Category Archives: Life

“Love your neighbor” NOT unconstitutional

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Rabbi Arthur Waskow of the Shalom Center in Philadelphia sent this email regarding the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act.

The Supremes have decided:

“Love your neighbor as your self”

is NOT unconstitutional. 

Mazeltov to them and to all of us that, when push came to shove, the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court mostly reaffirmed the notion that fellow-human beings and fellow-citizens owe loving-kindness to each other.

That we owe each other food when we are hungry, a place to live when some bank takes our home away,  money to tide us over when some boss or some bank  takes away our job.  And health care when we are sick.

That notion is rooted, thanks be to God, in our ancient religious traditions.  But over and over, it’s up for grabs.

And I do mean “grabs” –-  grabs of the merely wealthy to be super-wealthy, grabs of the super-wealthy to invest hundreds of millions in campaign ads and lobbying,  to grab still more power…

Even this decision treated some neighbors as not quite worthy of the same respect and loving care as others. This one gave the states a way out of their Medicaid obligations  — to the very very poor. No surprise. If somebody’s gonna be left out, who else?

It’s also true that this Supreme Court has done some terrible damage — that ironically misnamed decision “Citizens United,” worst of all.  And yet I’m tickled that this time Chief Justice Roberts did what his appointer, President “W,”  would not have wanted. The history of Justices whose lives turn out to have a tiny taste of freedom tucked away —  it’s delicious.

So there is still more work to do.  In the New Declaration of Independence from Corporate Domination we sent yesterday in honor of July 4, we mention Medicare for All.  That’s still the fully decent answer.

But for now, take a deep breath, grab your sweethearts and dance a dance of joy.

In the Passover Seder, there is a really strange song. It says, “If we had reached the Red Sea but it had not split, Dayenu! – good enough! If we had reached Sinai but there had been no Revelation, Dayenu! – good enough!”

At one level, this makes no sense. At another, it makes EVERY sense. If we want to transform the world, then we must celebrate each step on the journey, even if it’s only half a step. We know there must be another step; the song has many verses. But if we refuse to celebrate, we will burn out before we can take another step.

Today, right now, rejoice. Tonight, tomorrow, on the FOURTH itself, begin to plan the steps we still must take.

Enjoy the fireworks. They are celebrating one small step of Independence from the Corporate King George.

And — fly the Flag of Freedom. It’s right here.

Blessings of justice and joy —  Arthur

Who is the poorest person you will meet today?

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Written in honor of Dale Robb*.

Who is the poorest person you will meet today?

The senior or teenager who will hand you food

at the drive-through window?  Or tonight when you stay

in a motel, could you leave cash to make the maid

feel good for days?  A tip, gratuity, can let

a worker keep their dignity and pay a bill

as well.  (A teller in a bank, however, can’t

accept a tip–give them fruit, a sweet, they can sell

or eat.)  All folks who earn minimum wage are poor:

be generous, be kind, and share if you have more.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL June 18, 2012

*I asked Steve about Dale. Here’s what he wrote:

“Dale Robb is a retired Presbyterian Pastor. For 25 years he served the First Presbyterian Church of Jacksonville, Illinois. Was a Campus Pastor at Miami of Ohio, & Presbyterian missionary in Asia.  McCormick Theological Seminay Alum of the year in the 1980s, University of Illinois grad (1943),attended McKinley Presbyterian Church, student officer in McKinley Foundation.  Retired to Urbana, he & wife, Arlene, attend First Presbyterian Church of Champaign…..  Member of the Reformed Round Table.

“The first question in the verse comes from Dale.”

An aphorism to chew on

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“What faith you have in God is very unimportant compared with  the faith God has in you.”

– Steve Shoemaker, June 26, 2012

Hell has descended on Colorado

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Friends gathering at StrongWinds, CO

This email arrived today from my classmate and friend Harry Strong from Ridgway, Colorado. His home – named “StrongWinds” – sits on the Continental Divide just a few miles northwest of Colorado Springs. In this photo of an annual gathering of friends at “StrongWinds” several years ago, Harry is on the left. He and Anna moved to Ridgeway, CO last fall. They put StrongWinds on the market and are scheduled to close on a sale July 9…..Here’s the email just as I received it..

“HELL has descended on Colorado!
‘StrongWinds’ is still standing for the time being. We’re scheduled to close on a sale July 9, assuming it’s still standing and the buyer doesn’t simply decide to forfeit his $5,000 earnest money & walk (or run).

