Tuesday, October 28, 2014

On Running Amok




There are times when running amok can feel like a very good idea. Perhaps things have been stagnant long enough that a breakout can’t be avoided. Now it doesn’t have to be a complete, five-star, roached-out meltdown like going on a road trip with the Motley Crue, but maybe it could be controlled a little, spontaneous, yes, but rather than running amok, we could have an amok.

I was ripe for an amok...

I had one recently. I had been feeling constrained a lot; I had increasing responsibilities; my public life was pretty quiet, so I was ripe for an amok. At the time my hair needed cutting and my usual hairdresser was not available, so I asked a friend who did hair if she would give me a cut. Happy to, she said. Now you have to know that this lady does weaves, braids and hair extensions, and when she looked at my head, a strange, eerie light came into her eyes. I should have been warned. I wasn’t.

oh-my-god-what-have-I-done...

I could feel her cutting, cutting away, and what I did not realize was that she was not so much cutting but shearing. When she was finished, her eyes widened as she looked at me and took on an oh-my-god-what-have-I-done look. I had a mild fright for a moment. My hair was standing straight up…all over…spikey in every direction! My friend had had an amok and, by extension, so had I. At some level we both knew what was happening, and either could have stopped it, but we didn’t. And you know, when all was said and done, I liked it! It seemed suddenly that I felt a little lighter, less constrained and a little irresponsible. Turns out that an amok once in a while can do a lot of reshaping. Maybe even touch our souls a little. As it happened, a lot of people liked the cut as well. Maybe I seemed little different also.

blow out a few mental cobwebs...

It may be that totally getting freaked out is not such a good idea, but an amok now and then could keep us a little newer and more visible, especially to ourselves. It could also blow out a few mental cobwebs.

I wonder if it’s possible to plan an amok …. ……. ….. maybe not.




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Tuesday, October 21, 2014

On Crossing the Rubicon




History buffs will remember an epic decision made by Julius Caesar during the struggle for power in the early Roman Empire. In the year 49 B.C.E., while Caesar was Governor of Gaul, he chose to move his army across a small river named the Rubicon, which was on the border of Gaul and Italy. At that time it was against Roman law for him to move out of his territory. In fact it was treasonous and certain to cause bloodshed between Caesar’s factions and his rival, Pompey’s. Nevertheless, after much thought, he made the choice; the die was cast, and the advance of the Roman Empire was forever changed.

...no going back...

Today’s history has given this episode great metaphoric meaning for us. Today when we “cross the Rubicon,” it means that we have made a decision where there is no going back. We are at the point of no return. To be sure, many crossings are no big deal, and we make thousands of little ones all through our lives. There is a point of no return when we choose to turn right against a red light. There is a point of no return when we choose to drive across a busy bridge. We never think much of the implications of such decisions, and we don’t have to. They normally don’t make that big an impact.

You cannot become an un-parent...

However, we will cross some Rubicons that really are life changing and have great impacts. People who emigrate to another country enter into a great unknown. People who decide to get married and carry through the act are changing their lives forever, even if the marriage does not prevail. People who become parents, either through choice or carelessness, have crossed a Rubicon where there is no going back. You cannot become an un-parent, even if you release the child to others. This is an act and a memory that always leaves its mark.

a Rubicon worth thinking about...

We know there are many acts, choices and moves that are negligible. Their results do not matter much, but when we bring an entire piece of ourselves into a choice that will alter the flow of life as we know it, this is a Rubicon worth thinking about. Will we be willing to take on what we have set in motion?



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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

On M.S. U.




I have enjoyed some wonderful opportunities to hear the delightful Edwene Gaines, consistent prosperity presenter and great adherent of a life of commitment and purpose. I remember a delicious occasion when she charmed an audience by saying that we all have letters after our names. Whether we have B.A. Degrees, M.A. Degrees…or none of these…we all carry the invisible letters, M. S. U….Makes Stuff Up!  Of course we all laughed, but we got the point as well. In other words we are not only busy living our lives, we are also inventing them! We tell stories on a regular basis, sometimes about others, but more often about ourselves. Not only do we shape the ways in which we want to be perceived, we can also have a very poor perception of ourselves to begin with, and this does not bode well for a spiritual being trying to inhabit a healthy, human life. How can a person be confident or at ease with himself if he thinks he is broken at the start? We may not be living so firmly under St. Augustine’s doctrine of original sin any more, but somehow many people have come to see themselves as unworthy.

Most damaging of stories...

In my mind a sense of unworthiness is one of the biggest and most damaging of stories anyone could ever make up about him or herself. Sometimes we have help, if not through church canon, then certainly through the misguided messages we get from people with authority over us…parents sometimes, teachers, bosses, people we think know more than we do…people who cannot know us because they are not who we are.

No one and nothing is left out...

If the belief in Universal Integrity and Wholeness means anything, it must mean that nothing and no one is left out of the pristineness of the Creative Process…and this means us. If somewhere along the way we have whipped ourselves over some phony flaw, we need some good healing, and we need it now. Let no more time be spent dribbling away our precious spiritual gifts through self-invented short circuiting.

No more M. S. U...

Talk it away; pray it away; let it become the no-thing it always was. No more M. S. U.!



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Wednesday, October 8, 2014

On Wonderful Me




One recent morning when my mind was in neutral, a cute little patter song from the 1950’s floated up from memory… first recorded by Nat King Cole… that went like this:

     I was walkin’ along, mindin’ my business
     When out of an orange-colored sky,
     Flash! Bam! Alakazam!
     Wonderful you came by…


Imagine this with one of the 50's bouncy tunes, and you’ve got a winner. And as you know, once silliness gets started, it gets contagious, so pretty soon these incautious words came to me:

     I was standin’ around, checkin’ the mirror
     When to my own image I was steered.
     Flash! Bam! Alakazam!
     Wonderful me appeared!


And why not? Why not sing to ourselves the beauty of our own spirit? Not long ago Religious Scientists were enjoying their own little song:

     I love myself the way I am.
     There’s nothing I need to change.
     I’m beautiful and capable.
     There’s nothing to re-arrange.



Shouldn’t we be singing and humming these little ditties to ourselves regularly? Shouldn’t we be pulling the threads of lightness and joy from our spirit and letting them spill out in front of us? Most news can be pretty negative unless we search for stories of people who are bringing their gifts to the world…caring for others, creating good tech programs that assist people in better living, bringing a cheerful greeting to people we meet, as simple as that may seem. Our outflow of love as smiles, words of encouragement and deeds is the consistent gift we can bring to a sometimes very sorry world by our simple choices to do so. There are so many unique things, small and large, that the wonderful me has to offer.

The mirror doesn’t lie.

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