Just One Week...

What a difference a day makes...and that is so very true.
So very true.

And what a difference a week can make...
Highs and Lows...
Friends and Enemies...
Life Before and Life After...
Some would say Ever After.

Here are some thoughts from Sunday
And Thursday
And Friday
And Sunday again.

What a week…

Holy Week they call it.

An impromptu parade…

Cheering and palm-branch waving…

High hopes and higher expectations.

A final meal shared by friends…

A new commandment given:

Just Love One Another!

And then all hell breaks loose.

Betrayal by a friend…

Brutality by the powerful…

The religious authorities and

The machinery of government

Enforce the dirty deed…

A death will quiet the mob, and

Satisfy the holy assembly, and so

A death it shall be!

On Sunday a parade…

On Friday a public lynching.

And the man says
“It is finished.”

And on Saturday all seems quiet…

But maybe not so much…

Because according to nothing other

And nothing less

Than faith…

The story may not be over.

Always beware of the mob

That waves the flags of

Regime and Religion

Together…

No good can come from that…

Beware, and keep the faith…

The story may not be over.

What a week!

But just wait…

There’s another Sunday coming.


A Thursday evening for friends
To share food and drink and conversation...
A meaningful meal...
A Last Supper, even.
Maundy is the word we use
Maundy...
From Mandatum...
Which means Commandment.
Some wine and some bread
Enlarged in meaning to include
Life shared...
Life given and received...
Memories for all lifetimes yet to come...
As often as you do this
Remember.
Feet washed and dried...
The dust of life before wiped away...
And the New Commandment for life ahead offered
Love One Another.
And then the darkness of the night deepens...
A life is betrayed with a kiss.
The leaders of State and Religion are in charge now.

Friday...
And evil plays out.
Enough blame to go around...
State and Religion
One of the man's closest friends and the crowd-turned-mob.
And for the man...
A Place that feels like its somewhere between life and death.

An Empty Place where life is hollow and thin.

An Overwhelming Place…

Hectic, and hellish, and unmanageable. 

A Damnable Place where everything life can throw
Arrives in full and without end.
A Nowhere Place where 
life folds back in on itself...
Sucks the fire from the soul and the joy from the heart.

My God, My God
Is there still hope...
Surely there is still hope
Hope in the goodness of God...
Hope 
that we are never separated from the love and
The redemption of God...
Hope 
that we are not so flawed, or so defective
Or so not-good-enough that God has abandoned us
Even in the worst that life has to offer.
Even when the Place we find ourselves feels like
It is somewhere between life and death.

Death finally comes...
The man's body is laid in an offered garden tomb.

It’s early Sunday morning and

The women arrive at the tomb and

Find it empty.

That is how the earliest version of
The First Important Story of The Church ends…

Abruptly disarming and  

Troubling in its lack of closure and

Asking us to hold in tension

Contradictory raw emotions and

Mold them into A Profound Mystery and

Leaving us with the expectation 

That we might just run into 

This Resurrected Presence 

Anywhere and any time and

Inviting us to believe that

Love is stronger and longer than death and

Light will overcome the darkness

Any time and any place and

Every time and every place and

Neither the State nor the Church 

Can ever control the Human Spirit. And

Every-now-and-then and

Especially on a day like this…

The First Important Story of The Church 

Becomes Our Important Story, too.
 And
Life goes on and

It is better than before.

Some Lessons of Silence...

Since my retirement in June of 2015, we have been primarily attending a Quaker Meeting.
As you might guess, there are extended periods of silence in a Sunday morning Friends worship service. It takes some getting used to. I'm still learning...

Learning Some Lessons of Silence.

I asked some friends what lessons they had learned from silence.
They offered up some good answers:
-I am small, yet not insignificant.
-Silence is golden. (Let is all share in the wealth.)
-Silence is not golden in the face of evil.
-Silence allows me to hear God.
-Silence forces me to look inward and allows me to touch the core of my blessings.
-Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together.
-Silence asks nothing of me, but itself.


For 41 years, from 1974 till 2015, I was a United Methodist minister…and in United Methodist worship…for the most part…silence is deadly. Even times of silent prayer are very brief, at least by Quaker standards.

