Thursday, August 27, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, Aug 28, 2009


The great book for you is the book that has the most
to say to you at the moment when you are reading.
I do not mean the book that is most instructive, but
the book that feeds your spirit. And that depends on
your age, your experience, your psychological and
spiritual need.


- Robertson Davies, Canadian author and academic,
born on this date, 1913


Have you read Robertson Davies?? He’s a Canadian, so I suppose that most Americans will not have. Too bad. Davies understands people. I’ve read almost everything he wrote, and three of his trilogies several times (The Cornish, Deptford, and Salterton – I have yet to read the Toronto Trilogy). They are about very weird characters, so you will know why I like them!

I worry about the “modern” spirit, universally. That spirit is poverty stricken. Education has degenerated into indoctrination and propaganda at the worse, and into “job training” at the best ….. which is only one step ahead of the former, in my view.

Alas, books like the Bible and the Qur’an are feeding this impoverished spirit. They are feeding a modern age that is stunted by tribalism, experience that is narrowed by patriarchy, a psychology that is traumatized by control, and a “spiritual need” that is pandering to literalism. Who can be surprised by the antagonism and hostility we find ourselves immersed in these days?

What are you reading? Think about it. What you read shapes and moulds your psyche and your personality - and your destiny. If you are under 40, I would encourage you NOT to read the Bible or other religious scripture. Examine carefully, get the opinion of those you respect and admire, about what to read. Mostly, “read” people who are around you, listen to their stories. Including yourself. What you learn there will be your best guide to books and what they have to say.

It is important to have a “spirit” first, which allows you to judge the value of “Scripture”.

Brian+

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, Aug 27, 2009


The history of the world is none other than
the progress of the consciousness of freedom.


- Friedrich Hegel, philosopher, born on this
date, 1770


It has long seemed to me that one of the core principles of the Gospel, and perhaps of all “religions”, is Freedom. Jesus is reported to have said things like, “You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.” Constantly Jesus was confronting people to look at the truth, about themselves, about the World, about “God”, about all things. I’m not at all sure what the “truth” was/is, but discovering it promised a wholly different Life. Jesus seemed to be saying that most of us live in a kind of slavery – a slavery whose
taskmaster is Ignorance.

The World today, it seems to me, is profoundly beset by a lack of consciousness about Freedom. I don’t need to list the examples. Politically, spiritually, economically, militarily, in every way, one of the primary dynamic forces of our Time is to deny Freedom. From the USA and all the nations of power right down to the least powerful, in all of the religions of the World – at least as far as the “leaders” go – others are to be repressed and dominated, conquered or eliminated, in the mistaken belief that this will “make us safe”.

It only effects the opposite. The more we repress or deny freedom, at any level., the more unsafe we become, as individuals, as communities, as nations. The primary product of the repression of Freedom is hate and rebellion. And no matter how long it is repressed, eventually the hate and rebellion will explode out, with the most hideous of consequences on all levels of being. We are at such a stage in World history now.

I have no idea what the “answer” is. In fact, there may be many in power who desire the status quo as long as they do not become targeted victims, as long as they have the power to check those they oppress - and the power to snuff out all uprising for Freedom.

Radical Freedom is the only milieu for safety, for peace.

What can you and I do today to serve Freedom?

Brian+

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, Aug 26, 2009


Humans are imperfect. That's one of the reasons
that classical and jazz are in trouble. We're on the
quest for the perfect performance and every note
has to be right. Man, every note is not right in life.


- Branford Marsalis, artist, musician, jazz
saxaphonist, born on this date, 1960


It’s terrific and refreshing when Truth smacks you up the side of the head! “Man, every note is not right in life.” One of the problems with living in the relative affluence that most of us do is that we are willingly conned into thinking that Life CAN be the “perfect performance”. We are seduced into thinking that we should always be well; that we can always be “fixed” when something goes wrong [wrong: radiation treatment for cancer can have permanent unpleasant effects; I know]; that we will feel well until we die – while our inner attitude is, until the reality is jammed in our face, we just may live forever. There will always be new pills and meds and surgical procedures coming down the pike. Eventually an optimist and a fool are the same.

