It occurs to me…

From The Guest House – Rumi (translated by Coleman Banks):

“Welcome and entertain them all

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,

Who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture,

Still treat each guest honorably.

He may be cleaning you out

for some new delight.”

It really makes no sense when you think of it, does it?  I have this long-established practice of naming, judging, putting labels on, characterizing these “guests,” these thoughts, these events, these things, these emotions that enter my life.  And, I do so most often before they actually create some effect or impact on my life.  Some I see coming and lock the doors to keep them out, others I allow in warily, still others I welcome at the front door.  Those I keep out, I pat myself on the back for doing so, assured of how things would have turned out had I let them in.  Those I allow in have some effect, and I name, judge, label, and characterize them “in real time,” predisposed, I guess, to label favorably since it was I who let them in.  Yet I do so knowing, if I am honest with myself, that I can’t predict the future (well, I predict it regularly, but not with any sense of reliability).  No, I can’t really know the potential impact of those guests turned away, nor the future impact of those allowed in.  Thus, the exhortation – “treat each guest honorably.”

“Go placidly amid the noise and haste…”  Max Ehrmann – Desiderata

Picking up on yesterday’s thought – There is much swirling around us lately with the recent events in Charlottesville and the related fallout.  What caught my eye and tugged at my heart today is a photo taken by Stephen Lam and published in the New York Times.  The photo is of a woman in a rally in Oakland, California, surrounded by others, holding a simple white poster board with this scrawled across the poster: “I CAN’T BELIEVE I AM STILL PROTESTING NAZIS.”

This single shot displays the power of a photo.  It conveys, at a glance (though it deserves more than a glance) those feelings and emotions inside me and rushes them to the surface to the point that I have palpable reactions – a wince, a gasp, a rush of emotion.  The photo both speaks for me, and listens to me in my frustration, anger, pain, impatience – in whatever emotions I have related to the craziness of recent events.

A picture is or can be worth a thousand words, yes, but more importantly, in this case, it plainly serves to state those thousand words for us.  So whatever, your politics, indeed, politics aside, forget the article below it, just go look at the picture and envision yourself standing nest to the woman holding the sign, or better yet, holding it yourself.  She nailed it with the poster –

“I CAN’T BELIEVE I AM STILL PROTESTING NAZIS.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/opinion/the-test-of-nazism-that-trump-failed.html?mcubz=0

I didn’t need to read deep into Max Ehrmann’s Desiderata today to get the take away:

“Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence.”

I am not sure which is more difficult, to “go placidly amid the noise and haste” or to “remember what peace there may be in silence.”  I am thinking I need that tattooed on my forearms – both sides, top and bottom.

Photo taken in Hawaii a couple of years back.

This from Barack Obama related to the Charlottesville events, quoting Nelson Mandela:

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.  People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

That was like a breath of fresh air – a simple, irrefutable truth stated plainly to point us toward a light beyond our darkness.  No blame there.  No discussion of statues or flags or who is right or wrong, good or bad.  No polarizing, no ____ bashing, no raising one side up and putting another side down.  The only finger pointing going on there is pointing back to me, to each of us, encouraging us to take a deep breath and remember that love is more natural than, stronger than, hate.

To quote the old V8 commercial: “Thanks, I needed that.”

This from Barack Obama related to the Charlottesville events, quoting Nelson Mandela:

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.  People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

That was like a breath of fresh air – a simple, irrefutable truth stated plainly to point us toward a light beyond our darkness.  No blame there.  No discussion of statues or flags or who is right or wrong, good or bad.  No polarizing, no ____ bashing, no raising one side up and putting another side down.  The only finger pointing going on there is pointing back to me, to each of us, encouraging us to take a deep breath and remember that love is more natural than, stronger than, hate.

To quote the old V8 commercial: “Thanks, I needed that.”

With some regularity, I listen to Garrison Keillor recite the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) as the Fairfield Four provides “Amazing Grace” in the backdrop.  It is quite good.  As Keillor’s comforting voice recites “A certain man had two sons” I prepare to listen to the story again, but for the first time each time.

Anyway, listening today I was drawn to that first line and thought, for some reason, how the story would be different if there wasn’t a second son.  I mean, in verses 11-24, the only thing that would change would be replacing “two sons” with “a son.”  Still, the addition of the second son, who dominates verses 25-32, is meaningful.  Today, it occurs to me that for all the elder son’s efforts to distinguish himself from the younger son (“Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time, thy commandment? v. “thy son was come, which hath devoured they living with harlots”), he has much in common with his younger brother.  Perhaps that is why the elder son protesteth so much.  Their common ground, beyond their father, is of course that it is all about them, or at least they want it to be so.  Is “give me the portion that falleth to me” from the younger son really different from the elder son’s “thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends?”

All of which points me to the memory of flipping open a book at a bookstore in Memphis years ago, Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life, and reading that first paragraph:

“It’s not all about you.  The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness.  It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions.  If you want to know why you were placed on this planet you must begin with God.  You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.”

I may well be the long lost sibling of the two brothers in the parable.

From Max Ehrmann’s Desiderata:

“Take kindly the counsel of years. Gracefully surrendering the things of youth.”

I’ve never really focused on this line, but today it caught my eye.  To the extent I thought of it, I saw it as referring to external counsel – sort of an admonition to listen to folks wiser than me.  On reflection it occurs to me that Ehrmann is encouraging me to listen to myself more, the seasoned me, and, at the same time, let go of those youthful perceptions that have guided me thus far.  All of which reminds me of 1 Corinthians 13:11:  “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”  Which of course begs the questions – Have I put away childish things?  Have I surrendered (or am I surrendering) the things of youth?

Photo taken on a recent run when I saw this mushroom growing out of a tree knot.

On the candle on my desk there is this quote attributed to “unknown” (he was one busy dude!):

“peace.  it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work.  it means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.”

That if, of course, the perfect lead in to the song —  It Is Well With My Soul.