New Feminist Christianity

Tags

Book Reviews, Christianity, church, feminism, feminist liberation theology, Women's issues

In the area of theology, the two that most interest me have always been liberation theology and feminist theology. I was so excited when New Feminist Christianity: Many Voices, Many Views, appeared on my new book list.

I am deeply indebted to SkyLight Paths  Publishing, and Jennifer Rataj specifically, for sending me a copy for review.

This is an anthology, compiled by Mary E. Hunt and Diann L. Neu, of women’s voices in many fields of Christian activity. Theology, biblical studies, liturgy, ministry, ethics, you name it, women are there, making their mark from a distinctly faith-based perspective.

Many of the names I am well familiar with. Women like Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and Rosemary Radford Ruether are stellar names in the feminist  Christian world. Others may not be so well-known to the casual reader. And that becomes exciting, since we can learn that women are busy in so many areas we would not have thought.

Each woman was asked to write an essay that generally spoke of their area of interest, what has gone before, what is and what the future appears to be and where it should be heading. If there is one word that describes all, it would be vibrant–the world of women’s issues in Christianity is all that and more.

Of course as one might expect, much of the work these women do is not publicized and that is why it can be quite surprising to find out that feminists are building upon the rich terrain of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, redefining, expanding, and moving forth into the second and now third generation of action and thought in this ever burgeoning field.

It is hard to review an anthology. There is so much to cover, and so much that needs be said. A new language is learned along the way. We learn words like kyriarchy, coined by Schüssler-Fiorenza to encompass all the oppressive social structures faced in traditional Roman Catholic and most Protestant faith traditions. It is an interweaving of sexism, racism, classism, heterosexism, colonialism, ageism, and ableism, as well as perhaps more.

We learn that Christian feminists do not simply want to break into what have until now being male bastions of authority and rule, but rather they want to restructure these areas to reflect a community of leadership, authority and gift.

We learn in these pages that women defy category, and insist that there is no “Latina, nor African-American, nor Asian, nor gay” way of looking at things. Trying to place people  into boxes and speak of them and for them in this manner is not helpful but is nothing more than another ism on the spectrum of oppression of all peoples.

Women look in these essays to bringing women’s voice to theological reflection. Much has been done in this area by pioneers of course, and more and more seminaries reflect these new ways of looking, but of course, still more needs be done.

The same can be said of biblical studies where so many have labored so long to tease out the stories of women in the bible, seeking their contributions to preaching and teaching and all the other gifts of the Spirit. Women seek to emulate these oft-times, bare echoes, and through liturgy, give again, true voice to our full heritage as Christians.

For what is announced here in this book, is nothing less than that we are all, male, female, and all the mosaic of human expression in between, enhanced, enriched, and uplifted by recognizing all our gifts in the Spirit.

Women, through dance, theatre, music, and song, through poetry and prose, seek to reclaim and express themselves as true images of God.

This book in a word, is simply delightful. There are hard warnings here in places, and tough analysis, yet the overriding expression is one of hope and excitement. A new generation arises to discover new meanings and new paths to strike forth upon. As is suggested at the end, this will almost certainly turn global and inevitably involved women of non-Christian choice. Buddhists and Hindus, Indigenous women, Sikhs, and Jews will join with their diverse Christian sisters. And we will learn that again, diversity is the norm.

Women bring new ways and new eyes. I can best, I think, show the breadth of the material encompassed herein by a few excerpts. One should also note that the footnotes direct you to endless material for further reading, as does an extensive “further reading” list itself. Whatever your interest, I can assure you, you will find it addressed within these pages. A must read for all women who yearn for a voice in Church.

All I ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet from off our necks and permit us to stand upright on the ground which God has designed for us to occupy. (Sarah Grimke’ 1838) quoted by Rosemary Radford Ruether

It [the basileia of G*d] envisions an alternative world free of hunger, poverty, and domination. This “envisioned” world is already anticipated in the inclusive table-community, in the healing and liberating practices, as well as in the domination-free kinship community of the discipleship of equals that found many followers among the poor, the despised, the ill and possessed, the outcasts and sinners. (E. S. F.)

