July 12. 2022

Reflection

BALLPOINT PEN

A fellow priest was asking me to cover 3 days at the hospital for him.  He was trying to line up guys while he was going to be on vacation.

I was writing down the dates in my tiny schedule book - which I keep in my wallet. I said, "My pen isn't working."

He showed me his ballpoint pen, saying, "I'd lose my pen in the hospital if I didn't have this kind." It was a cheap blue pen. It was the kind that had a clip-on piece of metal - so it won't fall out of his shirt pocket.

I said, "I get Bic pens. They are 12 pens for a dollar.

He said, "Oh!"

Standing right there next to me he points at my pen that isn't working, "Is that one of them?"

It was a slight put down.

Should I then ask, "Is that a put down?"

I don't know. The fact that I remember the comment today - the morning after - tells me something.

When an experience has a lot more energy than just the  experience, it tells me it's connected to a lot more experiences.

Was he feeling guilty that he was taking another vacation?

Was it another dig about money?   It seems he feels something - because he often says I spend a lot less than he does.

I don't know.

Is this the juice that gets people to want to have a bigger, more expensive, car than the other guy?

Suits? House? Trophy wife?

Or was it just a simple comment about a ballpoint pen?

I don't know.

Or was I cheap Bic ballpoint pen?

 July 12, 2022

Thought for Today

"When one is at ease with himself, one is near Tao."

Chuang Tzu

(Zhuangzi)

c.369-286 BC

Chinese Philosopher

 July. 11. 2022

ALWAYS  A  CHILD

It seems that Jesus' words. "Unless you be like little children, you won't enter the kingdom of heaven" are well known by lots of people.

And then the adults, the rational ones, say, :Notice he didns't say "childish".

In other words, "Grow up and grow up fast."

And I smile or make a wise crack, because I want to actually remain a child. I want to be childish as well - enjoying life like a child - my whole life long.

I want to always have the feelling of, "I'm still not there. I'm still learning. I'm still growing. I'm still unknowing. I'm still a kid. So don't expect too much seriousness from me."

And I hear people saaya to me of me, "You'll nwver grow up."

And I respond, "I hope not."

And I think the key factor is a fear of arriving and finding oneself a grouch or a ongoing, "Tch Tch Tch!" or dead.

The ripe apple is plucked.

It heads for the knife or teeth or cider or apple juice or to just lie there and rot.

Oh forbidden fruit - on the tree of life - keep growing.

Who wants to hear God say, "Who told you that you could eat from the tree of life? Now you have the wisdom of good and evil. Now you are like one of us.

Who wants that? 

I want to remain a child in this garden of paradise - amen - not yet - wanting to walk with You God - every evening in the cool of the evening.

 July 11, 2022

Thought for Today

"The afternoon of human life also have a significance of its own and cannot be merely a pitiful appendage to life's morning." 

Carl Gustav Jung

(1875-1961)

The Stages of Life (1930)

July 10, 2022

Reflection

AN  EXPERIENCE 

WE WILL NEVER HAVE

There's an experience none of us will ever have.

No matter what we do, no matter where we go, no matter how long we live, none of us will aver have this experience.

Well, what is it?

It's the experience of  experiencing ourselves.

What?

Oh, we think about it at times - especially after a snub or a big time rejection.

And there is this ongoing wonderment about, "How am I doing?" or "How am I coming across?" Or "I wonder what she sees in me." Or "I can't see why he doesn't seem to like me." Or "Something is funny here. I wonder what I did wrong."

It's my experience thatd people are fascinated by any kind of self-knowledge test - A Jung test, the Enneagram Survey, or The FIRO test.

People are often at the edge of wonderment about themselves.

It's obvious. We spend a good bit of many conversations talking about other people - especially those who drive us bananas.  Somewhere along the line we have to wonder, "What are they saying about me behind my back?"

Do people who fall in love, really fall in love with the other person? Or is it a projection - an imaginary shopping bag of stuff - stuff   we have bought about this other person - especially when  they are paying some attention to us?

Well, I guess this is one of life's humiliations.   We can't have it all. We can't be God - three persons in deep knowledge of themselves. 

Oh for a glimpse of the Trinity on a hot August morning.

August 10, 2001

July 10, 2022

Thought for Today

"Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo."

 

Don Marquis

E.  Anthony

O Rare Don Marquis (1962)

I liked this because I have  

written a few books of poetry

and walked to the bottom

of the Grand Canyon and 

up to the top of the other

side in one day.

 July 9, 2022

ACCEPTANCE

I find myself saying to people, "Try praying for the grace to accept  that you can't accept some reality."

A boss is driving us crazy. We can't quit our job - and we feel ugly with so many negative feelings bouncing around in our belly about him.

These ugly feelings make us feel guilty. We inwardly say, "I shouldn't feel this way." We think, "I should be a better Christian. I should be able to forgive this person. I should be able to carry this cross."

But when we can't. we can get a double whammy - then a triple whammy: the inability to forgive, accept, and be patient with this person.

Compound feelings pound us like ongoing traffic or pounding waves hitting our beach.

What to do?

Obviously, the first step is to call, "Time out."

Get off the basketball court for a while. Breathe! Have a coach point out what's happening. Have a coach suggest something new to do.

The coach might simply suggest accepting everything that's happening - inside and out.

I might simply say, "Okay - oh this is what a traffic jam looks like. I can't get out of this right now."

The literature on dysfunctional people, situations, or families point out that dysfunctional people get us to become more dysfunctional. They can mess us up.

The thing to do is to watch the whole game as if you're sitting in the stands as well as if you're in the game.

Once we do that, laughter can happen, Acceptance can happen.

Solutions, no.

Acceptance, yes.