CASTLES, CATHEDRALS, AND MARTIN LUTHER

I was watching a Rick Steves visit to Germany show last night on TV -- back to armchair traveling -- and now I've checked that country off my must see list.  Thanks, Rick.

Anyway, he focused a bit on Martin Luther and his famous Reformation.  Hub grew up in a family of Germany-descendents who were conservative Missouri Synod Lutheran teachers and preachers, so he's well-versed in all things Lutheran and, by marriage, so am I.   Instead of dressing up for Halloween every year, Hub and his classmates at his Lutheran elementary school had to watch a grainy old film about Martin Luther and the Reformation, since Reformation Day is also on October 31.  (Hub still harbors resentment about this and suffers from a bit of PTSD.  His school was a stern place, apparently.  And to think at that very same moment I was dressed as a witch gobbling down orange-frosted cupcakes! Heathen public school Methodist!)

Luther was a young monk who was troubled by the Catholic church's selling of indulgences (buying your way out of Purgatory) and other shady religion-focused business practices, so on October 31, 1517 he jotted down his thoughts on the matter and tacked them to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany hoping to stimulate discussion amongst his monk colleagues.  Today he would have posted his thoughts online and been hailed a hero and/or inundated with trolls freaking out.  Well, actually that's sort of what happened anyway.   Luther got some good comments and felt emboldened.  He decided that he'd write the Bible in German so everyone could read it, not just Latin-scholar priests.  He teamed up with a new operating system, called the Gutenberg printing press, and got his German bibles widely distributed.  The people read them and came to realize a bunch of stuff the Church had been telling them wasn't even in the Bible at all!  No mention of the Pope or indulgences or any of that stuff.  His 95 Theses went viral and pretty soon a whole new thing called "Protestantism" was born. The Catholics were not happy.

Which brings me to my recent trip to Great Britain.  (The travelogue continues...)

Our Scottish tour guide joked that people often tire of the non-stop tours of cathedrals and castles.  At the beginning of the trip I couldn't imagine this.  That's what we came to see!!! By the end of the trip I totally got the point.

We saw some absolutely beautiful architecture and the artistic creativity was jaw-dropping.  The ruins of old cathedrals was moving and inspiring.  The art historian in me was in awe.

But the stories we heard over and over and over, were stories of Protestants and Catholics fighting over who was in charge.  Kings and Queens were on the throne or killed off or married off in fits of rage and/or alliances mostly having to do with which religion they practiced.  Places and artifacts of tremendous beauty were destroyed to wipe out any recollection of what had come before in waves of "my turn" changing of power between the religions.  It became grotesque to hear these stories of war, murder, and punishment all carried out in the name of "religion".  If I have to hear one more graphic description of what it means to be "drawn and quartered" I might scream.

So, it came to pass that as I entered a new cathedral or castle on the itinerary, I steeled myself for the stories of death and destruction and power-brokering that went along with the view.  Both of us began to notice that all the lead roles were played by men, or by women who were used in the service of men to get the power they craved.  The patriarchy upon which our historical and religious culture is based was on full display as tourists oohed and ahhed at each stop.  I started to feel depressed that this is our heritage.  I started to long for a different history.

Where were the peacemakers?  The women?  The artisans who saw their masterpieces turned to rubble?   I have always known that history is written by the victor, but I felt that fact viscerally on our trip.    We both sort of rolled our eyes eventually and tuned out the litany of war upon war and the ridiculous religious one-upmanship on display.  We appreciated instead the amazing human ingenuity and creativity of these beautiful places and honored those who toiled to design, build, and decorate something they thought would last.

There has to be another story under the one that we have been taught, because humans seeking power through death and destruction don't really seem to win the day.  We are still here.  There must be a current of a life-affirming energy running through humanity too.   Let's tap in to that.  Let's learn from that.  Let's honor that.

Oh wait....now we're getting to the heart of my religion, the one that celebrates compassion, inclusion, diversity, open-mindedness, hope, humility, laughter, generosity.  I read somewhere that Jesus talked about that stuff but, not being a practicing Christian, I might have that wrong.

At least, that's the view from here...©

Photos:
Top -- Ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral, St. Andrews Scotland
Bottom -- York Minster Cathedral, York England

TAKE ME TO CHURCH

Thinking about Jesus today.  I heard this song yesterday on the radio (Take Me to Church) and I love it so much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYSVMgRr6pw

Then, early this morning I was surprised by....church!

