Tribes

Call them what you will – family, circles, parties, clubs – we all belong to many groups, or tribes. We gather, spiritually or emotionally, if not physically, around things shared: family, ethnicity, beliefs, political views, neighborhood, state, region, nation, language, sources of shared experiences or values such as school, college, work, military and other public service and myriad activities – politics, study, sports, art and pure fun. We usually gather around what makes us feel comfortable, or at least right, including what we value, what we reject and, seeking support, what we fear.  This is completely natural.  However, these choices, like so many others, are worth examining. 

What is more important to me: comfort or growth?

Does what binds me to one person require separating myself from another?  Why?  If it is my value system, what is the source of that system?

When values conflict, how do I decide what is most important – what yields and what prevails? Is this process working for me? How does this process – conscious or not – affect my relationships with others?  How does it affect my experience of my own value? How does it affect my stress level?  My productivity?   
Are my values and their dynamics – my priorities among my values – working for those I love?  For my community? For the health of the planet as a habitat for humans and other species?  

Concerning public values, also known as public policy, am I willing to distinguish between what I want for myself and what I think is best for society – from my town to all of humanity?  How willing am I to seek to understand others and to accept others’ views, including other tribes’ views of values that are important to me, as worthy of respect?  Am I willing to stand up to members of my tribe when I believe they are mistaken, let alone acting irresponsibly or unethically?
 

In relationships between tribes - between people and nations - is it more important to be right or to be happy, or at least at peace?

Modesty

Part of being smart is preparing for when we are stupid, or merely forgetful.
Modesty is a good start.

Dreams

Freud said, "Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious."

If only more people were willing to go there.

The leaf

The leaf.

 

We spring - along with many others - from the branch of a tree.  We live.  Nourished by, and clinging to, the tree, we grow.   We wave in the wind.  We provide shade.  We take in the sun.  

 

We contribute to the health of the tree - a family tree. The human family tree, even the tree of life, if we take the long view.

 

We are beautiful - often especially as our fall approaches.  Sooner or later, though, we let go - or are torn away by storm or accident - and we fall.  But, though no longer alive, green and growing, no longer connected to the source, we are still part of life.  We still exist.  We are still a part of a larger source of which the tree from which we sprang was itself - as great as it is - only a small part.  And, in our withering time, we can still give back: we fertilize the source that gave us life and the leaves that follow us. 

October 26, 2014

For me, Meeting for Worship consists mainly of gratitude and questions.  Often the answer to a question is a question -- sometimes a series of questions.

My most common question is, “what of God can I bring to this moment?”  Today, the answer comes in just one word: grow.

Then come these questions:

In what ways do you want to grow?

In what ways do you think you should grow?

What is holding you back?

Is it fear of responsibility?

Ah.

Hiding from service

I have accepted that I am selfish.  However, since I profess to strive to serve others, this question matters: what am I doing to avoid, or to distract myself from, the troubles of the world or from what I could be doing about them?

Being a saint, briefly.

"Why would anybody want to be a saint?"
"Become a saint and find out."
That question, to a Hindu guru, and his answer have stayed with me for many years.  I am all for learning by experience, but the answer seemed so daunting as to be evasive.
 
Now I see that that answer, that invitation, need not mean a change of career or of faith or a commitment of years, let alone a lifetime.  The first two definitions of "saint" in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd ed.) are "a holy person" and "a person who is exceptionally meek, charitable, patient, etc."  One doesn't have to be religious to be a saint.  One can try it for one day, an hour, or even, by some gesture (or restraint), a moment.  Whenever we choose kindness for its own sake, we have the opportunity to learn why one would want to become a saint - again.