Worse: we expect perfection; “every note has to be right”. Think about the enormous stress this lays on us, emotionally, financially, ethically. We allow ourselves no wiggle room. Disaster, social or otherwise, stalks us should we wear, say, believe, etc., the “wrong” thing. OK, I’m being a little dramatic – nevertheless, it makes my point, the point Marsalis makes. “Humans are imperfect.”

So, time to learn to relax about this. I can see people expecting “classical” to be perfect ….. but JAZZ?? What I like about jazz is that a big part is improv! Trying something, blowing it, moving on, trying something else. One of the reasons I like Rubenstein is that he often played the wrong note – but you don’t listen to Rubenstein for only right notes, you listen for Heart!

Enjoy being your very imperfect Self today. Remember you can always says “Oops!”, or “Sorry!”, and laugh and forge on. There is no “perfect performance” in Life, and with us humans, every note does not have to be right.

The truth always sets you free!

Brian+

Monday, August 24, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, Aug 25, 2009


"Who will gainsay that the parks contain the highest potentialities
of national pride, national contentment, and national health? A
visit inspires love of country; begets contentment; engenders pride
of possession; contains the antidote for national restlessness....
He is a better citizen with a keener appreciation of the privilege of
living here who has toured the national parks."


- Stephen T. Mather, NPS Director, 1917-1929. The National
Park Service was established on this date, 1916


Actually, I think that the first National Park (then, mythologically, National was Global) was established by God in Whatever BT (Before Time”). God called it “Eden”.

I don’t want to force this event of the establishment of the NPS into a moral tale, so I’ll try my best not to. But I think we should pay attention to it, with reference to the Inner Life within which our core values are formed. I don’t have to tell you what seems to form our American and much of the World’s core values these days. Suffice it to say (yes, a little cynically) , the List starts with Greed, slides to Militarism, and ends with Lying at the Highest Levels. In between are other horrors too shameful to be named.

I think that a good “spiritual goal” would be for each of us to establish a National Park within our Inner Landscape. Wild, unpolluted, reverent of all inhabitants; a place which nurtures healthy pride in ourselves and others, contentment with simplicity, health on all levels, love of a land maintained in compassion, possession as a trust, the calming of a restless spirit, the deep appreciation of the various “homes” we inhabit.

Be it our Heart, our Land, our World - having trashed all of them sorely, it’s time to heal them. This would be a work worthy of our “potentialities”.

Ranger Brian+

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, Aug 24, 2009


Reality is not always probable, or likely.

To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible god.


- Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine author, born on this date,
1899 (died June 14, 1986)


I couldn’t choose. Both quotes intrigued me. However, both quotes encouraged me - they both rang in my mind with the resonance of “true”, despite the fact that “true” is an extremely dicey concept ….. at least to me.

I find the quote about Reality is encouraging because it warns us away from the arrogance of thinking that we can actually know Reality; from thinking that something we call “Reality” factually exists; from boxing ourselves into a limited understanding of Life. Oh, yes, when we think that people have lost a grip, we say “Get real!” Like the pin I was given that says, “Get real, like, Jesus would own a gun and vote Republican!” Confession: I am prone to think that I have a good grip on Reality, on what is “true”. So, while I don’t actually like it, I am willing to admit that it is probably a good thing for me to be reminded that Life may be more than the boxes I inhabit.

I also find it encouraging to be reminded that we do not have to be perfect to be loved or to love. It reminds me that each of us is a “god” or “goddess”, that is, a sacred being whose intrinsic worth is to be acknowledged (i.e., to be worshipped) for who we are. No human being is infallible. We are all faulty and fragile and easily misled and confused. To be bound in true love to each other (which is what “religion” means – from the Latin religare, “to be bound to”) is to know our fallibility and to honour it. One of the great affirmations of this is the unconditional love of the Judeo-Christian God for a constantly unfaithful people.

“Reality” is indeed often improbable and unlikely. And “true love” very often transcends and ennobles fallibility. If it weren’t so, we’d have long gone the way of the dinosaurs.