After decades of trying to find one legal, universally applicable definition of what a man is and what a woman is, the International Olympic Committee has given up on sex/gender analysis. (Virginia Ramey Mollenkott)

Bless Sophia, dream the vision, share the wisdom, dwelling deep within. (Jeanette Stokes)

Well, we might come in a-fightin’ ’cause there’s lots that needs a-rightin’,

we’ve learned a lot from livin’ never taught to us in schools.

If they say come in like a man, well they might not understand:

When we enter into the game, we’re gonna change the god-damned rules! (Marjorie Procter-Smith)

But what is obvious to those with eyes to see is that the entire ministerial and ecclesial structure of Roman Catholicism is exclusively male, rigidly hierarchical, suffused with secrecy and deception, and rewarding duplicity. . . .This is the context in which Catholic women will develop and exercise our ministry in the decades and generations to come. (Mary E. Hunt)

To all those who struggle as “other,” this book gives hope. To all those who are part of the problem, learn of the future. Buy it, read it, and rejoice!

Blips on the Radar

Tags

American honor, Christianity, David Barton, Deism, Glenn Beck, liberation theology, Thomas Paine

Most of us were subjected to the annoyance of Beck and his Whitestock picnic on Saturday. Estimates ranged from the wild-eyed Michele Bachmann’s 1 million and Foxy Propaganda’s 500,000 to the more realistic and scientific CBS’s aerial photo estimates taken at the height of the love fest, numbered at 87,000 ± 9,000.

Some attendees, upon leaving were heard to grumble that “they couldn’t hear” lonesome Glenn, and “weren’t very energized” by all the go to church talk. They were there to rumble it seems, and there was nobody to yell at.

In all, many were left scratching their heads as to why they had taken the long trek to hear much ado about nothing much.

Beck, apparently having been given a good talking to by the God he so hoped to channel, was contrite and apologetic about his calling the President of the US a “racist” who “hated white people.” No Beck has it all figured out now. Obama just embraces “liberation theology” a vision of Christianity not in keeping with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, according to “most Christians.”

Course Beck hasn’t an actual clue about what Liberation theology actually is. And frankly, when it comes to believing in a vision of Christianity “not in keeping with the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” most Christians would lay that against Mormonism.

Much as David Barton, one-time Republican fund-raiser in Texas, and now revisionist “historian” ( Barton has zero formal education in history whatsoever) for all things Christian, tries to protect Beck from the uber right who distrust Mormons mightily, there are still plenty it seems who cast an arm’s length glance at the Beckster and his “Christian” faith tradition.

Barton urges that the extreme right view Beck through the eyes of “his works,” his works being apparently to pull Barton in front of a TV screen every chance he gets to ‘splain to us all that this country truly is a nation of Christians, set up by same and well, the rest of those others just ought to be damned glad we let them stay at all.

Works of course is a bad word for Barton to choose, since one of the great dividing points between Protestants and Catholics has always been the issue of justification by faith and works. Saying that we should judge Beck by works sounds suspiciously Catholic of Barton and may be looked upon with some concern by the fundogelicals who barely believe that Catholics are even Christians at all. (Many believe that they are the great Whore of Babylon from Revelation and no amount of explaining the facts to them will dissuade their misconception.)

 Speaking of lies, Beck has a rather chilling show that I’ve seen parts of twice. (one can only bear about 10 minutes at a time) On it, he has David Barton and an audience of teens whom he and Barton presume to “teach” the truth about our founding as a nation.

Beck was babbling the other day, according to the Contrarian, and suggested that all the founding fathers were Christians (not really true since both Jefferson and Franklin were truly deists), and then corrected himself and said that, “with the exception perhaps of Thomas Paine.”

Barton, interrupted him and said, “Not true, Glenn, not true. Why Paine said in his writings in Common Sense, that he would stand before God at the judgment day, proving that he too was a Christian.” This is simply not the case.

Paine was a deist and remained so all his life apparently. He was however no Christian. He was denied Christian burial and professed in Age of Reason:

“As to the Christian system of faith, it appears to me as a species of Atheism — a sort of religious denial of God. It professes to believe in a man rather than in God. It is a compound made up Chiefly of Manism with but little Deism, and is as near Atheism as twilight is to darkness. It introduces between man and his Maker an opaque body, which it calls a Redeemer, as the moon introduces her opaque self between the earth and the sun, and it produces by this means a religious, or an irreligious eclipse of light. It has put the whole orbit of reason into shade” (chap. XI)

I noted with interest that many of those poor souls interviewed at the white people’s rally spoke about “reclaiming our honor.” Putting the usual pathetic adoption of trite Fox mantras aside, what exactly is being said?

