[Oe List ...] Salmon: MORE RESPONSE TO Requiem for Republicans

Wed Sep 17 23:49:02 EDT 2008

G'day folks: your comments about TWLI and G-O-D are helpful.  It is very easy to take one section of TWLI, or one section of "big R" Reality, in other words, the latest version of my "little r" reality, and base our life on that.  Thus someone bases their life only on "life is goody goody gumdrops luverly" if that's all they've experienced - wait till Reality strikes!  Or someone bases their life only on "life is a lot of crap and hurt" is that's a lot of what they've experienced - and they find it difficult to appreciate anything else they experience.  And so on.  I'm rehearsing this for myself at the moment, thanks to a few episodes where Reality intruded like a very fast, heavily laden, goods train.

In doing a workshop with some secondary students (Year 9s - during which they generally turn 14) some years ago, I used the final scene from the film Zorba the Greek.  (For another audience I would have alternatively, or also, used The Book of Job, about which I wrote an essay for the BTh subject Intro to the OT some years ago.)

"Men dancing with each other?!!" was the comment of some of the boys.  So I asked whether anyone was of Greek background - one boy was, and confirmed that Greek men do dance with each other.  A few days later my teacher friend at that school told me that I'd been talking with the son of Andrew Bovell, playwright and screenplay writer. (Bovell adapted his own play for the film Lantana, with Kerry Armstrong, Anthony LaPaglia and others.)

Anyway, we drew out that it's very human for humans to spit chips, to blame G-O-D (or Life, or whatever) in the first instance.  The way I read The Book of Job is that the Lord does commend Job for being his authentic humanness, despite reminding him about who designed Creation etc.  In the movie Zorba is pissed off at the collapse of the device built to carry the ore from the mine to the seashore.

Then, and emphasise then, we might calm down, and celebrate Life As It Is.  We might sing a song, write our anger/grief whatever "out of our system", go for a long walk, go to a High Place (OT image re altars - see Melvyn Bragg's book Credo for Celtic manifestations of this, set around the time of the Synod of Whitby) and shout at the skies, or whatever.  In the movie, Zorba and Boss start to eat lunch, and then dance Zorba's Dance.

Then, and emphasise then, we might decide what next to do.  I must look at the book Zorba again, but I'm fairly sure Zorba and Boss then moved on in some way.

My concern in all this is that too often we disallow the very human experience, or phase of the larger experience, of spitting chips.  To me, that is the worst kind of stoicism, stoicism as we used to talk about it in the RS-IIB New Testament course.  It is a false image of spirit gianthood.  It denies our emotions, our feelings, the R in ORID.  It allows feelings to be bottled up for too long, far belong any useful holding off on them (as when we are fighting a fire, or dealing with a similar crisis).

Now if I can olny get tghis bloody computer tod o what my mind wants ot tod o ....

Cheers

Frank

From: wsalmon at cox.netTo: oe at wedgeblade.netDate: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:39:14 -0500Subject: [Oe List ...] Salmon: MORE RESPONSE TO Requiem for Republicans

It seems I'm destined to offend someone, as I to do it with some regularity. You'll have to forgive me for being an old fool, yet I choose to be a fool for God. Sorry about that Marshall, because your witness was difficult to read between the lines. For what is it worth, I'm pleased that you're not blaming G-O-D.  
    Bill 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: W. J. 
To: Order Ecumenical Community 
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 6:50 PM
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Salmon: RESPONSE TO Requiem for Republicans

This is a highly arrogant, defensive, "old-mood", "old-language", and totally uncalled-for response that misread what I wrote in very clear words. I'm not blaming G-O-D or anyone else. I stand by every word. You can do better, Bill. Stop beating up on your colleagues. 'Nuff said.
Marshall
Oh yeah, the correct word is "empathic."--- On Wed, 9/17/08, William Salmon <wsalmon at cox.net> wrote:
From: William Salmon <wsalmon at cox.net>Subject: [Oe List ...] Salmon: RESPONSE TO Requiem for RepublicansTo: "Order Ecumenical Community" <oe at wedgeblade.net>Date: Wednesday, September 17, 2008, 12:17 PM

Marshall ---
    O-o-o-o, wait a minute! I can appreciate your anguish as I'm empathetic with you. However, God is not to blame, nor is SHE teaching us any lessons. The Way Life Is (TWLI -- remember) is to blame. If God is to blame then we make our human situations the culprit and we are doomed because we are the helpless victim of our circumstances. 
    The Good News is that our situations are never our problem. Our problem is relating to the self that has the problem/situation. While it is true we all are victimized, our profound freedom is the relationship we choose to take to our situations; we can choose to be victims or victors. 
    The Christian Faith Story is that Jesus, out of his freedom, intentionally chose to die to the barriers preventing him from living the victorious life of deep satisfaction. His demonstration is a witness to our freedom as well. When we make the decision that, while victimized we are not victims, we experience what Jesus experienced as Resurrectional Freedom.  
    While it is not a happy picture, but the American People (that's us among on them Republicans and Democrats) get what we deserve. It is incumbent upon the Awakened to get out there and awaken others. It takes shoe leather rather than whiney blather. 
    So, my friend, get up off your duff, go to the local party office (of your choice) and start making telephone calls, etc. Hell man, you're an old "community organizer," (like Jesus). Pontius Pilate was a GOVERNOR. Being "sick" is no excuse; remember, "Praise the Lord, Christ is Risen?" Get up and go to Daily Office, and crawl if necessary!
    How did we get in this mess? Shit, at the beginning of our personal history we looked down at our big toe to see the tag, "Marshall is assigned to the last of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st Century." You da man, babe. Go get'em. 
    Inner Peace,  
    Bill Salmon

