abstract

the mind rises up and wrails against the concept of
no being
when gorgias states that nothing exists
and that if it did it is incomprehensible

but what is he looking at
i think he is looking at the
immense medium of
the storehouse of mystery

we know something
therefore something exists
it stands to reason

and we possess common sense
even if people tend to defy it constantly
still we have it
we drive cars

so how would gorgias live in a community?
that's my communication question of the day
a la dies
if someone lives in a state of cognitive nihilism
decideing each day that nothing exists
i am only experienceing a psychological state
known as existential dreaming then of course
all is only imagery
but we are faced continually with the real fact
of real people
something about the human mind and self will
that is obstinant

the human person will not go away
but what is a person
this is the great question of the 20th century
i think the philosophers like levinas and scheler and edith stein
and merlou-ponty and bergson and maritan of course these people were
intensly interested in the idea of person and how the idea of person
works itself out in the real world
a world that is to some marked degree imagined
people are continually imagining things and space
so what

the community stands as a locus of grace
into which almost any character can have a footing
can have a say can have a place of refuge
there is always discipline
how to march how to bow how to put the food on the table
these are great opportunities for community
gorgias can bow to br urban
br urban who does not give a flippity dingdong
for the unknowing incomprehensible nothing shadow
he only wonders if the carrots will be planted
if the flowers and the birds will thrive
these things exist
all else is phantasm

we do well to grant ourselves the luxury
of looking upon our own ethereality
but we must have bowel movements
and we must greet one anothers' disenchantment
with the world

for that is community
a group of people who are willing
to encounter disenchantment together

how do we arrange our shared tedium
how do we remain joyfully bored with life
with one another
how do we gracefully make the best of a bad scene

these are community thoughts

come one us lord
unite us in the womb of your mother
from which we may be ever born
into a world of necessary heart blood

on the 7th day of christmas

placing a community in context

from where comes the angst?

this is a good question

people living together display angst

the stated fact that due to the discoveries
of modern science we now live in a world that
seems far more inconsequential and far more random and negligible
than previous generations were wont to admit

is there a reason for 6.5 billion people to be
hustling about in the world today

why does it matter whether or not we can see the moons of jupiter

i'm going to be real here
and then depart

i am being drawn to mass
by the bells of advent

perhaps the only question is -
how does a community sustain its
attention -
and to what ??

a routine of sleep rising prayer sustenance
quiet work worship reading play walks naps
what else

i enjoy the quiet meal

i take solace in the quiet of my cell

simple necessary work suits me fine

a community is a place of harbor
but also a place of inquiry
a place to accept the challenge to know oneself
amongst others

the inherent integrity of a community is something never to be taken for granted lest it lose its very integrity

a community is always in the same general location
as the rest of the known universe

just some jots of thought
on 12/11/2010

leaving a community

st benedict prescribes a blessing for monks
when they leave and return to the monastery

this suggests a certain amount of recognition
that monks do go out into the world
they deliver messages they promulgate
things like gregorian chant they trade in books
they engage in the business of life

the blessing forces the consciousness of belonging

however
being a wise writer and an astute observor of human nature
benedict seems to recognize as well that for the most part
the important and constant work of a community must happen
within the community itself

the world is sometimes a dangerous place
monasteries were built as strong hedges
against the willful tide of the world

franciscans and jesuits
those guys were and are daredevils
they go out there and take christ to the streets
yet they are tied into communities in a strong and binding way
whereever they go they are welcomed by their own
as are benedictines

what does it take to contemplate the ties that bind

where does the language of covenant actually lead

to decide to move away from a community is a way of deciding to look at that community from a more objective stance
in this regard religious communities have no doubt benefitted from
dedicated members who have lived away from the community
however in a spirit of prayer

i know from experience that when i am away from the community
i become sort of lazy or lazier perhaps would describe that better
and i shrug the routine of daily prayer after awhile

the receptive nature of community allows for graceful departures
and peaceful returns
this is nothing to scoff at
in our world

it shall be like departing from silence into noise
and back to silence again

what will the noise have to say

do the gyrovague boogie

(technically the term gyrovague refers to individuals who presume
a free-form approach to religious life eschewing commitment as it were
so while i fully appreciate the out-law nature of the gyrovague and the
predilection for pilgrimage - still i think it better that people get connected into community - as a way of living freely and honestly)