Surely our honor needed reclaiming, on that we all can agree. Bush and his henchmen and women drove us into the ditch, and even among our friends, people tended to shy away in horror at the bloated arrogant drunken “superpower” we were become.

But apparently the great mob of unknowing doesn’t realize that Obama has done more in eighteen months to reclaim that honor than anything their paltry flag waving could do. Contrarily, their actions are but trying to wrench the wheel once more and aim it at the ditch. Their teapartying, hate mongering, racist, religious bigoted rhetoric and placard bearing vitriol is exactly contrary to “reclaiming honor.” Let those with eyes see!

Whether prophet or huckster, Beck is in the last analysis mostly demagogue, and an increasingly dangerous one at that.

Related Articles

• Rev. James Martin, S.J.: Glenn Beck vs. Christ the Liberator (huffingtonpost.com)
• Christian Right Responds to Beck Pushing Mormonism [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] (scienceblogs.com)
• Glenn Beck: Obama is ‘A Christian That Christians Don’t Recognize’ (littlegreenfootballs.com)

Is Anyone the Wiser?

Tags

bible, Corinthians, God, Jesus, Matthew, parables, Paul, Talents, truth, wisdom

I’m often befuddled by why the certain scriptures are joined together in the daily and Sunday readings. I often do not see the fit.

Today, for better or worse, I do. Beware: I know not what this may mean. Either I’ve been enlightened, or what passes next will be worthless.

In the first reading, Paul speaks to the Corinthians: “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; . . .” 1Cor.1:27.

There are many other instances where Paul, the psalmists, and others enjoin us to set aside our worldly wisdom and pride and listen to the Lord. Jesus himself did as well.

Now the fundogelicals (coined by Grumpy Lion), would have us believe that higher education and all that “fancy” learnin’ is being condemned here, and God is really telling us that the common average person need only read the actual words of his book, and receive the perfect truth unto all things.

But I don’t think that is what Paul or any of the others is really saying. And I believe the attached Gospel reading informs us as to the true meaning.

In Matthew 25: 14-30, Jesus tells the parable of the Talents. In the story, the Master, going on a trip, parcels out his wealth among his servants to care for. He gives no instructions, but gives the largest amount to the most competent, giving only one talent to the third, and apparently, least competent of his servants.

The first two servants take the Talents given them and invest them, by trading. The third, fearful of losing the Master’s money buries his Talent for safekeeping. We don’t know what kind of speculation and risk the first two ran, only that they were successful in doubling what had been given them. But the risk appears to have been certain.

The Master receives his servants and is pleased with the first two, and outraged at the third who exclaims that knowing the Master to be harsh and one who by apparent quick wits is able to make money without any work, has thus hid his one  Talent without risking anything.

I have often been puzzled by this parable. Certainly I see that Jesus is saying that God is sending out servants to do the work of conversion and bringing the people to God. The third, fearful of God’s wrath, doesn’t “preach” to anyone, but only remains “secure” in his own salvation. This I get.

But the story seems not the way of the world, not how we would expect the Master to respond. Why does he congratulate those who took his money and risked losing it, and condemn the one who protected his funds?

This is what Paul is referring to. Jesus upsets our standard thinking. The way of the wise, in the world, would praise the third servant for protecting the assets of his Master. But God wants us to risk ourselves because only in doing so do we really gain our salvation. It is by risking ourselves for the sake of others that pleases God.

We are taught that the lessons of God are not the lessons of the world, and are framed in ways that jar and upset us. They make us think!

This is no denigration of learning or conventional wisdom. God has no desire that we remain in caves living simple hunter-gatherer lives. He gave us marvelous minds and he wishes us to use them. We are to discover electricity, the uses of the atom, the live-saving properties of plants. We are to learn the methodology of how live evolved upon this planet.

All this is good and proper. All this can enrich life and make it better for all.

But, only if, IF we remember that God’s wisdom is quite another thing. God has no need of wisdom about thermodynamics or string theory. He knows the ways of His universe all too well. His wisdom is “other” and is at odds with our world of logic and induction and deduction.

