Don’t know where else to put this, but I think you would really like this Irish podcaster if you haven’t already followed him. He’s on Spotify: “The History of Whales who Wear Dead Salmon as Hats. “
Fitting piece...got to see the eclipse yesterday. It's the second time I've seen a total eclipse and each was an extremely spiritual experience...yet I could not tell you what that means...and could not explain the experience to someone who has not seen it.
Am I just a bad communicator or just looking for others with the same shared experience?
I grew up Baptist, but gave it up long ago. Religions, or more precisely religious zealots, have brought at least as much pain into the world as comfort: the Inquisitions, the Taliban, evangelical white nationalists.
But your statement "I'm probably more religious than I realize" resonates with me, in spite of myself.
I hear you. But disagree that being a spiritual person is the same as full on religious as in being part of an exclusive institution that relies on your donations to survive. And sorry but comparing belief in the creator to diet coke is not a good analogy. Life itself and us conversing to each other about life on this platform is a miracle. So I do believe in miracles. Seen folks with cancer get rid of it through unconventional means. Please don't throw out the baby with the bath water as far as God goes. The teacher and writer Frank McCourt, who's book Angela's Ashes was made into a successful film - said at a college ceremony I attended in CT many moons ago - "I treat religion like a buffet - I take what I like and leave the rest".
I was born into rednecks and believers. Disregarding the white Christian sin as ju-ju to impede their raw lives and the others sanctified in a club and order into with to provide social hierarchy...how far the ladder the ascended. Luckily, I started reading very early and questioned it as all. How could I look upon this world and accept any absolutes in regards to realms beyond this dirty and apostilized existence! ? No. There is more than this world and interconnected to infinities of realities. We are seekers and wanderers. If thirsty drink, but there will different wells ritualized by many beliefs. Take what you need. And be thankful for respite. If you find something sacred it is.
I had a run-in with Scientologists on a sidewalk in Hollywood (CA) on the night of Halloween 1977. I took one of their personality tests and apparently my results displayed so many aberrations that they hustled me into a car and drove me to their big headquarters building where they pitched me on attending some kind of personality course for which I paid $10. The session was scheduled for 9:00am the next morning but I had no intention of attending. At 9:05am the following morning there was a knock on my apartment door and two Scientologists were waiting to escort me to the session. My roommate advised that I was not home and thankfully they
left. I continued to receive literature in the mail at that address and several addresses in the Los Angeles for places to which I had subsequently moved. They were persistent.
Well as a man with a long, strange and beautiful relationship with all of the things you're talking about here, Sherman, I'm again filled with an appreciation for how you warmly artculate your experiences with religion, and life in general, through the written word. And I laughed out loud at your confusion between astigmatism (which I also have) and stigmata (which I hope to never experience).
Not at the grocery store. I’m 80 years old, and a sarcastic ex-New Yorker, which gives me the best, salty vocabulary, so not at the grocery store. (I really don’t like reuben sandwiches. And I can’t stand men who smoke cigars and never seem to understand what they’re really doing)
Only twice in a church building.
Once in my kitchen.
I can’t call god, “god”, because that
Is a name I use when I trip over my cat on my way to my midnight pee, and in churches as a way to gnaw money out of the old women in the back row, so I have given up trying to name it.
The closest I’ve ever come to a name is ‘Presence.’
A few times, I have met people who know it.
For a time, in my 70’s, I was in an Episcopal church and one day the bishop came down from Denver for some sort of ecumenical service. It was too early for the service, and he was just sitting in the front pew, alone, quiet. Only he wasn’t alone. He was in an invisible cloud of Presence. It swirled out and covered me. It was pure light with no visible luminescence. It was, it was the essence of love, overwhelming, comforting, healing, joy, creation. It just happened to be in a church building; it had nothing to do with the church.
But the Presence has nothing to do with any churches, or religions, or theologies, and nothing at all to do with patriarchy. It isn’t christian, islamic, or tribal, nor any other human construct and has nothing to do with the Lizard People who, I was seriously informed, by a woman, who, up to that time in our acquaintance seemed fairly normal,are aliens living underground, waiting for the ‘right time’ to emerge and take over the earth. But we are ALL looking for it, whether we know it or not. The Presence, not lizard people.