Hub and I woke up to a rainy Easter morning today on Kauai.  I threw on a sundress and headed to the Terrace downstairs where breakfast is served to grab our mugs of free Kauai Coffee and pick up the newspaper  -- my morning routine.   But when I stepped off the elevator I was struck by a loud "rock" band playing something Jesus-y in the Courtyard.

I peeked 'round the corner to see nearly 200 people packed onto folding chairs at an Easter Sunrise Service.  I was greeted with a huge smile and an invitation to take a seat.  I demurred, but stood in the back, rapt with attention to this spectacle.  I watched as more and more people joined, as greeters hugged and shook hands, as the childrens' choir (preschool to teenagers) sang like angels.  The guest preacher, from Seattle!, gave a pretty standard Easter message befitting the Evangelical bent of this brand of Christianity, including the altar call to those ready to surrender their lives to Jesus.  (No takers on this Easter morning, but many likely had already done that judging by hands raised in the air during song and prayer.)  The pastor hammered home the God is Great message and assured everyone that no matter the harshness of life on earth, "the last will be first in Heaven" and "Jesus is with you!  God is waiting for you!"  This elicited some Amens and raised arms in praise of the Lord.  Everyone was smiling!  Some were crying.  The music swelled.  A local pastor stepped up to invite everyone who "wants more Jesus today!" to come to a 10:00 a.m. service at a local church with lunch served afterward -- featuring his own mother's Home Cooking!

I tell ya, I get it.  The showmanship and message of love and relief from suffering is an affecting one. I thought back to my Christian upbringing at first in the friendly Methodist church of my childhood, then the more austere brand of Protestantism of my Lutheran years after marrying into a conservative Lutheran family and being expected to become one of them.  Then we swerved left and attended a Congregationalist church for awhile, before finding Unitarian Universalism.  Easter Sunday was a favorite worship experience in all of those earlier Christian denominations.  What's not to like about petticoats, patent leather shoes, and Hallelujahs?

But "Take Me to Church" (partly about the Church's punishment of homosexuality) also reminds me of the hypocrisy, the judgements, the literal (and sort of made up) interpretations of the Bible and Jesus' teachings that turned me away from the Christian church.  When a certain brand of Christianity became intertwined with political conservatism I became judge-y too.  How could two diametrically opposed worldviews exist in one entity?  Feed the poor = cut food assistance.  Welcome the stranger = close our borders.   Care for the sick and vulnerable = gut healthcare.  Serve the poor = subsidize billion dollar corporations.

But this is Easter.  It is a time to reflect on a New Beginning.  Jesus was a new beginning in his time and I take his example as the meaning of this day.  Appropriated from the Pagan rituals of renewal and regrowth, fertility and abundance, Jesus is said to have risen from the dead.  (Maybe.  Jon Snow did it...Game of Thrones reference for the uninitiated; also a handsome guy, as all movie Jesus' are as well.)  If he did it then, I truly wish he'd come on back again now and take a look at what is being said and done in his name.  (I'd like his return to NOT be accompanied by that whole Rapture thing...messy.)  Maybe we'd find out this is exactly what he intended.  Or maybe he'd lead the Resistance, as he did in his day.

After Christian Church I joined Hub in practicing Qigong on the beach (Ancient Chinese ); I did today's Oprah/Deepak recorded meditation on Hope (Vedic tradition); I chanted along with my favorite Kirtan artists: Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, Gina Sala (Tantric, Vedic, Hindu); I watched Valerie Kaur on YouTube (Sihk).

And  I will hold the lessons of the Fierce and Gentle Jesus I believe he was, and try to be more like that.  My "religion" is eclectic and curious, finding the common Capital "L" Love (thanks for that, Gina) in each practice.  With this Love as guide,  I renew my urge to find the courage to resist wrongs,  to find gratitude in every day, to see the Divine in all, and to sing Hallelujah! for this gift of life.  May we all RISE UP in Love in service to the greater good.  Amen.

