September 23, 2022

Reflection

BASIC  CONCEPTS

"There are a few basic  concepts, but think of the metaphors."

I like that saying about metaphors and have through the years.

And from time to time I like to list some of the basic concepts I have come up with so far - concepts that could use a metaphor.  Here are a few first draft concepts - hoping for a metaphor.

1) There is a world of difference between hearing about something or someone than experiencing something or someone.

2) There are two kinds of people: the givers and the takers.

3) There are two kinds of people: those who notice what's missing and those who notice what's there.

4) Everyone is a Columbus, a Madam Curie, an Einstein, an Admiral Perry, they have to discover their America - their cure - their formula or their Pole.

5) Everyone has a parable, they have to discover which one is theirs.

6) The present moment is no longer present.

7) There are different  kinds of persons: listeners and dogmaticians, those who use question marks and those who use periods.

8) We'll never understand the other person..

9) There are two kinds of persons: those who bend and break and those who bend and don't.

10) Every road leads to Calvary.

11) It's all about buying and selling.

12) There are mosquitoes and there are alligators.  Both want the same thing - but they go about it so differently.

13) Timing, timing, timing, location, location, location - you can't avoid time and place.

14) Those who don't wonder and don't ponder and don't question and never scratch their head, might as well be dead.

15) Some people are never satisfied - even when they are offered an ice cream cone - or a glass of cold water.

September 23, 2022

Thought for Today 

"Certain poets - Virgil, in particular - seem untranslatable. The baggage arrives, but not the owner who is on another flight."

Fergus Chadwick,

Acumen, May 1997

September 22. 20222

BUT  WHAT ABOUT ME?

I first heard the theme from a nun.

She busted her butt for some 30 years as a teacher - and then wondered whether anyone seemed to care - what she cared about.

I articulated to her what I was hearing - using the words of a poem: "But who knows your story?"

I might have received in the mail around that time a poem by Vicki Erikson.  It was in a publication from Princeton Theological Seminary.  The line that grabbed me was, "Who heard my tears in the driving rain?"

Her story got me thinking about a lot of people I knew  - but didn't listen to enough. I'm starting to hear a lot of people - all in their 50's - and older - voice a down deep cry: "But what about me?"

Freud used the couch to listen to people - lying down -- on the leather: "Okay, what about you?"

I remember sitting with a couple. She was doing all the talking - all the venting - all the screaming - years and years of building up screaming - and he just sat there. 

I began wondering inwardly, "But what about him?"

Did he have a whole Niagara Falls of flowing words and feelings - that I am totally unaware of- that she doesn't take the time to get on a bus or a train or a car - to visit?

Niagara Falls - that's a good analogy - because I visited it at least a dozen time.  I stood there watching the waters go over the edge. Amazing.... And the flow kept flowing - kept coming - non-stop.

I was never there in the winter.

Are the words silent, frozen, grabbing, holding onto, stuck in the rocks - in the winter?

How does one turn on the spicket - and let the cold and the hot words flow?

 September  22. 2022

Thought for Today

"It's nice to be acknowledged, but that's not why you do it."

Linda Ronstadt

 September 21, 2022

Reflection

GARDEN

It's a healing move to create a garden.

Take pictures - before, during, and after - Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.

I was visiting a friend of mine - and she began telling me about her garden.  Her daughter was there as well - and began talking about getting home to do some work on her garden as well.

We can't control the world. We can't remake the world.  We can't change city hall. We can enter the struggle and the adventure of creating a garden.

Stones - flowers - fruits - vegetables - herbs - spices - fences - divisions - water - a small shrine - can bring the unique into reality.

Adam and Eve started out in a garden.

Christ ended up in a garden - where he was arrested and then brought to trial - then crucifixion - then death on a cross.

Thoughts - images - possibilities - different directions - there are lots of things that can be planted in our garden. 

Take and plant ....

Take and sort ....

Take and root ....

This is my body .... this is my blood .... this is me....

For those who don't garden, there is always writing - to get some kind control of what's planted in the all around of us.

Birds are  watching ....

Variety - spices - herbs ....

Take and eat - this is my me in me - but first I need to get sorted out - organized and reorganized - tooted and uprooted - sort of like in a garden - on these pages of me.

 September 21,  2022

Thought for Today

"A hurtful act is the transference to ourselves of the degradation which we bear in ourselves."

Simon Weil

 September 20. 2022

Reflection

UP  TO  JERUSALEM

Jesus went up to Jerusalem several times - but he knew down deep there was going to be THE trip to Jerusalem.

We go to the doctors many times, but we know down deep there is going to be THE trip to the doctors.

We go to church many times, but we know there is going to be THE trip to church.

We go to a cemetery many times. but we know down deep there is going to be THE trip to the cemetery.

We experience God and heaven, death and dying, at varioius times in our life, but we know there is going to be THE trip to God and heaven.

The ordinary and the extraordinary are parts of life.

There are weekdays and Sundays.

There are ordinary days and Holidays.

There are meals and there are meals.

There are moments and there are moments.

There are meetings and there are meetings.

There are books and there are books.

There are people and there are people.

There are I-It moments and there are I-Thou moments.

This was to be Jesus' hour.