I knew what it was because many years before, I had met the Presence in my kitchen, when it had dropped in and stayed with me for 10 days. None of my family, husband (who was being a Class A prick at the time, living in his own insecurities which meant he was trying to control everyone around him, especially me, sound familiar?), nor kids felt it, and I said nothing. Nothing, because I knew this was meant for me. It was intensely personal.
We don’t even have language for it. It filled me with a light was both light, and lightness that was invisible to others, and began to float me off the ground, so I grabbed the back of a chair. It filled me with a perfect joy.
It was the totality of Creation, not just the creation of earth, but of all that is. It has no beginning, nor end. Nothing of the Darkness (we may not know god, but we sure as hell know the Darkness) is able to stay in the Presence of such perfect beauty. I saw all the dark things in my life, the abuses I suffered, the human meanness, selfishness, rages, — all the things of the Darkness rolled back and out of sight. The Presence is the light.
It changed me. I am not so much different, as changed. I don’t go to churches any more, because I know I won’t and shouldn’t aid nor abet the lies of the patriarchy. I know that women have an enormous spiritual power that the patriarchy is terrified of. (Yeah, I have no fear any longer of ending a sentence with a preposition, so sue me.) And I know that ‘love thy neighbor’ is what it’s all about, Alfie.
I’m what has been called a non-practicing Catholic. Baptized, been to religious schools from age 7 till 24 (Catholic university) and I have to say I sometimes miss the Sundays where a priest could deliver a sermon so inspiring, followed by communion, that I left church thinking love could conquer all, even my pettiness. What I love about catholic faith is the idea that God became man. How with one masterful move enshrined humanity to the divine. It’s sad that we mostly live without realizing this.
For a long time I thought you have to believe in God to get anything out of going to church. Then I started going to church because I liked the music and the sermons. I started liking the people and building friendships. After awhile I realized I believed in God—these lovely, kind, thoughtful people had opened my mind to the possibility.
Don’t know where else to put this, but I think you would really like this Irish podcaster if you haven’t already followed him. He’s on Spotify: “The History of Whales who Wear Dead Salmon as Hats. “
Fitting piece...got to see the eclipse yesterday. It's the second time I've seen a total eclipse and each was an extremely spiritual experience...yet I could not tell you what that means...and could not explain the experience to someone who has not seen it.
Am I just a bad communicator or just looking for others with the same shared experience?
Just, "thank you" I appreciate your viewpoint so often...what you share is fresh for me...
"More than anything, it’s the insects that make me want to believe in God."
I do have little things like this as well. My joke one is "youve never seen a bald man with a truly weird head."
Beautifully written, as always.
I grew up Baptist, but gave it up long ago. Religions, or more precisely religious zealots, have brought at least as much pain into the world as comfort: the Inquisitions, the Taliban, evangelical white nationalists.
But your statement "I'm probably more religious than I realize" resonates with me, in spite of myself.
I hear you. But disagree that being a spiritual person is the same as full on religious as in being part of an exclusive institution that relies on your donations to survive. And sorry but comparing belief in the creator to diet coke is not a good analogy. Life itself and us conversing to each other about life on this platform is a miracle. So I do believe in miracles. Seen folks with cancer get rid of it through unconventional means. Please don't throw out the baby with the bath water as far as God goes. The teacher and writer Frank McCourt, who's book Angela's Ashes was made into a successful film - said at a college ceremony I attended in CT many moons ago - "I treat religion like a buffet - I take what I like and leave the rest".
Religion has become a cloak for Sadists to disguise their evil . . .
I was born into rednecks and believers. Disregarding the white Christian sin as ju-ju to impede their raw lives and the others sanctified in a club and order into with to provide social hierarchy...how far the ladder the ascended. Luckily, I started reading very early and questioned it as all. How could I look upon this world and accept any absolutes in regards to realms beyond this dirty and apostilized existence! ? No. There is more than this world and interconnected to infinities of realities. We are seekers and wanderers. If thirsty drink, but there will different wells ritualized by many beliefs. Take what you need. And be thankful for respite. If you find something sacred it is.
I had a run-in with Scientologists on a sidewalk in Hollywood (CA) on the night of Halloween 1977. I took one of their personality tests and apparently my results displayed so many aberrations that they hustled me into a car and drove me to their big headquarters building where they pitched me on attending some kind of personality course for which I paid $10. The session was scheduled for 9:00am the next morning but I had no intention of attending. At 9:05am the following morning there was a knock on my apartment door and two Scientologists were waiting to escort me to the session. My roommate advised that I was not home and thankfully they
left. I continued to receive literature in the mail at that address and several addresses in the Los Angeles for places to which I had subsequently moved. They were persistent.