At least, that's the view from here.... ©

Photo Credit: A painting by R. (Richard) Hook

AGES AND STAGES, PART 3: I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PEOPLE DIE

I don't know what happens when people die
Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It's like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
That I can't sing,
I can't help but listen...
--lines from the song "For A Dancer" by Jackson Browne

I love this song.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU1rZa8Ur_Q  I want it to play behind the video montage at my Memorial Service.   Jackson Browne's poetry and music have been so often the soundtrack of my life.  And this particular song has always moved me -- especially after my older brother died far too young in 1990 and then with each subsequent death of a loved one.

I don't know what happens when people die either.  Having been raised Methodist, and having had children's Bible story books read to me, I got the message about Heaven, even saw pictures of it (artitst's rendition anyway), which looked like a peaceful place.  I would journey there after I died... IF....

It was the "IF" that scared me.  I never really believed I could ever be good enough to make the cut, and Jesus dying to ensure my spot in the clouds never made any sense to me.   So I have spent a lot of time trying to sort out the meaning of life, the reality of death, the oh so tempting desire to believe there is "something" out there, something else, something after.  It has mostly been an intellectual pursuit, a curiosity of questioning and an occasional topic of Google searches and Amazon purchases.

One of those purchases was the book, Proof of Heaven, by Eben Alexander, MD.  He tells in this memoir the story of his Near Death Experience (NDE) after contracting a rare E-Coli meningitis which attacked the thought and emotion centers of his brain and put him in a barely not yet brain-dead coma for  seven days, with death the only possible outcome, according to the physicians caring for him.  But, alas, he did not die, and miraculously returned to consciousness telling of realms beyond this one where he had visited and was absolutely certain existed on the other side of death of the body.  Some part of us lives on -- not only lives, but thrives, and "returns" to our soul's source.  I give credence to his account because he was such an intellectual, scientifically-trained, mostly non-religious skeptic.  Now he's not.

His new book, The Map of Heaven, explores this further, pulling in the latest discoveries from quantum physics to help explain that we know so very little about the universe and the subtle swirling  subatomic ....whatever, whatever, whatever... I don't get the science of it all.  That stuff is what Stephen Hawking has spent his amazing lifetime studying, along with other really smart people who are good at math.

All I know is that sometimes I feel like the people I have loved and lost are sitting just beside me, almost palpably real.  All I know is that when my dad had a massive heart attack, which he only survived because he had it in a hospital bed, told my mom later that he had a feeling of tremendous peace while he was unconscious and no longer feared death.  All I know is that my niece says she regularly has contact with the spirit of her dead father, my brother.  All I know is that stories of NDEs are ancient, real, and becoming more and more accepted as fact in mainstream circles,  rather than the crackpot meanderings of a psychotic mind.

When religion asks us to have faith, tells us that the unanswerable questions are the "Mystery", I actually believe that to be true.  While I don't think we've figured it out yet, I have faith that there is something (a lot) we don't know, and the "mystery" will remain just that until, and if, we ever get the answers from science -- or God.

So, here's what I believe, on faith and a bit of science:  There is a Source (God, if you call it that) from which the universe(s) emerged.  We are part of that.  Humans are pretty well evolved (for now) in that we are given the gift of intellect and emotion and the ability to contemplate our own mortality.  It's our job to do that -- to think and feel and question and learn, and then to further this gift of Creation by honoring the Source by living a life of Love and Service to this Creation.  I believe that some part of this Source lives in every part of the Universe -- including you and me, and that part never dies.  It moves between planes of existence most of us can only imagine in a Science Fiction-y way, but into which some people have gotten a glimpse.

I'm not sure this Source cares about the outcome of football games (obviously not, since my fervent prayers went unanswered in the Seahawks Super Bowl loss...still mourning) or even about each and every individual life.  I think we are sort of on our own as humans and while deep inside we are Love and Light and have all goodness (the Spark is not evil), we do end up making dumb decisions, experiencing terrible things, being awful to one another.  I believe we are big swirling blobs of energy -- not even solid according to that science stuff I don't understand -- and that energy can affect energy, so that "miracles" can happen where the energy gets shifted and something seemingly amazing happens (Seahawks win!!!).  I don't really get that part because there is so much seeming capriciousness involved in any given outcome, but it might explain (to our little human minds) the unexplainable.

At least I think so.  I don't know...I used to try to believe the Sunday School explanations.  Then I didn't really believe anything.  I guess at this stage of life, aging as I am and giving more careful thought to what lies ahead, I've formulated this rather interesting, ultimately comforting belief in a mix of science and spirit that sustains me.   I don't have all the details down.  I just hope everybody enjoys the music while watching the video of my life.  Maybe I'll be there too...right beside you. ©

At least, that's the view from here....