“The entire area between Woodland Park and the Air Force Academy is ablaze.
Green Mountain Falls, where our little Church in the Wildwood is located, was evacuated Saturday. No services last Sunday. Many members’ homes are in danger.
Our former pastor, Dave, and his 4-year old son are in Woodland Park.
His wife, Stacey, and 2-year old daughter are with her parents in Colorado Springs.
Dave can’t get to them because Highway 24 is closed.

“Gasoline stations have run out of gas – grocery store shelves are bare. No trucks can get through with deliveries. Media teams keep having to move as well as evacuation centers, because the fires are spreading so quickly. Temperatures have been over 100 all week – higher winds are forecast for tomorrow. I fear the worst is yet to come.
Here in SW Colorado there are 2 other fires to the south of us – but so far we’re safe here in Ridgway.

“Prayers welcome – more later – Harry.

Colorado fire 2012

When the heart is awash in memory, it’s easy to get lost

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Click HERE for the link to “When the heart is awash in memory, it’s easy to forget,” the humorous walk-down-memory-lane commentary published today by Minnesota Public Radio. Thank you, MPR

Here’s a photograph of the Andrews Casket Company mill and “trout stream” in Woodstock, ME, the homestead of the Andrews family where Pete was the last Andrews to make his home.

The Andrews Mill in Woodstock, Maine

From Students, teachers should receive…

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From students, teachers should receive

much money:  for the smart believe

they learned so much–and from the dull

because they raised unholy Hell.

(after Isocrates, 5th C., BCE)

– a Chreia

Isocrates, Greek teacher and rhetorician

A chreia in classical Greek culture was a brief, useful (“χρεία” means useful) anecdote attributed by the author to a particular character. In this case it was in honor of Isocrates, an honored rhetorician.The chreiai are remembered primarily for their role in classical Greek education, a system known as paideia in which wisdom was the goal. Children were introduced to simple chreiai almost as soon as they could read. These chreiai served as the means of character formation and the increase of wisdom for living in a civil society.

Later in their education, as they prepared to practice rhetoric (the art of discourse, both written and spoken), these chreiai served as the basis for formal eight paragraph essays in which the student elaborated on the subject of a chreia. The student would praise, paraphrase, explain, contrast, compare, provide an example, make a judgment, and, in conclusion, exhort the reader.

Thanks to my fellow student Steve for sending “after Isocrates.” In honor of my teachers – Gordon Kidder, Mrs. Martino, Mr. Thompson, Ms. Manlove, Harold Miller, Helen Semar, Esther Swenson, Ted Campbell, Lew Briner, Tom Parker, Krister Stendahl, my father and mother –  I’m going to write an eight paragraph essay on this chreia.

Dare to Dream

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This morning PhotoBotos posted a magnificent photo by Alex Teuscher (Geneva, Switzerland) of a woman sitting at the mouth of what appears to be a cave. Click on the link http://www.photobotos.com/dare-dream-geneva-switzerland-alex-teuscher/ to see the photograph and read the commentaries by PhotoBotos and Alex, the featured photographer.

Every work of art invites interpretation by the viewer. “Dare to Dream” was intended to create a picture of dreaming and imagination. When I saw it, I couldn’t help but think of other images that inform the picture.

Stunning! I hear echoes from “the cave”: Elijah hiding in the cave; Plato’s cave where all we humans get to see are the shadows on the walls but never the fire behind the catwalk whose light produces the shadows; the dark nights of the soul – depression, sorrow, loneliness, hopelessness, grief – all sitting there inside the cave when there is such splendor all around it.

This picture is different. It sings a different song. The beauty of this piece is that the woman (it strikes me as a young woman, although I suppose it could be John Lennon ) is serene, at one with the beauty and brilliance of the natural world. Freed from the chains that would keep her deep within the cave.  And…she’s not talking on a cell phone or texting! She’s fully present to the beauty. Even the walls of the cave are bathed in the light. This deserves a wider audience. Wonderful.

Drop a comment here to share with others what you see and how it strikes you. And be sure and follow PhotoBotos.com and Via Lucis, two of my favorite sites for meditation.

Father Hardon

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Things seem to have quieted down recently regarding the objection of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to a federal mandate to include contraception in health care coverage.

Back in February Catholic News Service (“Obama’s revised HHS mandate won’t solve problems, USCCB president says”) reported on the story. Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, President of the USCCB, “said the bishops are ’very, very enthusiastic’ about the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, introduced by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb. The cardinal said the legislation would produce an ‘ironclad law simply saying that no administrative decrees of the federal government can ever violate the conscience of a religious believer individually or religious institutions.”

A few days later, my son-law’s neighbor left something on Chris’s doorstep. It was an article from The Catholic Servant about someone named Father Hardon, S. J.  I’d never heard of Father Hardon.