And for ten years beginning in the mid-1970s I co-hosted a weekly half-hour television show…and on television programs…silence is deadly. Our Director always got anxious and gave us the high-sign to keep it rolling whenever there was a dead-spot during taping.

And for five years in the 1980s I hosted a weekly radio program…and in radio…silence is deadly. I was told many times not to let there be dead-space during my half-hour program. So I played soft jazz and offered my observations on daily life...with no silence.

And for three years in the late 1990s I taught philosophy and religion classes for the Vincennes University extension in Indianapolis. My job was to lead students in the exploration of those subjects...mostly through lectures and class discussions. Silence on my part would not have gotten the job done.

So the Friends Meeting is introducing me to the other side of silence…the side that isn’t deadly.

Ram Dass, the author and spiritual teacher says this: "The quieter you become, the more you hear."

In the Bible…the 46th Psalm to be exact…there is this:
“Be still and know that I am God.”

We’ve all heard that phrase…many times over.
"Be still, and know that I am God.”

Be still...and know.

In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, the Irish poet, playwright, and translator, Seamus Heaney, said this:

“The true and durable path into and through experience involves being true to the actual givens of your lives. True to your own solitude, true to your own secret knowledge. Because oddly enough, it is that intimate, deeply personal knowledge 
that links us most vitally 
and keeps us most reliably connected to one another.”

"True to your own solitude, true to your own secret knowledge."

All of the above leads me to affirm that there are times...important times...in life when
Silence is just what the doctor ordered...
Silence is good for what ails us.

And this:
In the delicate dance

Of Hopes and Dreams…

Of Fears and Anxieties…

Of Courage, Wisdom, and Calm…

Of Life, Death, Tragedy, and Loss…

Of Celebration and Sorrow…

Of Passion, Anger, and Emptiness…

In all of this and more

The Creator  can be known in the

Language of Silence.


In the secrets we ponder as to

How Love grows, and

Where Grace flows, and 

The darkness and 

The Light that overcomes it, and

What keeps the Life Blood flowing, and

How the Spirit whispers to the Soul, and

All things Bright and Beautiful…

In all of this and more

The Creator can be known in the

Language of Silence.


Do this:

Be silent.
Breathe.

“Be still and know…”

(Thanks to friends Charles Wilfong, Karen Roberts, Ronnie Robinson, Allen Wilson, P.T. Wilson, Dan Carpenter, and John Riggs for some of the thoughts in the post.)

Deja Vu...

I am confident that some, if not the majority, of what will appear here...in a post made in March of 2019...has appeared in other of my posts over the ten years I have been doing this blog-thing.

Hence, Deja Vu.  Or, as Yogi Berra famously said...

Here are some one-liners that I have believed are true...and continue to believe are true.

-By taking a new path, we will find new possibilities.
-In the midst of every-day life, we will find God.
-We are more than do.

-Every life takes great courage to live.
-That the most important things in life aren’t figured out, measured, or spelled out in concepts and propositions.
-It's not where we stand that’s most important, it's what direction we’re moving.
-Celebrate Diversity not Division

 Opportunity not Opposition

 Advantages not Adversaries.
-It’s okay to be a lone wolf sometimes.
-You don’t need to know every detail to succeed.
-Don’t settle for skimming the surface of life.  All the good stuff is below that.
-A healthy and living theology leaves room for our changing understanding of God…and God’s continuing revelation.
-To do something, you’ve got to start at the beginning.

-The big picture is nothing other than many smaller pictures brought together.

-You never really know what you think you know…until you do know.
-The powers that be never want to change.
-It's only “Good Advice” if it points to the truth.
-There’s more than one way to do just about anything.
-Always be aware of your surroundings…and who you are surrounding yourself with.
-You can change the things that you can change…but you will have to work at it; and it may not happen over-night.
-There are lessons to be learned from both fear and bravery.
-When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
-Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
-The truth is the truth no matter who speaks it.
-If it doesn’t look like love, no amount of words can make it otherwise.
-Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others.
-You only really know where you are going when you get there.
-If something makes you uncomfortable, try looking at it differently.
If it still makes you uncomfortable, leave it alone.
-To do something, you’ve got to start at the beginning.