This is why Jesus’ parables are always difficult. They cut across the grain of our sensibilities and alert us that important stuff is about to come. We cannot dismiss the seeming illogic of the parable of the talents because it was told by our Lord, and thus we must ponder and think it out, and realize the hidden truth.

The truth is not made obvious, because superficial acknowledgement is not true faith. Faith requires time and attention. If we seriously love, we seriously spend time thinking about God and what he would have us do.

If we seriously love God, then we seriously love each other, and we seriously do our important brainy things with the good of all in mind. We turn our considerable mind talents to increase the betterment of life for all God’s creatures, the good, the bad, the gifted, the simple, the eager, the lazy, the old and the young. For great and small, we prepare and risk ourselves in doing our best to express our love through our works.

And thus, we are able to proclaim as Paul does “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

NOTHING’S WRONG!!!!

Tags

depression, life in the meadow, lifestyle, marriage, Mental Health, Security, stress, The Contrarian

Okay, so life has been a little stressful lately. Well, a lot stressful. It may surprise you, but when two people live together 24/7, it can get a bit dicey sometimes. Love can only take you so far ya know.

At the center of our misery is the Bronco. A full week and nearly one-half later, and it still sits without real brakes.

You have to understand the country town mechanic to get this. They tend to be rather strange, loner individuals. They work on their own schedules, and they don’t much need the work.

So we keep getting pushed down the line. Plus he wants us to leave it there, and that means finding a ride. And our ride’s phone is out. (we can drive with what are called “mechanical brakes” which work but aren’t shall we say giving you the “stop on a dime” capability.

So, we, the Contrarian and I and having our stress issues.

And, shockingly, we don’t handle it the same way. I am (typically?) female. I wanna talk it out. I am also a bit of a pessimist, which is good, since I’m usually the one who is right, things always go bad most of the time. I have depressive tendencies, and so I pout, look morose, and snap at people and animals.

The Contrarian is male. He likes to ruminate. He doesn’t want to talk. He likes to handle his stress and depression with diversionary behavior.

To me, it looks like doesn’t care much about the issue of the bronco. He is constantly looking at me and asking “is something wrong?”

Something????? Yeah, how bout everything, I scream silently. I seethed, and wonder what planet is he on. I then punish him by saying, “No, not a thing.” And go back to cursing the day I met him.

I wait for him to tell me what he now plans. He never offers. I wait. I seethed, I curse.

He sits. And sits. But he is ruminating. And as he now tells me, he finds himself at times like this when his plan has gone awry, in a frozen state. He becomes inactive. Until finally he is able to work out another plan. Until then, he is silent.

I can understand that. Now that I know.

I explain. I never had much insecurity as a child. There were never any discussions about not having enough of anything. There were no discussions about putting off this purchase until some bills were paid.

When I left home as an adult, financial security was prime with me. I usually maintained it very well. I like options. I like agreed upon alternative plans. I like security.

I know, I know. Security is illusory, and if only fundamentalists got this, the world would be a better place. Security is not humanity’s lot in life. Never has been and never will be. Until we can defy death (believers of course excluded), we will always be insecure.

But I mean the normal kind of security. The common sense planning that we all do, or should, to ensure that we can survive. The tornado shelter, the savings account, that sort of thing.

Living in the meadow has made me feel very insecure. Weather has the power to dictate when I can leave it and when not. We have only one operative vehicle. Things like that make me insecure.

Apparently such things don’t much bother the Contrarian. Security is a certain amount of insulation from the world that I am finding increasingly hard to bear all the time. Solitude seems to make him comfortable, while I have started to find it more stifling.

Weird how two people can live together for eleven plus years, and still find so much they do not understand about each other.

We are in a better place today. We have talked it out. We understand each others ways of dealing with high drama stress better. I know he’s not just ignoring problems. He knows my bad moods reflect worry. We can be kinder and gentler to each other.

It makes me wonder if other married or long-term partnered people find new things about their other after years of being together. It was a bit of a shock to me, finding out a couple of things my Contrarian divulged. No doubt he got a surprise at some of my  interior mechanisms.

Are we weird? Or what?

