it would appear to me today that some sort of elucidation about how community conversations take place take place....having just come from one
i sat with two monks at the coffee table in the coffee room and the conversation went from football to politics
first fr brian went on and on about peyton manning and his huge contract with the indiana colts i don't know what it is with football with this 91 yr old genius
after the other monk and myself weighed in negatively stating rather absurdist positions on the presence of football at all the conversation veered toward recent politics
i made a case or tried to
for all politics being understood as merely a job with no celebrity no perks
it should be understood as a service task with no money involved whatsoever
everyone who is elected has to make their own way -
even if that means borrowing money from lobbyists
this idea was roundly rejected
br paul stated that politics is a human game and you have to be with humanity you have to show your face.... that's the politics i like - he said
he said he's rubbed shoulders with amy klobuchar and mark dayton
he's even stood next to michelle bachman
then br paul offered an expletive which i will not hesitate
to type out for matters of clarity
he said
i think she's a shit
that's all he said about it
he didn't say anything else
brian was in a conversational mood he could have gone on
with this level of inanity all morning
but the both of us paul and i seemed to have the
natural inclination to get about the activities of the day
and leave brian to his worldly thoughts
kind of a pathetic scene as we walked away
although brian smiled hugely and waved generously
i'm drinking decaf coffee
and i had a piece of toast as we chatted
community carries with it the willingness to
enter into inane if seeming pertinant conversation
with people you can trust
politics is not foreign to community life
it's a social reality that knocks on the door daily
we also spoke briefly about the state fair tragedy
the collapse of a large bleacher section
in some state or another
none of us seemed to know in which state this happened
but we agreed that people died
my comment to all this was
just goes to show you
the american dream can be a dangerous thing
this was the portal to something else about the rich
and caring about the feelings of the rich
somehow i came around to the money as manure theme
and expounded upon my theory of spreading it around
paul and i agreed that money tends to move toward family concentrations
and sooner or later two or three families will be in charge
of all the money
i suggested that obama make a political decision to enter the race
for re-election and simply say to america i'm going to stay in
washington and do my job maybe do a 15 minute press conference every week
brian spoke of harry truman riding the train through america
i was appealing to the notion that basic common sense and a resistance to the hooplah
would go a long way in this country even heritage foundation republicans and independents might be impressed with such a radical decision
the republicans coud fight it out but the democrats could just sit back and laugh
and refuse to play
they could decide to not pay attention to the babble
and leave it all one sided babble and then see how it pans out in the elections
or at least obama could decide to not campaign
until after the party conventions
i think that's what obama should do
ride the train
i only publish this as a means of elucidating the
commonplace activities in community
i suppose there was more said
maybe quite a bit left unsaid
but that in general is the line of shared conversation
i entered into this morning
now
i'm going to go swimming
alone
hola jh--usually I don't comment here but couldn't help noticing this:
ReplyDeletethen br paul offered an expletive which i will not hesitate
to type out for matters of clarity
he said
i think she's a shit
that's all he said about it
he didn't say anything else
Agreed. Yet...much could be said. Not just the usual political blather but....why does ..Dios allow a creature such as Michele Bachmann to thrive?? (and all other enthusiasts, fundamentalists,and/or Joe Smith -like charlatans). In a sense it's "the problem of other faiths" issue---assuming monotheism holds, He surely must have a twisted sense of humor (if not..macabre) to allow the the structure and complexity of the RC canon effaced-- or replaced-- by some blithering piece of bauernlumpen. That or....the monotheistic assumption is faulty.
hola J
ReplyDeleteyou seem to not allow much room
for human free will in your theology
sally
it seems we trust in a god who
ReplyDeleteon any given day is willing to say
it's OK for you to be
no matter who you are
we've all been given the right to be
how we be
is another question
but it seems that god
is willing to accept huge spectrums
of variety
maybe nobody gets it all right
human words and human ideas seem to morph
with human effort
of much more
i do not know
jh
Hi S--
ReplyDeleteHumans do make some decisions. Or appear to. We decide where to go to eat for lunch--fish Tacos or corn dogs at the Fair, etc. But we don't decide to be hungry or not.
Yet....God by definition would know like ALL beforehand would He not? Whether Michele's lunch decision or her decision to enter politics. (not to say human history, world wars, Hitlers, etc). So a bit odd that He could have made things a bit more pleasant...(a lot, really) and had say Mother Theresas succeed, instead of Micheles or BushCos (or, for that matter, Stalins et al). A bit obvious of a skeptical point but it's strange. There's an aged English philosopher--Geach--who, while believing in God, claims ...He may not be all powerful or capable of foreknowledge. At times that sounds...plausible. God's like a mad genius but often inebriated. That or.....maybe like a ...group effort. Keystone Kops.
but if God used his omniopotence
ReplyDeleteto make mother teresas succeed
and michelle bachmans fail
how would any of us
have the freedom
to make moral decisions?
it seems more likely to me
that God is waiting for us
to encourage each other
to create a more humane society
rather than imposing one on us
we get to decide how we are going to love
ReplyDeletewe get to decide which books to read
we get to think about how people sound
we get to weigh the words and intentions of people
in one sense you could say that compared to mother theresa michelle bachmann is innocuous
just another american political circus act
sort of comical sort of scarey
are there michelle bachmann wannabees out there i suppose there are
but i know quite a few women who use mother theresa as a model and inspiration for life
the religious order she started is growing every year
politics is deciding which table cloth to use
christian dedication is inviting the poor on the street to the banquet
j
it basically boils down to how much we believe in the redemptive power of christ and the belief that that power is till active adn working in the world and people dedicate their lives to that force of love
in the immediate measure it may not amount to a hill of beans
but in the longer schematics
there's much to be said for those who have bowed humbly and gratefully before
the love supreme
jh
Yes but Dominionists --such as Bachmannites--have a different idea of "the redemptive power of christ" than do we. They're not about the Beatitudes but about ...power, control, territoriality in a sense. Most of the evangelicals I encounter are neo-confederates, really. But they're no R.E. Lees. They're dyslexic Jefferson Davises. They should be honest and fly their rebel flag--(or is it...maybe a swastika).
ReplyDeleteGod is a battlefield, brothers and sisters. Jesus the medic, other saints-- or the alleged buddha--have little influence on the generals.
pace
"Jesus the medic, other saints-- or the alleged buddha--have little influence on the generals"
ReplyDeleteSame was true during Jesus's time on earth it seems. Perhaps one task of community is for us to encourage each other that despite this fact it is still a worthwhile thing to follow Jesus's example.