[Oe List ...] Salmon: for your reflections

[KarenBueno at aol.com]

Bill, great witness!  And Marge, keep at articulating that faith  stance!  
It is still greatly needed in our time.
 
Karen Bueno
 
 
In a message dated 9/15/2010 6:02:57 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time,  
msphilbrook at gmail.com writes:

Yesterday I was trying to "say" the faith stance that "we" live out  of
as a prelude to thinking with the Cocks about the PJD. I was  speaking
to an ICA staff member who does not know this faith stance that we  are
still able to "articulate."  I found myself stunbling in ways that  I
don't feel when I'm talk to those of us who I feel know what  I'm
talking about.  Thanks for this witness, Bill.  Grace and  Peace, Marge

2010/9/15 William Salmon <wsalmon at cox.net>:
>  Colleagues--
>
>     Is there a better message to  live by when life turns everything
> up-side-down than to recall the  insights of brother Bonhoeffer? Life does
> not define us, rather it is  our relationship to life that we take that
> defines  Life.
>
>     The painful changes of life  are amoral; they are just events,
> activities, experiences and  realities. When our son Wesley died at 20 
with
> leukemia he  was victimized by this damnable disease, but he never 
empowered
>  the disease by saying he was a victim. Rather, he chose (or, perhaps,  I
> chose for him) to be a VICTOR! Whatever the choice, this  was the 
self-story
> we all lived until he died.
>
>  It is a matter of choice, and an important choice at that!  To chose to
> be a VICTOR---in spite of leukemia, or even because of  it--robs the 
disease
> of any power over us. To choose to make ourselves  VICTIMS is to empower 
the
> disease with attributes that it never  possesses by itself.
>
>     While reality is  characterized by death and pain, Castaneda reminded 
us
> that both death  and pain never lie to us; we can ask, "Am I in pain?" 
and if
> the  answer is, "Yes!" we can damn well believe we are." On the other 
hand.  .
> . .
>
>     I have god-damned leukemia  ever since Wesley's death to no avail.
> Leukemia is not my enemy.  While I will never accept its friendship 
either,
> leukemia just  continues to do its thing; it is fulfilling its created
>  purpose.
>
>     Is there Good News in here  somewhere? Yes, the Christian story is 
that
> Jesus demonstrated that he  was not a victim to the political and 
religious
> powers of his day, and  deliberately chose to die on the cross as the
> demonstration that even  death itself does not victimize us; Jesus is
> the first born of  many brothers and sisters. When we choose to live out
> of This  Story then we experience a resurrection; we experience The 
Christ.
>  (JWM would love this!)
>
>     Well, duh! Death  only does its thing too.
>
>     Ah, well, such is  life.
>
>     Inner Peace,
>
>  Bill
>
>
>
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