From Matthew Thorburn’s “Touch”: a touch halfway / between eye and ear, a touch I believe is holy / because that place is called my temple.
-
-
When Did Everything Become So ‘Intentional’?: “I understand why people want that sense of safety and control,” said Dr. Sun, the Seattle-based therapist. “I would also say that, essentially as human beings, we don’t have the ability to set intentions so good, to make decisions so good, that we’re immune from heartbreak, pain, sickness and all the difficulties in life.
-
It is better to do your own duty badly than to perfectly do another’s —Bhagavad Gita
-
-
-
-
-
Noh: On a summer night, Ms. Kamiyama played the lead role in a ghost story belonging to Japan’s ancient Noh form of drama. She wore a small oval mask and an ornate kimono as she stepped out onto a Shinto shrine’s weathered wooden stage surrounded by torches. A chorus of singers chanted, and musicians played a flute and drums while she stomped and spun in stylized dance moves.
-
-
London’s Peace Monk: Asked if he thought all of his chanting, and walking, had ultimately contributed to world peace, the monk confessed he couldn’t be sure. “I don’t know,” he said, picking a plum from a bowl. “Maybe nothing.”
But he had no regrets about his dedication to the cause.
“Chanting for world peace,” he said, biting into the fruit, “is the best way to live.”
-
-
From The Red Hand Files: I discovered that the initial trauma of Arthur’s death was the coded cypher through which God spoke, and that God had less to do with faith or belief, and more to do with a way of seeing. I came to understand that God was a form of perception, a means of being alert to the poetic resonance of being. I found God to be woven into all things, even the greatest evils and our deepest despair. Sometimes I feel the world pulsating with a rich, lyrical energy, at other times it feels flat, void, and malevolent. I came to realise that God was present and active in both experiences.
-
Dr. Edwin Searcy was a genuine servant of God’s church. Humble, under the radar type, his interesting thoughts, found on his blog, showcase a deeply faithful man. An individual whose thought I’m grateful to have been introduced to.
-
Finished reading: I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger 📚
-
Hungry ghost is a term in Buddhism and Chinese traditional religion, representing beings who are driven by intense emotional needs in an animalistic way.
-
Michal Leibowitz: But ultimately, we did what I think a lot of people in the past must have done: We put aside our doubts and tried to trust that we were not the first to have these worries and that, most probably, we would be able to handle the struggles as they came.
I rarely thought of growing up with this norm as a privilege or a stroke of luck. But now I wonder if it was.
Because increasingly, outside subcultures like mine, having a child in America is becoming a life-cycle stage you have to opt in to, rather than the default you must opt out of. Child rearing is something you consider doing when you have extensive savings and a good career and a perfect partner and are at peace with yourself and your choices and are sure that you can guarantee your kid a life of success and happiness. Except, of course, you can never guarantee that for your child, just as your parents — much as they wanted to — could not guarantee it for you.
-
Can a Government Be Pacifist? It is not correct, then, to frame debates about pacifism as if they came down to those who would commit to take up civic responsibility and those who refuse. Instead, the proper question becomes: What does Christian responsibility require? Whatever its allure, violence cannot ultimately guarantee that the world will be safe. And yet history shows that a conscientious decision to avoid violence may also have tragic knock-on effects. A Quaker commonwealth is not exempt from this reality. Still, Christians in Pennsylvania found unusual ways to live out their faith publicly, with an integrity that continues to underwrite the best of America’s tradition of political liberalism.
-
Protecting Life Means Protecting Death: To protect the lives of the most marginalized and powerless, the law must protect their deaths, too. Abuse victims who are terminally ill or disabled must be protected from any pressures by their partners to choose a hastened death rather than continued care. Those who are poor or otherwise marginalized need more support to receive medical care that could improve their quality of lives rather than the efficiency offered by self-imposed death.
[….]
Love, too, is miraculous. The more my mother’s body shut down and the pain medication gave her relief, the more the suffering was ours. We gladly bore it for this woman we loved and who loved us.
-
Finished reading: The Big Relief by David Zahl 📚
-
IS THIS THE WORST-EVER ERA OF AMERICAN POP CULTURE?: “The culture we have is so obsessed with ourselves, with people’s identities and personalities,” he said. “Perhaps we’ll be able to transcend that somehow. Perhaps we will get over this deeply individualistic, deeply self-obsessed moment.” He paused. “But I don’t know how that would happen.”
-
Currently listening: Jesus by Jon Guerra 🎶🎸
-
Currently reading: Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer 📚
-
Finished reading: Here by Lydia Sohn 📚
-
-