Related Articles

• 15 Ways to Stop Obsessing (beliefnet.com)
• Does Your Personality Make You Stressed? (lifescript.com)
• How to Deal with Stress (socyberty.com)
• What is Rumination Syndrome? (brighthub.com)

Yikes, the Emperor is Nekkid!

Tags

GOP, John McCain, POW, Republican, right wing Republicans, United States presidential election 2008

My opinion of John Sydney McCain, admittedly, couldn’t be a lot lower. Once a reasonable man,who appeared to stand forth with principles intact, party-be-damned, he was a bright spot in the GOP firmament.

All things changed for me, when I saw the lengths he was willing to go to gain the White House. In a final insult to the safety of the country, and as a true barometer of his feelings about women, he chose the Palinator to be but a heart beat away from the Presidency. This from a decidedly old man. Leaving America in the hands of a spectacularly unqualified and incurious opportunist. Trusting that women were so shallow and vapid that “any woman will do” and the feminist vote would fly his way.

Looking deeply into his background, I found a man who has lived off of America all his life. Son of an Admiral, John’s stint at the Naval Academy was distinctly undistinguished, finishing only 4 spots from the bottom academically, and being less than a stellar pilot. His womanizing and drinking, his dirty jokes, his barely contained racism, his “old boy’s club mentality” and his legendary fiery temper, all combined to leave him with little in the way of an illustrious naval career.

He was, decidedly not going to follow in Daddy and Granddaddy’s footsteps.  As everyone knows, McCain was shot down in Vietnam and spent from 1968-1973 as a POW. The most noteworthy thing he did was to refuse early repatriation when it became know whose son he was. What is not largely known, is that this was part of the Military Code of Conduct. No one was to accept repatriation, except in the order of capture.

Of course, this is to take nothing away from the fact that McCain indeed did, follow orders. And as we all know, he used this and his POW status in general, all throughout his political life for whatever gain it would give him. Indeed it would not be unfair to argue, that given his poor history in the Navy, this act of honor was his one and only hope of being seen as following in the tradition of the men in his family. It was, in a word, the one way to make Daddy proud.

Returning to the US, he soon tired of his wife, Carol, who had been seriously injured in a car accident during his absence. He engaged in a number of affairs, until he met the wealthy and much younger Cindy Hensley, heiress to a beer distribution company. He convinced Carol to grant him a divorce, married in 1980, retired from the Navy in 1981, and immediately ran and secured a congressional seat from Arizona in 1982.

He continued, by all reports, his less than stellar ethical behavior, both private and public, and was investigated as part of the Keating 5 scandal. He was twice, allegedly on the short list for VP under Bush I and Reagan.

He was, by the mid 90’s labeled as something of an independent, and eventually became known as a “Maverick.” In 2000, he ran for president. Things got decidedly ugly in South Carolina, where the Bushites spared no lie to destroy him, labeling him as fathering a black baby, a homosexual, husband of a drug addict, and worst of all and the one thing that would blow John’s gasket, they questioned his mental stability and patriotism in Vietnam. Bush won SC, and McCain’s run was over.

The McCain temper is, as  was stated, legendary. It was present even during his academy days, but was increasingly volatile and at times bordering on instability after his return to the US following his captivity.

I had come to believe that McCain was essentially unprincipled, he carefully crafted a persona that he thought would win the day as it were. This explained to me his about-face on so very many issues in recent years. It particularly explained his 180° reversals on things like immigration and climate change. He no longer seems to care about campaign finance.

What’s new I asked?

Well, others have a very different take, and in thinking it over, it may well inform this dramatic turn around.  According to the Contrarian, Chuck Todd of MSNBC suggests a very different scenario for McCain’s reversals.

He claims that all this is about revenge. McCain does not, admittedly, handle defeat or refusal to see things his way. He was, as one might surmise, livid at Bush’s campaign treatment of him in S. Carolina. While known to be independent and becoming a maverick of sorts, it was after  the 2000 election that McCain really turned up the maverick heat.

It is here that he started to buck the Bush agenda, voting against such things as the tax cuts for the wealthy, pushing through McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms. He pushed for HMO reform, was for gun legislation, was in favor of climate change legislation. All these were against Bush desires. Only on the wars was he in the Bush camp. Nothing stands between McCain and  aggression it seems.