-Silence is sometimes the best answer.
-The best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
-Anyone not willing to risk is not really willing to live.

-It's important to find ourselves in harmony with God’s activity in the world.
-We either get better or get worse…and it's always the right thing to choose getting better.
-Whatever there is of God and God's Kingdom does not come from beyond nor from the long, long ago...it is already within us; there for the taking, if we so choose.


So there it is. There they are.
Some one-liners that I have believed are true...and continue to believe are true.

The Choice

We all make a choice.
Not a few of us...
Not some of us...
Not even almost all of us.
We ALL make a choice.

Carl Jung said this about the matter of choice:
I am not what has happened to me.
I am what I choose to become.

Many of us, I suspect

Live most days somewhere

Between Hope and The Abyss.
..
Too frozen to make a choice:
Letting the choice choose us.
We’ve had too many 

Sad and deflating choices to make...
Choices that brought Pains, Injuries, Exhaustion…

Break-ups and Break-downs…

Lost Loves, Lost Friendships

Lost Jobs and Homes

Lost Health, and even a little
 Lost Sanity.

We know for a fact that it is

More likely for Life

To be unfair than fair.

We have many Dreams but

Not enough Goals.

Hope tugs us in one way, and

The Abyss calls us in the other…

Too often…almost daily it seems.

And yet…

We are in control.

And so…

Starting here and starting now

Let us choose Hope.

Why?
Well, because…

God stands waiting where Hope is the choice...
Ready and Willing to share 
with us
The unforced rhythms of Grace.
We are not what happens to us...
We are what we choose to become.


Attitude...

I've got an attitude.
Plenty of people have told me that over my many years on this terrestrial ball.
Yes. Yes, they have.

You've got an attitude.
Plenty of people have told you that, haven't they?
Yes. Yes, they have.

All God's children got an attitude. Yes. Yes they do.

The word means we have a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something. And this settled way of thinking or feeling shows up...shows out...in our behavior, in our actions.

I've got that. You've got that.
All God's children got that.

But when folks tell me I've got an attitude, what they are really telling me is that, according to them, I'm uncooperative,
I don't go along with their way of thinking or doing,
I'm antagonistic,
I'm being resentful.
"You got an attitude, man!"

Attitude can be a big help or a big hindrance in life.
For me.
For you.
For all God's children.

Style is a part of our attitude.
How we lead and how we follow is part of our attitude.
How we do or do not respond to change is part of our attitude.
Our strengths and our weaknesses are part of our attitude.
Our ability to trust or not trust is part of our attitude.
If we speak truth or falsehood is part of our attitude.

Let me suggest that an Attitude
that will serve me
and will serve you
and will serve all God's children
extremely well
is an Attitude that is:
Smart...
Disciplined...
Tough...and
Relentless.

If We Dared To...

It's amazing what we men and women will do if someone dares us to do it.
I have done my share of silly...and stupid...stuff just because someone dared me to do it. My guess is that you have, too.

Do you remember that iconic Flagpole scene in the movie "A Christmas Story"?
The scene where Schwartz dares Flick to stick his tongue on an ice-cold metal flag pole?
Schwartz eventually says to Flick: I triple-dog-dare ya!
And...as we know...Flick can't back down for the dare...issued in public...and this is the result:

But there are other...better...things we can do on a dare...
If we dared to, we could start telling ourselves a new life-story.

If we dared to, we could dream big. 
If we dared to, we could include all-I-need-to-do-this-is-already-within-me in our dream.

If we dared to, we could stop blaming people, places, and things
 for the sad state of affairs we think we’re stuck with.

If we dared to, we could stop waiting 
for something, or someone to rescue us.
If we dared to, we could live a life wherein we are the people who overcome...
where we are the victors…not the victims.

If we dared to, we could be amazed by what we have already done…
by how far we have already come, and then we could just keep going.
..Tomorrow...And the next day...And the day after that...Every day.  


If we dared to, we could tell ourselves we are courageous enough…powerful enough…
to make a difference...a positive difference...Here and Now.