Brian+

Friday, August 21, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, Aug 21, 2009


Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live
through it without falling into frustration and
cynicism unless you have before you a great
idea which raises you above personal misery,
above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy
and baseness.


- Leon Trotsky, who died on this date, 1940, in
Mexico City, after being shot by an assassin


True. But. It just can’t be any “great idea”! And of course it depends on the definition of “great”. I’m sure that Hitler thought he had a great idea, but most of the rest of us don’t think so - at least I hope so, though the present World political and religious totalitarianism gives me serious pause.

The “great idea” I find myself pondering these days is “I Am You”. “You” includes Everything. All that exists. The core path that I have walked is The Gospel – as opposed to “Christianity”, which is very often the self-serving manipulation of The Gospel by human beings. (This happens in all religions.) The figure of Jesus I connect with is not a “person” who offers me “personal salvation”. He is the universal personification of that “great idea” called Love/Compassion. Essentially, I am an aspect, however flawed, of Him. The more I espouse Him, the more I am raised “above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness”.

At 63, I am still exploring the great Mystery of Life. Still thinking, pondering – and delighted at new understandings. When I think of the many intriguing things that Jesus is reported to have said, I see how He was constantly trying to lift us out of “frustration and cynicism” by expanding our view of Life, of “God”.

“Life is not an easy matter”. True. For me it gets a lot easier when, as John the Baptist famously said, “I” must decrease, “He” must increase” – if you get my drift!

Brian+

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, August 20, 2009


The poet does not fear death, not because
he believes in the fantasy of heroes, but
because death constantly visits his thoughts
and is thus an image of a serene dialogue.


- Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian poet, critic,
and translator, Nobel Prize, born on
this date, 1901


“A serene dialogue”. Now, that’s a lovely phrase. There is little serene about Life these days , externally. Maybe that has always been true? Serenity is, I suspect, essentially an “interior” product. Some will come to it philosophically, some through religion or faith, some through other mysterious inner workings. But I do think it is an important “place” to get.

Especially with relationship to death. Death and Life, I experience, and countless people have reflected on it, are clearly inextricably related. Perhaps, in some way, the same thing seen from a different perspective. We all are affected in how we live by what we think about Death. On the whole, I think that the less one engages with Death, the less we Live. Christianity sees it most simply in the juxtaposition of Crucifixion and Resurrection. And in such phrases as, “As you die, so shall you live.” Baptism “into Christ” is, among other things, the entrance into this Mystery.

A serene dialogue with Death is, I think, one of the clearest roads to Freedom. A serene dialogue with Death banishes fears and opens rooms of Light, often into many dimensions of Life. It makes Life glitter!

Today may your inner poet lead you on this marvelous road!

Brian+

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, August 19, 2009


The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing.
If you can fake that, you've got it made.

I, not events, have the power to make me happy
or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be.
Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet.
I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it.


- Groucho (Julius Henry) Marx, comedian, who died
on this date, 1977, age 86


I loathed The Keystone Cops, Jerry Lewis, slapstick of any kind. Still do. But ….. Groucho was different. He was like the male version of Mae West. They got away with what was then called “off-colour" humour, and a lot of it was really clever, I thought.

I am coming along, as the saying goes, about events and happiness. (Given my vocation, you’d think I would have been better at this!) An incident happened the other day that, in the past, would have had be stewing, pissed off, and plotting horrible things – not that I act on them! Instead, I found myself saying a little prayer for the person and just “letting it go”. This has, I think, to do with what Groucho says about “today”. Yesterday may be dead and tomorrow may not have arrived, but they do and always will affect us. One can’t just dismiss them; we have to embrace them and integrate them and their lessons into our Life.

But Groucho is right. The center out of which we live needs to be Today. Jesus is reported to have reminded us not to worry about tomorrow, that “today” is our challenge. Any authentic inner path will teach us to learn from the past, look forward to a tomorrow, and stay centered in today and all the richness it offers us.

As you read this, it’s Today. Mine it for all it’s worth!