I love the Jesuits. A small group of Presbyterian and Jesuit students met together for beer and theology the last Friday of the month in 1966 in Chicago. The Jesuits are brilliant.

My first impression reading the piece Chris handed me on Fr. Hardon was that it was a spoof, that John Hardon was a fictional priest, or, if the article was serious, I thought it must be misspelling. Surely it was Harden. Or Hardin. Not Hard-on.

I went home and looked him up. There he was…Father John Hard-on.

Hardon seal – Father John Hardon

I found him him on a website dedicated to his memory, including a famous speech of his entitled “Contraception, fatal to the faith?”

“What do we mean by the title,” asks Fr. Hardon, “and what is the thesis of this presentation? We mean that professed Catholics who practice contraception either give up the practice of contraception or they give up their Catholic faith.

“The grave sinfulness of contraception is taught infallibly by the Church’s ordinary universal teaching authority. Therefore, those who defend contraception forfeit their claim to being professed Catholics. Consequently, those who persist in their defense of contraception, deprive themselves of the divine graces which are reserved to bona fide members of the Roman Catholic Church.”

Every one of my priest friends is horrified by Father Hardon. Like him, they are celibate and know how difficult it is to stay morally erect, but, unlike Father Hardon,  they don’t walk around calling men and women who use condoms, diaphragms, or the pill “mortal sinners” who have placed themselves beyond the graces if the Church or its God.

My old buddies from the Bellarmine School of Theology welcomed the Second Vatican Council as a breath of fresh air, as did my Protestant classmates. They are now holding their breath because old Father Hardon is back with a vengeance.

None of my Catholic friends – priests or laity – has lived by what Father Hardon believed was an infallible teaching on contraception. Even if, like Father Hardon, they’ve  never worn a condom, they’re no longer entitled to the graces of the Church or the grace of God.

The elevation of Fr. Hardon (he’s been nominated for sainthood) causes me to grieve the loss of something very, very precious. I grieve it for all my catholic friends. I grieve for my own loss…. And I wonder…

I wonder if my religious conscientious objection to militarism and war might exempt me from paying my federal income taxes. I think I’ll write Rep. Fortenberry for inclusion in the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act.

Grammar quiz

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Can you find the split infinitive in “The Only Animal Dumb Enough…”

Valois Cafeteria, Chicago

I just received this email from my friend Steve:”…sitting in Valois Cafeteria in Hyde Park (They have a list on the wall near the menus, ‘President Obama’s Favorites’).

“I was where I was till you interrupted me & pulled me into your hair-styling shop — I hate you guys with Good Hair.

“Would your great insight (and I mean that sincerely, although the Existentialists never quite persuaded me to join their ranks fully) be better or worse if there was not a split infinitive?

“Now back to my Rice Pudding.”

The only animal dumb enough…

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Kay, Maggie, Sebastian

“We are the only animal dumb enough to not be where we are.”

The words popped out in the barber chair at Great Clips when Dee, the barber (I still call them barbers), told me that the person who had sat in the chair before me had spent her whole time playing on her iPhone. Never said a word. Never looked up. It sure seemed to Dee that her client was there…in the barber’s chair…but she was somewhere else, while the barber with the real scissors that were cutting her real hair in the real chair at the real Great Clips in the real Chaska Commons was…well…not there. How dumb is that!  “We humans are the only animal dumb enough to not be where we are.”

I spend my days alone with my dogs. Maggie and Sebastian live where they are. They don’t miss a trick – no pun intended; they’re not very well-trained – but they pay attention to every little thing. Every movement I make, every bird that flies across the window, every word spoken, every sound that might hint that Mom’s home, or that Dad is leaving…or taking them for a walk…or a ride in the car. They live where they are.

Sometimes they have to bark to jerk me away from my desk when I pretend I’m not there, checking my emails, surfing the web,  or writing a story. They know I don’t know how to be where I really am. They know that I’m not as smart as they are, but they’re  forgiving of my chronic weakness. They never look down on me.

We human animals think we’re so smart. We are. But what have we lost in ADHD heaven? If it hadn’t been for Maggie and Sebastian, I might not know; the words would never have popped out of my mouth in Dee’s barber’s chair.

When I got home, I shared with my furry companions the conversation with Dad’s groomer and what I had said: “We are the only animal dumb enough to not be where we are.” They were proud of Dad. I returned to my computer and ADHD heaven. They came along side the desk, gave me their paws, and said in unison, “We’re always here for you, Dad.” Then they asked if it was time to go for a ride in the car.