If we dared to, we could realize that we can’t make important contributions to the important
 conversations about:
Human Rights,
Racial Justice,
Climate
 Change,
Immigration,
Marriage Equality,
Gun Rights, Gun Laws, and Gun Regulations,
Wealth and Wage Distribution,
The Terrible Cycle of Poverty that Destroys Too Many in Our World,
and…
How best to pull off that Treat-Others-the-Way-You-Want-Others-to-Treat-You thing.

If we dared to, we could stop believing we are broken, or fallen, or flawed.


If we dared to, we could think a good thought, and move on…
and keep moving on.



And if you need a little nudge to do these things...
I Triple-Dog-Dare-Ya!

Goin' Up the Country...

I'm goin' up the country, baby don't you want to go?
I'm goin' up the country, baby don't you want to go?
I'm goin' to some place, I've never been before...

So sang Canned Heat.

The song was a Hippie Anthem when it was released back in 1968.
Back in 1968 I was living in Los Angeles until moving to Indianapolis late in the summer. I was riding my Honda 750-four in LA but sold it when I moved back to Indiana.

Goin' Up the Country has recently been turned into a motorcycle-on-the-open-road anthem, thanks to a TV commercial.

These days I am living in Bloomington and riding a Honda VTX 1300. Much bigger bike. Much more sophisticated engine.

I rarely rode the 750-four more than back and forth to work. There were a couple longer rides, but nothing like what I am about to undertake with the VTX.

Elizabeth and I took my previous (to the VTX) bike on a long road trip...to Mackinaw City and back. Here is a picture of that bike, a really sweet Honda Shadow.

The upcoming ride looks to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,100 - 1,300 miles.
And here is the bike trip I will set out on late in the month of May...as described by the guy who organized this trip...the Pastor of the Quaker Meeting we attend, Phil Gulley. He says this, writing in an article for the Meeting's May Newsletter:

Several years ago I was in Nashville, Tennessee and noticed a sign for the Natchez Trace Parkway. I had a few hours to kill before giving a speech, so drove 50 or so miles on the parkway, making a mental note to someday drive the entire 444 miles. That day has come. At the end of this month, Mike Goss, Ned Steele, and I will ride our motorcycles west to the Mississippi River, down the Great River Road to Natchez, Mississippi, up the park- way to Nashville, then wander home on the backroads. 

Quite the bike ride, isn't it? Yes. Yes, it is. 

Here's what we can expect on our ride from Natchez to Nashville:
The Natchez Trace Parkway leads you 444 miles through three states and 10,000 years of North American history. This scenic parkway links Natchez with Nashville and crosses some of the most beautiful terrain in the states of Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. The Parkway has been declared a National Scenic Byway and an All-American Road, and has been chosen as one of America’s 10 best biking roads. Open year-round for motorists, hikers and bikers, it provides visitors the opportunity for an unhurried trip through time.
Today the Natchez Trace provides a near-continuous green-way from the southern Appalachian foothills of Tennessee to the bluffs of the lower Mississippi River. Along the way are sites like Emerald Mound, a national historic landmark and one of the largest American Indian mounds in the United States; and Mount Locust, one of only two surviving stands.
The Natchez Trace also crosses four ecosystems and eight major watersheds, and provides habitat for nearly 1,500 species of plants, 33 mammal species, 134 bird species, and 70 species of reptiles and amphibians. Also designated as a National Scenic Byway and All-American Road, the parkway encourages modern travelers to experience historic and scenic landscapes at a leisurely pace.

Great stuff.
Goin' Up the Country.
Yup. Gonna do it.
But...

Well, let me explain it this way. Here is more about our trip from Phil:
...as the date of departure has drawn nearer I confess to misgivings, most of them having to do with my aversion to trouble, which along with Ned and Mike, will be my constant companion on this trip, in the form of flat tires, blown engines, torrential rain, bad drivers, bad backs, deer, dogs, not to mention the ever-looming specter of a fiery death. 

Yeah...Goin' Up the Country.
Exciting stuff.  

And anyway, any adventure involves some risk.
No risk, no reward.