(Interested in joining us? Link to our Visitor's Center.)
Jessica led us through the lovely service for early evening. Her question was about lyrics that we've always misunderstood. Everybody treasures these famous lines: I'll never be your big Suburban... from the Rolling Stones; Billy Idol's Guys without a date; from the traditional Christmas hymn, Benita ate a raw moose; and from Jimi Hendrix, 'Scuse me while I kiss this guy.
Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World, Unit 5, Vocation:
1st yr: Jessica; 2nd yr: Susan; 3rd yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn, Kathy ; 4th yr, Scott. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Kathy, Marilyn.
Much of our discussion concerned "bad-ass" Esther and the "innocent and seductive" Ruth. We all contributed to a discussion of the geneology that connects a Moabite woman to the line of David, a huge counterweight to the numerous denunciations of the women of Moab in other scriptures. [For more on that, see Scott's article about Donn Morgan's Fighting with the Bible (01/2018).] We also wondered about the absence of the Lord's name from the text of Esther, though we agreed that Mordecai implies Providence in her being in the right position at the right time to save her people.
Pete summarized the whole century 1815-1915 in terms of an arc from the shrinking of the world by trade and technology and the spread of Christianity via colonialism, to a gradual displacement of faith by science and political theory. Nuno picked up on the theme of "Coca-colonization" in the RRG's short essay, and concluded on a positive note: Reading in the RRG -- "We all are co-creating – with lots of new voices being brought in. The more inclusive our church is," he said, "the further we can reach." That resonated with Scott's reading in Holy Envy by Barbara Brown Taylor, whose bottom line is decent respect for others as individuals and an awareness that other traditions have their own perspectives on God that enrich (without endangering) ours, and vice-versa.
Aside to Pete and Y3: One of our Y4 readings puts the faith v. science conflict into a spiritual context, coming right up to our own time. See Scott's blogpost How Episcopalians Believe.
Aside to Jessica from Scott: At least one chapter in Proverbs is full of delight. See The Joy of Proverbs.
Nuno brought us a song from Willie Nelson's album God's Problem Child, "Your Memory has a Mind of its Own." We focused on the notion that memory can be an entity apart from our minds. We immediately connected to the idea from experience -- waking with worries at 2am, the mind's conflict dealing with an overly stressful job, and how our bodies can respond with adrenaline when we replay a memory with alterations for what we wish we'd said.
We connected through other sources: Tradition (Orthodox) Your Self and Your Thoughts are separate … You are not your thoughts… Romans, it is no longer I myself who do it but sin that is in me… Jacob’s wrestling with a part of himself… (winning a new name and bad hip)… Position How memory tricks witnesses in trials… memories shaped by preconceptions and wishes... Culture The Devil made me do it… Exorcist… mind-control (Inception) … Oz (the power was in her the whole time) … Jung and Freud disagreement over the role of the unconscious mind: source of health v. source of discord (Freud taking off from philosophers) … Alice in Wonderland and White Rabbit…Matrix.
We offered these insights and positions: Counter harsh memories by mantras such as the Jesus prayer... “Start running too” – confront the memory or put it out of mind? Depends on it and the individual... One therapy is to de – sensitize yourself to an experience by replaying it slowly… You can be better if you break it down to see your part in it, the bigger picture… Example of re-imagining a better outcome. Susan pointed out that a lot of this is about the power of our reptile brain (amygdala) – our job is to tame it, elevate our thoughts. Jessica, Nuno, and Pete put together a "collect without an ending" for Scott to finish:
Susan will lead worship and Scott will bring a source for a TR. Kathy will be on her way home.
No comments:
Post a Comment