STEPFORD SISTER-WIFE

I only meant to tune in briefly.  Just a glimpse.  I knew I wouldn't like what I'd hear.  But curiosity overcame common sense.  And I am practicing equanimity.  I thought this might be a good test.

There she was, Ann Romney, resplendent in patriotic red.  Matching lipstick.  Perfectly coiffed blonde hair.  She talked about the early days of their head-over-heels-in-love courtship and of how they just couldn't wait to get married.  They moved into a basement apartment and used a door on sawhorses for a desk and an ironing board for a dinner table.  Who can't relate to those kinds of "we were just a couple of crazy kids" tales?

It went on....and on....and on....the humble beginnings, the hard work, the rise to prominence.  She said her husband had never been handed success.  Unless you count the help they got from Mitt's daddy, who "ran a car company".  (Not exactly the Ford dealership on the edge of town, however; more like American Motor Company in Detroit).  I guess Mitt and Ann were The American Dream come true.

Just like us.  My dad worked in a textile factory for 40 years, dying cloth to exacting color specifications, often coming home with the after-effects of chemical exposure that created respiratory issues most of his life.  My mom worked as a seamstress in a factory making Formfit bras (rows and rows of women at sewing machines) until she was able to go to beauty school and open a little shop in a converted porch in our home.  Hub's parents were schoolteachers in the Lutheran Parochial School system, serving at "God's calling" for His love, certainly not money.  I went to work in an office just out of high school, not going to college until I was 23 years old and then only part-time while I worked to support us as Hub continued his education.  Hub worked his way through college loading and driving moving vans on weekends and school vacations.  We grew up and started our married life humble and struggling, just like the Romney's.

"Neither one of us had a job, because Mitt had enough of an investment from stock that we could sell off a little at a time," Ann Romney said in an interview with the Boston Globe when Mr. Romney was running for the Senate.  "We had no income except the stock we were chipping away at.  We were living on the edge, not entertaining."  (She didn't mention this hardship in her convention speech.)

So, while the "facts" of her marriage biography may be subject to investigation, she did come across as a woman who at least knew how to relate (pander, some said) to other women. She did raise all those boys (with help, no doubt, and money, and status and private schools....) and seemed to at least be conversant with the joys and sorrows a mom experiences.   So I listened and tried to keep an open mind with a compassionate heart.

Ann Romney is doing what she was raised to do:  be a wife, a mother, a grandmother, hold the family together, support her husband, work tirelessly for her Mormon faith, look good, love her country, and assume success is a "given" for everyone who tries hard.  She is who she is.  I accept that.  (And she says one of her favorite TV shows is "Modern Family"!  Mine too!  I bet her favorite characters are the gay couple, Mitchell and Cam and their little girl Lily!  I'm sure she sees in this portrayal that allowing real couples/parents like them to marry would be the only loving and sensible thing to do!)

After the speech, I turned the TV off and thought no more about any of the Republicans at their convention.

But I woke up the next day full of enthusiastic energy for homemaking!!!!  This is a VERY uncharacteristic thing for me to do.  Hub does 95% of the cooking around our house.  I haven't baked anything in over 2 years.  I have been crocheting lately, but mostly so I don't feel so badly about watching TV; it's OK if I'm multi-tasking.  But the day after the speech, I got up and made a batch of blueberry muffins (FROM SCRATCH!), a bowl of egg salad, and 6 pints of raspberry freezer jam -- by 10:30 a.m.!  Then I cleaned off my desk, paid a stack of bills, balanced my checkbook, did a couple loads of laundry, learned a new crochet stitch by making a 10" x 10" dishcloth, prepared supper, took muffins and jam to Son-One's family, came home and finished a scarf that had been in the bottom of my yarn basket since last winter, and watched a little TV with Hub before going to bed at 10:00.  WHAT??????

A friend suggested there was but one wifely duty still to be performed....Let's just say Hub is in a state of shock and wonders where he can get his hands on a DVD of that speech.

As for me...a warning:  DO NOT LOOK INTO ANN ROMNEY'S EYES!  She will take possession of your soul and turn you into a perfectly groomed, muffin-bakin', jam-makin' Stepford Sister-Wife! (Mitt?  Noooooo.......)

