Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, February 29, 2012

But I remember the moment when my father died.
I wasn't a very committed Catholic beforehand, but
when that happened it suddenly all felt so obvious:
I now believe religion is our attempt to find an
explanation, for us to feel more protected.

Javier Bardem, Spanish actor; he was born on this
date, 1969, at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,
Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain


Wow! Having put up the birdfeeder, today several birds “found” it. Two Vespers Sparrow came by (they are here in the winter); and the ubiquitous House Finches appeared. Plus a Sparrow I haven’t identified yet. I was thrilled. (Sparrows are hard for me.) I even saw a California Towhee trying to manoeuver the feeder, and a pack of Dark-eyed Juncos eating what the other birds cast on the ground. And did I mention the Juniper Tit??

The cardiologist I went to see was a charmer! He and his wife came to Silver City 5 years ago on a kind of medical Peace Core; they came from Colorado to provide service to an “underserved” community. He’s the only cardiologist serving 75,000 people! The wind finally died down, and I did my 1.5 mile walk with a pile of Silver High School students doing everything from hurdles to long jumps. I was in my Pendleton wool jacket and gloves; they were in tank tops! Ah youth!

Javier: thank you for portraying Tom Hanks’ wonderful lover in “Philadelphia”.

I may have mentioned that over the years my view of God and Religion has been in a state of flux. Actually it has become more real! Makes more sense. I’ve been thinking about the concept of “faith”. And how people say that “Faith” is something one does not have to “prove” … or justify. I think that that demeans the whole concept of Faith and Religion. Why? Because I have come to believe that there is – can’t honestly be – a separation between God and Us. My sense is that “God” can only “appear” in our consciousness through us … through out hearts, minds, brains, hormones, even psychoses. Or, as Javier says, through “our attempt to find an explanation, for us to feel more protected”. That, I am convinced, is how “God” is “revealed”.

I’ll get politically personal. Republican presidential candidates project a “God” who does not in any way provide an “explanation” for a Life that is worthwhile. I don’t know about you, but they certainly don’t make me feel “more protected” – in fact, I feel abandoned and threatened and alienated.

I think it’s about time that we human beings accepted our essential role in this business of “God”. God and we are mirror images. “God” is manifested through us, and we are defined by our concept of “God”.

The God that Romney and Santorum and the rest of the Republicans project? No resemblance to Jesus at all! And no resemblance to the finest of human beings I honour and respect. No resemblance to what I think of as the best of “American”.

Javier is on the money: “God” manifests through us. How others understand “God” will be shaped by their experience of you and Me.

What God do you or I proclaim by our Life?

Brian+