The levees weep. The bird
flies over the flood.
Listen to the mockingbird.

Lines in the water,
voices floating on the water.
The water is walking.

The tide raises the boats,
but not the canoe.
The flood overwhelms the canoe.

The water is rising. The
bird flies above the water.
Listen to the mockingbird.

Idée d’jour

I don't necessarily agree with everything I say.
— Marshall McLuhan

---

McLuhan also famously said, "The medium is the massage." Meaning, as I recall, that different types of media massage human intelligence in different ways.

Holy the Quotidian

You have to go right into life and find your spirituality on a cross-town bus at rush hour, when it's raining and you have a stomachache.
— Peter Himmelman, quoted in the November 2005 issue of Acoustic Guitarist Magazine [(16)5; 155: 38]

---

There's something about mountaintops. Those of us in the "Judeo-Christian" tradition are familiar with Mt Ararat, where the ark landed, and the mountain where Moses received the commandments, and the mountain where Jesus stood with Moses and Elijah. From these and other similar events, we have coined the term "mountain-top experience". Plains Indians, much like the desert dwellers of ancient Palestine, also revered high geographical places.

There is also something about valleys. The psalmist speaks of the "Valley of Death", of course. Ezekiel has a vision of the rebirth of Israel in the valley of dry bones.

The Celtic tradition speaks of Thin Places, in which one may be aware of the meeting of heaven and earth. One well-known thin place, the isle of Iona, is a craggy high place. It is "beyond the beyond", as they say. It's not a warm fuzzy Disneyland experience one will find at a Thin Place. Indeed, it may be profoundly UNcomfortable. Confronting the eternal often is.

Nietsche said that when you look into the abyss, the abyss looks into you. I think this is another way of saying that Thin Places not only put you in touch with the eternal; Thin Places also cause you to confront your real self, without any masks or self-deception. That's what can make a Thin Place so uncomfortable.

Mountains and valleys are also terms we often use for high and low experiences in our lives. At one extreme is the mountain-top experience of a new birth; at the other, the valley experience of the death of someone you love. These are times when one is more vulnerable to the eternal, or divine.

When we go on pilgrimage, when we go to the Thin Place, or the lonely place apart, we also make ourselves vulnerable. In one instance, we choose to become vulnerable; in the other, we may become vulnerable due to external circumstance.

But what about the in-between times? The normal times? The quotidian dailyness of "Ordinary Time"?

In a sense, finding the eternal at the margins, the extremes of life, is easy. The challenge is finding the divine in the every day.

There are a few people venerated for finding the divine in the ordinary. Teresa of Lisieux, the "Little Flower", is one. Brother Lawrence, who wrote The Practice of the Presence of God, is another.

This is the time of year the Roman Catholic Church calls "Ordinary Time". There are the High Holy times, of course, of Christmas and Easter. By designating this period between those great mountain tops as "Ordinary Time", the church recognizes that Ordinary Time is also Holy.

That's the challenge, then. Find the holy in this Ordinary Time. Find the holy in rushing for the bus, or when you have a sinus headache, or when you're feeling tetchy with your spouse (or significant other). Find the holy when you're angry. Find the holy when your job is a drag, and it's a challenge to start the car to drive to the commuter lot.

Seeking the holy in the Thin Places is easy. But you can become vulnerable to the divine right now. You can seek the holy even in the computer screen or the keys at your fingers. Indeeed, you can find the holy even at your very fingertips.

Idée d’jour

Can we wash each cup or bowl as if we were bathing a newborn baby Buddha?
— Thich Nhat Hanh

Idée d’jour

Eternity is not something that begins after you are dead. It is going on all the time. We are in it now.
— Charlotte Perkins Gilman (author of The Yellow Wallpaper)

Idée d’jour

Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.
— William Saroyan

Michaelmas

I'm wearing black today. Black shirt, black pants. I may even wear my famous black hat. If it were a tad cooler, I would wear my black leather vest.

I often wear black on Friday because the day is a reminder of Good Friday, when Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.

Why do I chose to bring this to your notice? And what does it have to do with Michaelmas (the feast of St Michael and All Angels)? By the way, Michaelmas was Thursday, Sept. 29.

Because I am also wearing my bow-tie. As you see, it is based on a design by M.C. Escher. It's white fish on a black background. The fish seem to be in groups of three (at least in the section I scanned for this entry).

I'm also wearing my seer-sucker coat, which is a pattern of thin black stripes on a white background.

This is my way to acknowledge The Light in the Darkness. The yin in the yang, and visa versa.

In the original illustrated version of Man and His Symbols, Carl Jung reproduced a piece of art of the Archangel Michael with that ancient dragon (Satan). The circularity of the two principles looked eerily like yin/yang.

In Talmudic tradition, Michael's name is held to mean "he who is like God." Satan is also known as Lucifer, a name that means "Light Bringer". Milton holds that Lucifer's folly was seeking to be like God. So, we see the figures mirror each other.

It's a good time, in other words, to acknowledge the light in my own darkness. Since I get a case of the blues around this time of year, seasonal affect disorder would seem likely. What I must guard against is despair.

Despair led me to write that I was bored with my self and with my life. I knew it seemed melodramatic when I wrote that a little over a week ago. I also knew the only chance I had to overcome the darkness was by naming it, describing it, confronting it.

Depression is one thing. The next rung down is despair. Despair is an affliction of those who have a poor sense of history. That is to say, it seizes one who has come to believe his or her present darkness will never end.

Allowed to continue unchecked, despair will pull the trigger, pop the pills, or secure the rope.

It's important for me to name it. It's important for me to remind myself that I've been here before, and I've always come out the other side.

It's important to honor the light in the darkness. That's why I wore black AND white today.