thoughts ramblin with thoughts of ramblin

le moine tres bleu

gardens of earthly delight

today's topic here at communitas dies
(that's Dee - ayss)
HAPPENS TO BE GARDENS

somehow i think it wise that a discussion
for any sort of community start with the idea of
the garden
the first question perhaps should be
"are we going to have a garden?"
or
"do i crave a return to the garden of eden?"
or
"if the heavenly banquet is a given don't we need to presume
that a garden is in the picture somewhere?"
or
"just what does the earth know anyway?"

i love gardens but i also love the places where
water washes out of the mountains the places where
rivers start and i love rivers

gardens require water and sunlight and love i would guess

what happens to food when we dissociate the human concept of love
from the garden

i recently encountered a woman and i won't say her name
but she has written a book and and the book's title
well if i say that then then i give away the name don't i
let's just say i'm mulling it over
i'm letting it mulch in my soul
anyway
this woman is a sort of missionary for the life of gardens
i guess she sees gardens as the path to possible peace in the world
so she launches herself into the garden agenda with italian gusto
with all the intensity of mother cabrini on a bright day

my immediate sense is
this girl is correct in saying gardens are very important
reclaiming urban disaster zones with gardens is a very good idea
an idea whose time has come
it would also be a good thing to make huge community garden projects
in the suburbs and then designed into new subdivisions as well
garden mania should take over the country

this absolutely brilliant and beautiful girl out of amherst
this damsel of amherst as it were
at least seems to have a sense that benedictines are entrenched
in the old idea of sustainability
one might go so far as to say we are the prototype
for western culture..but agrarian traditions were taught to the monks too
and the nuns....copies of virgils' georgics date back to the 7th and 8th centuries

garden life is a way of knowing community
it's a way of knowing how a variety of growing things
can exist together quite well and it is a way of knowing
that people like food

the problem with communitas dies
is that at this point it is merely rhetorical
still i propose the garden as the UR image
for this little project
which i guess means if someone has some shit
to throw down on the ground
we may just have to consider that

but my bigger hope is that it would be a place of seeds
this disturbingly stunning beautiful vivacious passionate
woman on a mission to whom i obliquely refer is a believer in seeds
she's a seed girl

so she has planted a little seed in my garden thoughts

you too - when you feel the urge to embrace the garden
embrace the simple need for clean water and bright sunlight
embrace the stirring of birds and the flying flitting things
do feel free to plant here

do you have a thought about how a community could exist
in a dignified and noble way like a plentious garden in a place
where once there once was no hope

here i wish to offer a little personal story

at what now appears in retrospect as
the worst and darkest days of my monastic formation
i was assigned to work in the garden
day after day i did simple tasks of weeding
pulling yanking weeds hauling dirt tilling soil
stretching lines making rows dropping seed
being rather dusty and dirty every day
and looking back now i am conscious of a few "life giving"
awarenesses that came into my mind during that time
one was
there is life in working the complete cycle of a garden
marching through the whole pattern of waking from winter
preparing the soil planting the seed cultivating the rows
bringing the water to bear
harvest storage offering eating and putting the plot to rest
going through that whole cycle is important
i think i would not see the world the same had i not done that
over the course of ten yrs or so year after year
there's something to be said for
the GARDEN...

this veritable force of flowers from the garden
is something important
she is a lady of extreme critical importance
she is a planter and a gifter of seeds
she so wants to restore the intimacy between
the garden and the table and the human mind in its
goodness

already i'm returning to dream of the garden cycle
i am being drawn back in
i can feel it...

plant seeds not bombs

St. Fiacre don't be far away from us

communitas understood

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communitas

something like this could be useful

humans are the only creatures it would appear
who actually think about living in community

a beginning

why today
why would i want to start a new blog
one of little or no interest to just about everyone i know
just about

i intend to write here about community life
what it is from my experience
what i think it could be
and various contributing ideas regarding
ecumenical discussion
and perhaps insights from various disciplines

you
do you know who you are
you are welcome here