I'm tired of autopsies and forensics that involve personal pronouns.
(I leave it to the reader to find a relationship between the figure and the text)
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Colbert defined it in 2006 as:Truthiness (noun): the belief in what you feel to be true rather than what the facts will support. Truthiness has matured and none of us are really surprised.
Truthiness is merely another shape of our desire to conform the world to our preferences. This current incarnation was perhaps honed in the early years of the USA, from original secession through a civil war to become a sanctified philosophy of American exceptionalism. Jefferson edited his own version of the Bible to create an ethical framework acceptable to his preferences. Lincoln reflected this attitude when he said “You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.” i.e. the early years of the USA established a nation that was built on a belief in the individual's ability to conform the world to their desire, despite all evidence to the contrary that this could work for everyone. Some did achieve power, but many more fell in the dust. Yet as a society they accepted this and exported it as a universal truth - framing the millenia-old "truth" that we are all little gods at one with "the force".
The landscape of power is changed, and we are slow to react. Power does not belong to the government, it belongs to preference, and has been usurped by those positioned to exercise their desire to conform the world to their preferences. At one end of the spectrum Mugabe destroys peoples lives while his wife shops in Paris. Elsewhere "democracy" is enforcing a nanny state in the UK with increasing erosion of personal privacy; socialism tries to conform the Scandinavian societies to liberalism; and the self-claimed leaders of the free world elect misogyny and racism in the name of "You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough" (and have the power to ride roughshod over truth).
For the sake of argument, if you lived as if you really know that truthism has trumped truth, what would you do? It's obvious that society is a faithful adherent of truthism. But has the church also adopted this as a new doctrine? Everywhere I look I see a church that frames the practice of preference as the mode of operation while seemingly paying lip-service to hard truths. Which is sadder: that society has succumbed to truthism as the normal way of life, or that the church has lost its spiritual backbone and become a boneless bag shaped by preference? Truth cares not about a preferred comfortable spirituality: why should the church? Much like everyone, when I get stressed my patience wears thin. That's an explanation, not an excuse. Of course, polite behavior slips first with the those that one knows best - whereas with strangers one usually makes the extra effort to keep the polite facade in place. Sad but true.
The bit that stretches my patience most is when, if something has gone wrong, the immediate and first reaction by others is to dissect the history of the event. "Why did you do that", "Didn't you think", "I never did anything", "They did that" - they try pick apart the past most often to see where the blame lay, and to divert blame from themselves. This approach to problems drives me up the wall. Of course there is a time and place to examine the actions of self and others, but in the heat of the moment forget the dissection because all you end up with is a dismembered corpse. The most pressing need to to make a course correction, focus on what action is needed, move on. I see a parallel with my faith. I remember when it first dawned on me what it really meant that, as a Christian, God says he will remember "no more" all that I did wrong - as if the mirror to the past was blank, while the view to the future is all-encompassing. Its a life-long-learning of this lesson when dealings with others - to forgive, forget, move on - life-long because its hard, because it is so satisfying to see blame placed elsewhere. But I keep trying, and I hope others will try likewise to apply that lesson in their dealings with me. This is not what I planned to post ... that'll have to wait until the next one
I have a little list, a list of songs for my funeral. Actually the list is not that little, and there are probably too many songs to practically use. One of my favourites for the reception is the Moody Blues song "Nice to be here" which among it's delightful lyrics includes the refrain "I can see them they can't see me, I feel out of sight. I can see them they can't see me, much to my delight". Although by then I suspect I'll have more interesting things to look at than the guests. However, I hope they'll be having fun. Some of the songs on my list are about the (hopefully good) memories of knowing a person. But more of them are about going home - that's a yearning I've lived with since childhood - I've always felt that my lived experience has been less than what I was created to be, that I fall short of the intention of my life. The video at the top captures the emotion of this yearning - I'm really looking forward to going home. I heard this morning that the father of a friend died last night. I seem to be at that stage where many of my friends are experiencing the death of those close to them. Inevitably this opens the door to the questions "what does this all mean?", "what is death?", and "how do I talk about it?". I have one friend who has nightmares about dying, other friends do their best not to think about their death, and there are some some who accept it with varied emotions ranging from sadness to expectation - the latter are few in number. Personally, when I think of or speak of my death, I feel a quickening in my gut, an actual physical response to my thoughts. Its an inner agreement of mind and body that is very much like the feelings I experience when I take off in a hangglider, tighten the sails on my dingy, jump off a boulder into a mountain pool far below, embark on an ambitions project, or take a decision where the outcome is uncertain. (Listen to the bit in the video from 1:05 to 1:20 ... do you hear the growing anticipation in the music ... almost like it takes too long to resolve ... marking time ... making you wait for the outcome ... that's life for me!) Its the exciting anticipation of an adventure, of escaping from this inverted normality, of finally becoming what I was made to be, and at home. I wonder how others feel about their death; people don't often want to talk about it. Yes ... its another WOTE video! A few days ago I was sitting 8 rows from the stage watching Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart perform "No Mans Land". It was captivating, a brilliant portrayal of contrasting perspectives, fading memories, and difficult relationships as an intruder threatens the status quo ante of two men in their drink-laden old age. I still don't really understand it. A few days ago I awoke to a meeting of shattered emotions as colleagues wrestled with the fact that there was a climate change denier taking power in the White House, compounded by his character of egotistical misogyny, ethnic hatred, and lies. This was only another step in a year of events that are taking the world into scary instability. The vote for Trump was simply one more fear-driven vote of selfishness (Let’s be honest and call this fear what it really is: it’s the fear of your privilege being taken away - e.g. see here and here). I still don't really understand it. A few months ago I resigned from my church, in part because the trajectory had taken a 180° turn away from trying the utmost to meet those that "have a problem with how the Christians do church [which is] causing them to feel disconnected, uncomfortable, or unwanted." That an organization would choose to entrench barriers that prevent reaching those one is trying to serve is confounding. I was recently dining with my atheist friend and trying to explain why I was leaving my church; he was astounded that the institutional expression of my faith was not trying in every way possible to lower the barriers to someone like him. I still don't really understand it. To wrestle with this is to enter a no man's land: this is a place between sides, where one is exposed and vulnerable and survival necessitates understanding the other side (but not necessarily agreeing with them). It's where one says to those we meet "Hello from the other side", and we strive to build a dialogue. No Man's Land: I don't really understand it. This is a place we jump into to free our souls, where we sit naked in a savusauna, and are willing to be ridiculous. All to better be true to Truth. No Man's Land is just that: a place no-one owns, a place that exists, a place of danger to those with something to lose. The world is entering no man's land (again). Climate change is increasing pressures, the rich-poor divide is growing, power is being gathered as walls are built, new defenses constructed, and stability eroded - all by those who fear what they have to lose. Whether it's the hegemony of the privileged or the security of an institution's rituals - there is a fear of what will be personally lost. And all the while the poor and spiritually bankrupt are left in the dust. But Hold On, Listen to the Music, because We've Got a Message. |
Why?
Probably the best therapy is to express yourself. Why do you think psychiatrists make you lie on the couch and talk, while all they do is murmur "hmmm", "uhuh", or "go on"? Archives
May 2017
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