Being unprincipled, when he secured the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination, he had no compunctions about hiring former Bush election advisers, some of the same who had so gruesomely orchestrated his own demise in 2000. But of course, he lost anyway.

And then we see the utter reversals of position occur. Now again, it may be that some was motivated by his need to appear more “conservative” to Arizona voters whom we know to be rather uber right. But, can it not also be seen as just more of the same revenge tactic, against the man who beat him in 2008? Is this not really just, “I’ll get the last laugh here, I promise you.”

In the end, what we may be seeing is essentially no more than a totally unprincipled man, driven by a epically dangerous temper, wanting to kick sand in the face of anyone who betters him. And given the short memories of most voters, he has found that he can get away with it.

What do you think?

Related Articles

• McCain Defeats Conservative Primary Challenger (politics.usnews.com)
• McCain, Tacking Right, Seeks Primary Day Victory (foxnews.com)
• New John McCain Profile Reveals A Frustrated, Angry, Insecure Senator (huffingtonpost.com)

They Drive Me Mad With Love

Tags

cats, dogs, lessons of life, life in the meadow, pets

Since I was about 15, I’ve seldom been without a pet. Mostly dogs, but I added cats to the mix quite a few years ago, and find them just as endearing.

I also hate pets. Cats seem to spend their days looking for new places to throw up. It’s especially nice to step in in the middle of the night.

Cats jump on your stomach full strength in the middle of the night, walk across you to the other side of the bed, and calming jump down, just because.

Dogs collect every burr known to man and then some and spend the evening pulling them out. They are mighty nice to step on in the night as well.

We don’t take vacations because of our pets. Another downer.

Ours are getting old now. Our dogs are aroundish 13 and 12 respectively. For large dogs that’s a lot, and is testimony to the stress free, healthy life style then enjoy. Our cats are slightly younger but not much. Probably the twin orange boys are around 9-ish.

That cats seem devoted to keeping themselves clean and to cleaning up each other. Mostly. Hobbes has the roughest fur and I work a wide toothed comb through him to get mats out of his hind quarters. I take a pound of hair out of him and his brother Calvin. Kate and Spencer (notice the themes please!), don’t seem to be plagued with much undercoat. They just throw up all the time. Always have. No matter what we feed ’em.

The dogs, well they are both long hairs. They are a freakin’ mess. Both have mats over mats over mats. They then get out in the weeds and collect all manner of burrs and sticky vines and come in looking like they are camouflaging for combat. And then try, mostly unsuccessfully to pull them out.

Did I say that it’s best not to walk in my house shoeless? That should be obvious.

It’s not that we don’t try to help them out. But Bear growls and gets snappish if you try. And Brandy starts to cry.  We’ve tried all manner of clippers, scissors, and combs, mostly to no avail. Neither has been cut or pinched yet; still they are terrified of the process and squirm and wiggle and snarl and whine so much that it is exhausting.

But things have gotten to a bad place. Both are very uncomfortable carrying mostly two coats around. There are burrs inside the mats, and frankly certain bodily functions are now being impeded, and THAT is no fun to deal with.

We are ashamed to take them to a professional who would no doubt charge us at least $100 a piece which we can’t afford.

So, we took my best fabric shears and started whacking. We had some success. We think maybe the clippers need new blades, so that is on the agenda if we ever get the danged brakes fixed. (two trips to Bill’s and two trips back, since he is still backed up and the Contrarian must wait for the fix.)

Meanwhile these two dogs continue to make my house look like a barn. Bear paces a lot, trying to find a comfortable way to sleep, but always manages. They still wag their tails. They seem better now that we got some neck hair and rear mats removed. They are sound asleep now, awaiting dinner. I love them madly I truly do. I think often that we won’t have them long now. They are slowing down. They don’t run the lane like they used to. One trip does them in. But few dogs have had their life of fun. They are never hungry and always have access to a dry and warm place.

People often say that our pets will get us in or out of heaven depending. I suspect there is some truth to that. As the Contrarian says, they ask for so little and give so much.

They give all in truth. They love fully. They love blindly. They never stop. And as time-consuming and irritating as they can be at times, I am going to miss them, every one of them, when they leave us. And God willing we will get others.

They hold up a mirror to us, and invite us to our highest, best, self. And then have no clue they are doing it. They just are. Until the very last moment they trust us, as we seldom trust ourselves.