At least, that's the view from here....©

FROM AMEN TO OM

Many paths....one Truth.  That pretty much sums up my views on personal spirituality.  I have no patience with people who declare themselves keepers of the One True Way.

This is a long road away from the religion of my childhood, youth, and into "early-middle" adulthood.

I tried hard to be a good Protestant Christian girl.  I grew up in a "believing" but mostly "non-church-going" family.   When I was around 11 or 12 my mom decided we should all go to Sunday services, but my dad was a reluctant church-goer -- which made him really fun to sit next to in the pew.  He loved to sing, so I kept poking him awake between hymns at which point he'd come alive -- most loudly at the sung Amen at the end of the song, an exaggerated baritone booming forth to my stifled giggles.  I loved my Methodist Sunday School -- lots of fun songs, nice teachers, cookies and Kool-Aid.  Jesus was depicted as very smiley, hugging kids, and playing with lambs.  Nice man.

I married into a staunch Missouri Synod Lutheran family of preachers and teachers.  It was expected that I'd become Lutheran too, so without much thought of objection, I did.  It made my in-laws very happy.  It made me very confused.  These were some Bible-believin' folks and I had a lot of questions about what I saw as inconsistencies in their reasoning.  Later I realized "reason" was not a part of their belief system at all, so I had even more head-scratching to do about that since they were all bright college-educated people.  Their form of Christianity was dogmatic, punishing, and stern...not the cookies and Kool-Aid version I'd grown up with.  There were rules.  God seemed angry and Jesus seemed sad and doomed to die for me.  Sorry, Jesus.

So, after my husband and I moved away from family ties, we joined an ELCA Lutheran church.  It was less stern; but still, well, Lutheran.  We got involved in the social justice committee there and we were very active, but always fighting the "old guard" who saw us as too opinionated (standing up for the down-trodden!), radical (forming a Feminist branch of WomenChurch!) and political (writing letters to Congress about social justice issues!)  We thought Liberation Theology Jesus was on our side, but we couldn't always be sure.

So, we moved on to the Congregationalists.  The church was very politically active, politically liberal in outlook, and socially conscious.... and had a liberal, socially conscious, politically active, sort of self-righteous and rather exasperated Jesus at the center.  So much so that if social justice wasn't "Job-One" 24/7 in your life, well, maybe you just didn't really believe in "helping the poor" and "loving your neighbor" and "saving us all from evil" (our government, mostly) quite enough.  Do more! Do more! Do more! Never give up, give in, or give out!  Tired Jesus.  (Tired me).

What could have taken us so long to find the Unitarian Universalists???  Well, my husband's strong Christian upbringing kept us looking for a version of Jesus he/we could abide.  But finally, we realized that Jesus just might be more alive in a church that didn't trade on his name.

About 20 years ago we became Unitarian Universalists, where we happily remain and will stay.  We are encouraged to respect all, use democratic processes in our interactions, find our own path to a personal spirituality (learning about and understanding many wisdom traditions to do so).  Far from "you don't have to believe anything to be a UU", which is a commonly mistaken assumption...for me UU's have a STRONG  belief system -- in our inherent goodness, in the inter-dependent web of life in which we all live, in our ability to reason, discern, and decide for ourselves what we may or not "believe", in living ethically, lovingly, respectfully, with humility, and in the certainty that this life, right now, is precious and meaningful.  Because of all that, we are a caring, creative, socially conscious, politically active, and spiritual bunch of people.  Hello Jesus!


....And Allah, and Buddha, and Krishna, and Cosmos, and Void, and Humanity.... there are probably as many seekers as there are UU's.  We are all on a journey of Many Paths to the One Truth...and it doesn't bother us too much not knowing where the path leads.

Lately I've been exploring Bhakti Yoga practices of chanting the names of the Divine in the Hindu tradition and sitting in a Buddhist-focused meditation Sangha.   Both are bringing me joy and great peace.

My UU friends are many, and most would be surprised to know I also have a personal Jesus-kinda guy presence within me most of the time....he's kind, gentle, peaceful, powerful, angry, righteous, and quite good looking (naturally).  He doesn't try to "save" me, but he gives me encouragement to save myself, and the quiet inner peace of knowing that the One Truth is out there... and it is good.

At least that's the view from here....Amen, Om, Namaste.©