November 12, 2022

Reflection

TABLES AND CHAIRS

 

There are moments and there are moments.

 

There are tables and there are chairs.

We sat there as tiny kids in our high chairs - banging our spoon - wanting our food - wanting attention. Yet when it comes to baby's high chairs there an underlying disconnect. That half moon high chair table top - locked us in - and separated us from the rest of the family.

 

We know tables - the family table as kids - the gathering place where we ate our veggies and our birthday cake - the place we were excommunicated from when we did something wrong.

We remember the tables we sat at in school.

 

We might remember the restaurant table where we proposed.

 

Then there are our chairs.

We remember sitting there in the hospital - with a blanket - waiting for a spouse to get better.

We remember a rocking chair at our grandmother's. We loved to visit her and get to sit in her rocker  - even though we were so small - but she made us feel so tall.

 

"Who sits where?” is the question we think or say - when are at a table in a house where we are a visitor or a guest.

 

It’s interesting when we we visit certain homes. Sometime there is no special seat at the table for the King of the family; sometimes there's a seat where you better not sit.

 

How do you replace a spouse or dad or mom or son or daughter  who has died - when a certain chair still fills them - with so much emptiness?

 

Certain chairs would not get listed as worth a million dollars on The Antique Road Show - because they are priceless.

 

It’s good to sit there at a table in the evening of our life and jot down on paper - the moments of our life, That's old age or retirement homework.

We remember as kids seeing our mom writing home to her parents in another country or our brother in college or in the military.

Gather the letters. Save them  Write the history of our family.

There are tables and there are chairs.

 

 November 12, 2022

Quote for Today

"Watch out for our coming campaign, called Get the Poets Back into Banks, Doctor's Surgeries and Insurance Offices, where  modern poetry began."

James Campbell,

Times Literary Supplement

June 11, 2004

November 11, 2022

Reflection 

WHEN  YOU  CAUGHT  ME

I have to watch the movie,  "As Good As It Gets" again - so I can here, remember and then memorize the lines of one scene - or maybe it was two scenes.

Holly Hunter says something like, "You caught me when ...."

Jack Nicholson then puts his foot in his mouth in his response to what she says and loses Holly.

She said something like, "You should have stopped there."

That reminded me of the times I found myself saying about someone else,  “You lost me when ….”

 

I remember a church service, when a visiting deacon had the crowd sit down for the gospel reading.

So I sat down as he read the gospel. 

Then something off to my left caught my eye. A father and a son remained standing.  His wife and daughters were sitting.

I didn't know what was going on. Sometimes when there is a long gospel reading, folks are told they can sit during the reading. 

Is that what was going on?  Was it a rule's keeping situation?

 

Did that couple have a fight in their car on the way home because of this?  

I don't know.

 

The man didn’t look happy.  I've rarely seen him smile.  He has smiled. I’ve seen it.  But most of the time he does not seem happy.

 

He lost me when he remained standing.

 

Could he catch me if he gave me a different take  on why he was doing what he was doing?

In the meanwhile was I sitting there with my juridical robes on? 

I have memorized the words from the Talmud: "Teach thy tongue to say, 'I do not know.'"

I know those words, but I don't always practice them.

 

When people are dating, do they spend the time judging each other?  Would they know this if they were asked this - if they did this?

 

In the movie, Jack Nicholson recovers - or Holly Hunter gets to understands him.

Is this something we all do?  Do we do this to ourselves - giving outsiders a judgement?  Does God do this?  Do we do this with God?

 November 11, 2022

Thought for Today

"What I tend to say at the beginning of the term to my students in poetry workshops is this: I am going to be involved with your capacities as writers, but your destinies as writers are your own business."

Seamus Heany 

Poetry Ireland Review  

Winter-Spring 1991

 November 10, 2022

Reflection

DIAGNOSIS - PROGNOSIS - GNOSIS

"Gnosis" is a Greek word that needs to be noticed.

It simply means "knowledge".

And there it is rooted in and part of the word: knowledge

You can hear it as you say the word, knowledge.

Sometimes when someone tells us something like that, we say sort of automatically, "I didn't know that."

Anyone who as read the book, The Da Vinci Code, has run into the word, "Gnostic" or "Gnosticism".

Gnostics was the label given to groups of people who were off shoots of Christianity - or similar groups.

The label comes from the perception that they had a secret knowledge. They would add or think, "We know and you don't know." Or "You have it wrong!"

Christianity gives knowledge.  There are truths. There are teachings. Learn. Here's a catechism. Attend classes. Go to meetings. Know the text. 

I haven't done a thorough diagnosis of Gnosticism.

Where to start: the key idea is teachings. Knowledge.

In fact, it's the secret knowledge that counts.

This knowledge brings salvation.

If I understand Christianity and Catholicism - it's all put out there. It's on the table. There is nothing secret.

And salvation - the ultimate gift - the lifting up after death by Christ - is done by Christ - not by us - not by us getting a special degree - in a list of truths.

The main teaching is that it's all done by Christ.

Then the teaching is based on love - service - caring - building the kingdom - moving the body - growing - forgiving - reaching out to others - all in the name of Jesus.

We are in a paradox here.

It's about knowledge - gnosis - but the gnosis is this: we know each other like Christ knows us - and if we enter into this love - the prognosis is good - and we will be part of the all who rise in Christ.

 November 10, 2022

Thought for Today

"One  of the things about which poetry can nudge people is matters of ecological consciousness and conscience.  Because poetry has traditional dealt with 'Nature' anyway (especially in English), it is well placed to do so."

Denise Levertov, 

Meaning and Memory 2001

 November  9,  2022

Reflection

SELECTIVE  CHRISTIANITY

AND

GRADUAL  CHRISTIANITY

There is a difference between Selective Christianity and Gradual Christianity.

Selective Christianity is accepting an awareness of various teachings and practices of Christianity - but choosing to deliberately not practice certain teachings - at least not yet.

Gradual Christianity is getting on the path - slowly discovering Christians truths and teachings - and slowly putting them into one's life - and not rejecting any of them out right.

Wait a minute.

That needs clarification.

There are the so called, "Hard teachings of Jesus."

Here's one: "If a person wants to come after me, he or she must deny their very self, take up their cross, and follow in my footsteps." [Matthew 16:14; Mark 8:34]

Do we add: 

• "Go the extra mile."
• 
  
• "Give the shirt off your back."
• 
  
• "Visit Christ in prison."
• 
  
• "Decrease - so Christ can increase in you."
• 
  
• "Trust in providence.
• 
  
• "Give what you have to the poor."
• 
  
• "Come follow me."
• 
  
• "No judging."
• 
  
• "No stone throwing."
• 
  
• "Realize the other person is not an object to make me feel better."
• 
  
• "Every person has an inner room. Visit Christ there."
• 
  
• "Make sure every person gets our respect - our love -care, health, and honor."

Did Martin Buber get his I-Thou versus I-It - from Christ - or from the Hebrew Scriptures - or from somewhere else?

Do I agree that "Life is difficult" - as M. Scott Peck puts it?

Do I agree with Dietric Bonhoeffer when he talks about The Cost of Discipleship?

Life takes time: both Chronos and Kairos.