Brian+

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, August 17, 2009


I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.

Love isn't an emotion or an instinct - it's an art.


- Mae West, entertainer, born on this date, 1893


Well, if I hadn’t said who said the first quote, you would (if you are an American of a certain age) have known, I suspect! I have often wondered if Mae came up with these terrific twists herself. Why not, right? She was a smart “dame”, as she herself said. I can see her cascading long blond wavy hair, her shimmering long dress, the curves she sculpted, her hand on her hip, her saucy eyes, and that incomparable delivery.

Anyway – all of us “drift”. It’s a given of being human. Sometimes we’re focused on being the kind of person we want to be, strive to be. Often we ….. well, drift. It’s important, I think, to cut ourselves a little slack. I’ve gotten to fat, and a friend just tonight said, “Well, you’ve been through hell with your health. Give yourself a break. When you’re ready, do what you need to do.” That encouraged me.

As to love, well I’ll repeat myself. Ms. West is bang on (hee hee). A bit of Love is feeling. And I would say that it’s definitely instinctually human, perhaps more powerful in some than in others. But essentially Love is an Art. We have to understand the principles, learn the techniques, hone the skills, and develop our will to put them to work.

Remember: loving yourself is as important as loving God (if you believe in God) and your “neighbour”, if you want the dynamic to work right and your Art to flourish.

Brian+

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: The Weekend, Aug 15, 2009


“ … whoever eats me will live because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven,
not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died.
But the one who eats this bread will live forever."


- John 6 (Proper 15 B)
Forever. What an interesting word! Especially in the context of the passage from the Gospel called “John”. Clearly – at least to me – Jesus is not talking about bread in the material sense. He contrasted His “bread” with the manna, which was material. His bread, unlike the manna, eliminates death in some way. Eat His bread and people live “forever”.

I think that “forever” has nothing to do with physical life. Its metaphorical meaning is “fully”, or “completely”. Ten years or a hundred years, feasting on His Bread encapsulates Eternity in a Moment. Every moment – or at least those moments that we reach out and grasp.

When we eat Jesus’ bread, it touches our tongue, merges with our physical “stuff”. But it is but a Sign waking us up to the immaterial Mystery of who we are. We human beings need a lot of reminding; the mystics tell us how much we are “asleep” to deep Reality. Frequent Communion – daily if possible – would be the bare minimum of reminding we need!

Jesus’ bread is the food of Aliveness in the deepest sense. Eat it. “Forever” will become the norm.

Brian+
(from NY)
Brian’s Reflection: The Weekend, Aug 15, 2009


“ … whoever eats me will live because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven,
not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died.
But the one who eats this bread will live forever."


- John 6 (Proper 15 B)
Forever. What an interesting word! Especially in the context of the passage from the Gospel called “John”. Clearly – at least to me – Jesus is not talking about bread in the material sense. He contrasted His “bread” with the manna, which was material. His bread, unlike the manna, eliminates death in some way. Eat His bread and people live “forever”.

I think that “forever” has nothing to do with physical life. Its metaphorical meaning is “fully”, or “completely”. Ten years or a hundred years, feasting on His Bread encapsulates Eternity in a Moment. Every moment – or at least those moments that we reach out and grasp.

When we eat Jesus’ bread, it touches our tongue, merges with our physical “stuff”. But it is but a Sign waking us up to the immaterial Mystery of who we are. We human beings need a lot of reminding; the mystics tell us how much we are “asleep” to deep Reality. Frequent Communion – daily if possible – would be the bare minimum of reminding we need!

Jesus’ bread is the food of Aliveness in the deepest sense. Eat it. “Forever” will become the norm.

Brian+
(from NY)

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, Aug 5, 2009


"Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because
you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that
endures for eternal life.


- The Gospel called “John”


I delight in the fact that the Eucharistic “meal” is so ….. scanty! Or, at least the sacramental Body and Blood of the Christ part; in reality, the “meal” is the whole Eucharistic celebration from beginning to end, from the time the people gather until they go away and everything in between. In a way this mirrors Life. Life is, at minimum, everything that happens between birth and death. Some things nourish us more than others.