And that’s why they drive me mad with love.

**PS: if anybody has a good solution to cleaning out badly matted dogs, give a yak at me! lol..

Related Articles

• How to Cut Dog Hair with Clippers (therealowner.com)

More Flotsom on the Sea of Life

Tags

Catholicism, Eat-Pray-Love, gay rights, GOP, mind, Muslims, psychology, racism, religion, science, self-help books, transgender, wingnuts

There is a new blogger named Ben who has a blog called 65-BitSarcasm. He’d a dude obviously and I think a young one–meaning he is probably under 30. He is amusing, and I found him through Cappy at Writer’s Block, which I find most amusing.

Anyway, Ben wrote about seeing Eat, Pray, Love, the new movie by Julia Roberts. I’m not the most likely person to set out to see such a flick, mostly because I generally shy away from the obvious. Like The Bridges of Madison County.  I never saw that, though I like Meryl Streep. But I really don’t like Clint Eastwood much. So there ya go.

Anyway, Ben made some good points that people often see these movies and recipes for their own personal change. And they aren’t. Most certainly the book is not. You don’t run off to Italy, India and Bali to find your answers just because the author did. It merely suggests that you need to listen to your heart (or whatever deity, power, or higher essence you adhere to) and have the courage to strike forth in a new direction, following your instincts.

It’s what I have said before is wrong with most self-help books. They are the author’s WAY but not necessarily any but a handful of the billions of other unique humans who we occupy space with. Actually one could make that argument about Jesus. He announced and illustrated a WAY to unity with the Godhead. But many of us believe that there are other paths as announced by the Buddha and so forth.

Anyway, that was just a plug for a new blogger mostly. One starts out with such big expectations and while a few blogs catch on and soon have hundreds of thousands of followers, most languish in the lower environs where we are pleased as punch to have a couple of hundred stopping by. We wish him well, and Cappy, who is fairly new I believe too.

And now for things completely different:

I was pleased to see a new LGBT group called Catholics for Equality has formed. There are others I believe, at least from what I learn at The Wild Reed, but I think that the more that various church groups openly promote equality, the sooner we will see change across the board. The say of course that the next generation will make all the difference, since they mostly consider this a non-issue, duh. As well it should be.

Nothing is more fun that watching the uber right snipe at each other. We are told that the conservative blacks are kinda p.o’d at Sarah for her encouragement of Dr. Laura to “don’t retreat, reload.” Not helpful to use such an issue as race invective to advance one’s political  aspirations.

And there has been no end to the sniping going on between Annie Coulter and WorldnetDaily. Annie calls them “fake Christians,” and based on a good deal of what we have read there, there is reason to agree with her. Hate is their middle name. There is a link at the end to WND and if you have never been, go see what passes for Christian conservative thinking. It’s truly ugly.

Doncha just love how the uber right has rephrased its opposition to the Islamic Center at Park 51? Since it was explained to them what the Constitution says, they are now quick to claim that it’s not be cause they shouldn’t be allowed,  but that they should respect the sensibilities of non-Muslims who are so deeply hurt by the idea of the center.  Except that, what sensibilities are being offended? The sensibility that the ignorant equate all Muslims as the same? And where in the Constitution is sensibilities an exception to freedoms?

Kirsten Powers has a nice article at The Daily Beast about the GOP’s summer of fostering hate against all “others” in our land. One of her most telling points is the regularity with which FOXy and it’s fellow traveler’s Slippery Gingrich and Sarah, that woman is an idiot, pounce upon each and every instance of supposed “racism” on the part of these “others” against white folk.

A truly compelling look at what it means to be transgender in America, Jewish, and religious to boot. Jhos Singer paints a picture that you will not soon forget. This society truly does only function on the male-female dichotomy, forgetting (by ignorance or design) that there is so much more to each of us than such simplistic dualism. A fine, poignant, and beautiful look into the body human.

Quinn O’Neill has an excellent essay at 3quarksdaily on the issue of what we should maximize if we could, human rationality or human happiness? It’s more complicated than you might think. I think I would in the end opt for rationality. I think happiness is an ultimate derivative of being a rational, critically thinking person. As I learn to value all persons, it seems to me, I automatically enrich my own life.

Enuf already!