----- Original Message ----- 
From: W. J. 
To: earthrise at yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 3:39 AM
Subject: [Oe List ...] Requiem for Republicans

[NOTE: This is intended as a Witness to my personal experience/struggle, and not as political or economic commentary. Please do not take offense at the political or economic references. Or the references to G-O-D.] 

OK, tomorrow's my birthday, tonight's the party, I've been sick, very sick. . .and now things are looking very juicy. Maybe there's some life left in the old man after all.

But there's been this nightmare haunting me. It's about having a kinder, gentler Miss Piggy in the Oval Office, well armed and loaded for moose, but without a clue. But the real nightmare is that so many people want her there in all her no-nothing arrogance. It's almost enough to make me think: not North to Alaska, but North to Canada. 

My mood has been 'Anguish' (and maybe that's why I got sick).

So I've struggled with what it is that G-O-D is trying to say to us at this moment, when the great American Electorate wants to Start Over with some frontier/puritan/'reformist' Vision of a cleaner, more rural Utopia that's spruced up and ready for the Second Coming.

What does it mean to have your whole life understanding culturally undermined by this Spectre that rises like some defrosted creature from the black lagoon? And to have to decide to live all over again in an unraveling cultural devolution?

Even if this particular manifestation of the Unthinkable sinks back into the Swamp on November 5th, you can bet that . . . she'll be back. 

Hasta la vista, baby!

This is almost unimaginable new territory for me. And it's almost as much of a shock to be here in this moment as it was seven years ago when, sick and desperate and crying out to the Unknown Unknown, I went to be alone on the beach and walked that narrow strip of wet sand that marks the boundary between the dry land [that had, until that moment, been home, comfort, and refuge] and the great Abyss.

Back then I was so comfortable in my skin and in my culture that I got on the rollercoasters at MarineWorld (for the first and last time!) on the weekend and hung on for dear life, not knowing that 9/11 was a ticking time bomb with two days to go.

I heard on videotape the sickening thuds as people held hands, jumped out of windows, and skydived to the sidewalk. And these were the ordinary, hard-working employees of the finance industry who got to the WTC by 9 am that day.

Now, seven years later, the only people diving on Wall Street have Golden Parachutes. And somehow that lessens the emotional impact as they float slowly down, their termination entitlements gleaming in the sunlight.

But the real carnage is much worse if less visible. Some 140 trillion dollars of asset value deflated over one weekend. And I'm still trying to come to terms with that.

Plus, this whole scenario has my name on it. It's as though G-O-D is an incredible pool shark--far better than Jackie Gleason--who can line everything up and in one shot pocket so many balls that my head is spinning. 'Cause these happen to be EXACTLY the companies I happen to work with. MY bank, MY broker, MY insurance company--all the creme de la creme--all gone in one day!

Back in the old days we usta say, 'My wife is the Wrath of God in my life.' And, since I had a wife back then, I could come up with a zillion ways to ground that assertion.

But there's something about Miss Piggy being the Wrath of God that's even harder to take. Don't misunderstand me as somehow beating up on Republicans. Granted, Miss Piggy doesn't have a clue, but even so, her cluelessness is God's Judgement on us all. It's as though we're--God forbid--ALL Republicans in our complacency, our longing for the true and the beautiful, our willingness to look the other way or nod off occasionally while munching jelly beans.

And most of all, in our utterly collapsed Vision.

And so, my friends, even if Miss Piggy goes to Heaven on a barbecue grill--roasted instead of toasted, as it were, or burned instead of turned into Quayle II or worse--we still have 'the Vision Thing' to contend with. Are we going to be utterly defensive in protecting our narrowly perceived self interest? Or if not, then what? It's way too much for a good, self-respecting Republican to get her mind around. 

Regardless of the immediate outcome, let us sing a Requiem for Republicans. For, really, there is nothing there. And may continue to be for another eight years.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Wayne Marshall Jones was one of those Order-type guys for a long, long time. And as you can see, he's never quite gotten over it, even at the advanced age of 68. He still dreams of the human power created by articulating a clear vision, grasping the global contradictions, and focussing our lives fully toward practical programmatic engagement. Then he wakes to the new reality: right now, in this moment, we haven't a clue about what to do.

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