Well as a man with a long, strange and beautiful relationship with all of the things you're talking about here, Sherman, I'm again filled with an appreciation for how you warmly artculate your experiences with religion, and life in general, through the written word. And I laughed out loud at your confusion between astigmatism (which I also have) and stigmata (which I hope to never experience).
I’ve often had to stop cold in the middle of the road to wait for Prayer Dogs to finish mumbling incantations for their kin who’ve become roadkill.
I’ve met ‘god’ a couple of times
Not at the grocery store. I’m 80 years old, and a sarcastic ex-New Yorker, which gives me the best, salty vocabulary, so not at the grocery store. (I really don’t like reuben sandwiches. And I can’t stand men who smoke cigars and never seem to understand what they’re really doing)
Only twice in a church building.
Once in my kitchen.
I can’t call god, “god”, because that
Is a name I use when I trip over my cat on my way to my midnight pee, and in churches as a way to gnaw money out of the old women in the back row, so I have given up trying to name it.
The closest I’ve ever come to a name is ‘Presence.’
A few times, I have met people who know it.
For a time, in my 70’s, I was in an Episcopal church and one day the bishop came down from Denver for some sort of ecumenical service. It was too early for the service, and he was just sitting in the front pew, alone, quiet. Only he wasn’t alone. He was in an invisible cloud of Presence. It swirled out and covered me. It was pure light with no visible luminescence. It was, it was the essence of love, overwhelming, comforting, healing, joy, creation. It just happened to be in a church building; it had nothing to do with the church.
But the Presence has nothing to do with any churches, or religions, or theologies, and nothing at all to do with patriarchy. It isn’t christian, islamic, or tribal, nor any other human construct and has nothing to do with the Lizard People who, I was seriously informed, by a woman, who, up to that time in our acquaintance seemed fairly normal,are aliens living underground, waiting for the ‘right time’ to emerge and take over the earth. But we are ALL looking for it, whether we know it or not. The Presence, not lizard people.
I knew what it was because many years before, I had met the Presence in my kitchen, when it had dropped in and stayed with me for 10 days. None of my family, husband (who was being a Class A prick at the time, living in his own insecurities which meant he was trying to control everyone around him, especially me, sound familiar?), nor kids felt it, and I said nothing. Nothing, because I knew this was meant for me. It was intensely personal.
We don’t even have language for it. It filled me with a light was both light, and lightness that was invisible to others, and began to float me off the ground, so I grabbed the back of a chair. It filled me with a perfect joy.
It was the totality of Creation, not just the creation of earth, but of all that is. It has no beginning, nor end. Nothing of the Darkness (we may not know god, but we sure as hell know the Darkness) is able to stay in the Presence of such perfect beauty. I saw all the dark things in my life, the abuses I suffered, the human meanness, selfishness, rages, — all the things of the Darkness rolled back and out of sight. The Presence is the light.
It changed me. I am not so much different, as changed. I don’t go to churches any more, because I know I won’t and shouldn’t aid nor abet the lies of the patriarchy. I know that women have an enormous spiritual power that the patriarchy is terrified of. (Yeah, I have no fear any longer of ending a sentence with a preposition, so sue me.) And I know that ‘love thy neighbor’ is what it’s all about, Alfie.
I’m what has been called a non-practicing Catholic. Baptized, been to religious schools from age 7 till 24 (Catholic university) and I have to say I sometimes miss the Sundays where a priest could deliver a sermon so inspiring, followed by communion, that I left church thinking love could conquer all, even my pettiness. What I love about catholic faith is the idea that God became man. How with one masterful move enshrined humanity to the divine. It’s sad that we mostly live without realizing this.
Grizzly Catholics are full of wisdom 😉
For a long time I thought you have to believe in God to get anything out of going to church. Then I started going to church because I liked the music and the sermons. I started liking the people and building friendships. After awhile I realized I believed in God—these lovely, kind, thoughtful people had opened my mind to the possibility.
Color me Ditto.
I never liked Rush Limbaugh, but I could be your dittohead most of the time.
Good stuff.
Again.
Your long list of comments is a testament to your essay.
And I'm not unhooked, I
am a solid Zen/Methodist.