Anyway: I like the scantiness of a bit of bread and a sip of wine because it reminds us of Jesus’ words: “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.” There is a parallel saying elsewhere: We “do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”. In other words, we can stuff the physical body all we want with the most glorious of food and drink creations, but unless we feed the mind and heart and spirit and mystery of “being human”, we remain only a blob of flesh, not a Human Being.

As I enter my “retirement”, I am beginning to see that this is a stage when the physical body should be fed less and the rest of being Human more. Much more! My rather overweight body is a Sign to me – at least that is how I am taking it! I am feeding the mind, heart, and spirit more. Dennis is helping me with the expansion of Love. Books and thoughtful visual stuff with expansion of thinking and pondering and learning. Nature (and other things) with my “place in the Universe”. I think my years in the Order of the Holy Cross was a graceful gift of preparation. I learned from the daily Eucharist and the monastic lifestyle about the tools we all eventually need to merge with the Christ within us.

I hope many of you have found the same path, whatever your religious (or non-religious) Journey has been.

Brian+

Monday, August 3, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, August 4, 2009


Change is certain. Peace is followed by disturbances;
departure of evil men by their return. Such recurrences
should not constitute occasions for sadness but realities
for awareness, so that one may be happy in the interim.


- Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet, born on this date, 1792

I wonder: is it true that “things are getting better and better”, if but in an extremely circuitous way? Do each of us get “better” as we age? I can’t say for sure. Much of religion maintains that “getter better” is the goal, and offers all kinds of Divine assistance.

But, Shelley has (since the first time I read this poem, maybe 40 or more years ago) caused me to entertain another possibility – that “things” only get “better” for a while, and then it cycles around. Christians have been waiting for 2000 and more years for “Christ to return”, as St. Paul was certain He soon would. Not that I can say that I “know” God’s Time - even Jesus said there were some things that only the “Father” knew. But a part of me thinks that Shelley is quote correct. Until it is proven different, “Change is certain”. Things come and go, Good alternates with Evil, etc. An Infinitum.

Perhaps we human beings have to learn to live within the flip-flops of Life, dealing with the not-so-good times as they come along, working to keep the cycle as wide-banded as possible, but being “happy in the interim”.

I’m certainly NOT a believer in Perfection. And I’m certainly not a believer that we have to be miserable and breast-beating and long-faced until we achieve this chimera! I believe that “God” wants us to “be happy” as much as possible – and that our real human work is to discover what real “happiness” IS. That, and what Love really is.

The World’s cycle right at the moment is clearly “disturbance” – big time. So the human race is dealing with this – I hope.

Luckily, no amount of Disturbance can snuff out Beauty and Loveliness and Wonder. All three make me happy when I stumble upon them.

Happy stumbling.

Brian+

Sunday, August 2, 2009




Brian’s Reflection: Monday, August 3, 2009




There must be a goal at every stage of life! There must be a goal!

- Maggie Kuhn, elder, founder of the Gray Panthers (1970, (working
for economic and social justice), was born on this date, 1905


Big topic. A goal? For whom, or what? Oneself? The Human Race? One’s local community? Religion? If Ms. Kuhn (and I call her that advisedly; she is quoted once to have said, “The ultimate indignity is to be given a bedpan by a stranger who calls you by your first name”; I wouldn’t want even to come close to arousing her posthumous wrath!) is saying that we all have to have grand goals as we age ….. I disagree. Extremely simple things would, I think, do.

So: just to get you thinking, I here list Brian’s Five Present Goals. Just to get your juices going. Then you’re on your own for the day.

1. Greet the day with Trust.
2. Laugh when I look in the mirror.
3. Be amazed at something each day ….. well, maybe each week.
4. Not buy another antique Italian carnelian ring ever again. (I have 8.)
5. Give away something every month.

But I have one major goal - not to be intimidated by my goals to the detriment of inner peace, an appropriate humility, crème brule topped with raspberries and blueberries when offered, or the gift of any form of bag.

Brian+