Rituals for the End of a Life

From the earliest human times there have been rituals and ceremonies for the end of a life. How do I know that? From glyph s etched into hardest of rock. I have seen the Thunder Bird and the Turtle. All are beyond human control. The etchings are attempts to enter into the experience of the ancestors who have gone beyond.

The creation of the glyphs took time, many hours beneath the open sky. By more than one person.  A community experience. Root sites of what we now call religion. 

We put ourselves at risk if we neglect the ritual ceremonies of the ancients. The translation into contemporary life is a cultural eddy in the stream of time. This is our task - this translation into the fluid language and cultural practices of the 21st century. 

Specific religions come and go. Religion goes on. Perhaps until the end of cosmic time. 

We shall not see that day - you and I. Unless.....

Delton

 

Opaque as a world view

The word Opaque brings to mind seeing through a glass or a mirror dimly. Just what are we seeing over there or in here?

Most religious Holy Days are both transparent and opaque.  On the one hand such days call attention to central features of a religion. On the other hand the more one looks into the details of the Holy Day the more uncertain one becomes over just where this all going.

Since I am a Christian let me use the Sacred Time of Christmas as an illustration.

Songs, paintings, poems, and decorations focus on the Baby Jesus and the birth in the midst of a troubled world. At first it is all so charming and lovely to behold. Cultures adopt the innocence of a new born child as a safe place to be. In America the commercial world has done its best to turn the season into a time of spending money and time. 

Persons who contemplate life issues often find themselves baffled by what gradually dawns. This innocent figure of a child grow up into a person who challenges any and all cultures, governments and educational systems. The stories surrounding the season seem fine emotionally but confusing to analysis by the rational mind. 

The horizon becomes opaque. Are we coming or going in this moment of time. What was so lovely fades into a place of discomfort when inner images are invaded by doubts and relationship questions.

It is as if this is a time when troubling matters can be surfaced. It is also a time when generosity can be shown with little question of motive. 

The opaque times allow space for exploration. Join me in befriending this opaque season.

Delton

 

Every Person a Library of Experiences

Have you run across signs of a certain disease in yourself or others?   Here is one sign. "My opinions don't count for anything.  Nobody listens to me so I must be a bother."  

Another sign is when hearing younger people say, "I'm a kid so who cares about me except the people who want to take advantage of me. The want my money or my body so who can I trust".

Another sign is watching older people withdraw from human contact and conversation. "They treat me like I don't know anything just because I don't have a fancy telephone or computer. I can't do the things that were such fun in younger years. What is there to live for when I feel like being part of the trash."

This disease of mind and body is hard to name. "Bad self image" just does not do it.  Depression comes to mind but defining depression is impossible. Does it mean "clinical depression", whatever that is. Or feeling the "blues".  I simply don't know an adequate word but I am willing to make a proposal for one way of looking at things.

What if I think of myself as a "Library of experiences".  What feeling arises in a person by just saying or writing those words?  Curiosity seems to arise in me. What does it mean to see myself as a library?  I surely have had experiences since childhood. So what is in me as a library? Consider looking at a  recent or long time ago experience. 

I try to put into words that positive or negative experience and soon discover that a filter wants to screen out some things as too over the top good or too terrible to look at right now. So I find one event that is interesting and soon a magnet like power draws in other ideas and feelings. A person learns which event to take off of the shelf of the library of your life. It takes practice. The brain as the central storage machine in each of us has already organized memories and events.

You may find yourself wanting to take notes on what has appeared. Do it. More notes will follow.

 

Religion and the Morals of a Candidate for Office

“How can a religious person support a candidate who has no morals?”

In the light of uncertainty over the role of religions in the presidential campaign now underway, approaching the subject via morals can be productive and challenging. Value judgments are necessary along the way. The plot soon thickens.

In the midst of all the noise I look for some metaphor that may be a bridge between public images and a manageable way of talking about the situation. I start with being out in the woods in a tent at night. There comes a sound that could be a bear or even a large frog. Hesitant to open the tent door for fear of being invaded a person listens to make sense of the experience itself. Some will hunker down and try to sleep; some will prayer to whatever higher power they can imagine; others will pick up a hatchet and flashlight and burst out of the tent. 

Just what is a religious person? It all depends on the definition of “religion”. This includes persons in awe of the universe and life itself. Others can be fundamentalist true believers who “know” they are right and gather with others who agree with this “rightness.” They are ready for combat against all enemies of “the faith”. Yet others attempt to take the best from the rational world and combine this with “common sense spirituality.” There are the negotiators and the warriors. Most religious persons are in a middle ground depending on the situation.

A candidate is a person who sees opportunity for influence and even power if he/she can gather enough support from persons to create one kind or another of crowd mentality. With the multitudes of elections that go on every year in the US the citizenry is fairly well schooled in winnowing out the good grain from the mere husks. Pardon such verbiage but this precisely describes the more controversial election contests.  One person’s husks is of necessity the other person’s good grain.

In this 21^st century the power of digitized information and instantaneous sharing on a global basis makes for a welter of presentations based on analysis the minds of the audience. Making decisions about candidates seems to revert to a tribal mentality. One tribe shares certain information while another tribe makes up a radically different approach. The appeal is mostly to the emotional realm and is created to touch elemental fears and desires – the stuff of dreams. The increasing ability to use big data to tap into the primitive person hidden deep in the human person is a warning to civil societies. 

Morals are agreed upon values and standards.  Trigger words can ignite deeply cherished feelings. Suddenly intellectual safe guards are overwhelmed by emotional feelings. Tribal life looms.  
Delton

A Stormy Sea Poetic Life Boat

Cathy, Kelly, Roberta

Chad, Mike, Lola

Linda Jo

Frederick, Elmer &Shirley; Virgina

Florence, Danielle & Tony; James

Babu & Fred; Chris, Douglas & Ellie; Latasha

Scott & Melinda; Donna, Michael & Barbara; Shana

Mary Jo & Larry; Gerald, Brian & Vernetta,  Jennifer

Dorothy; John, James

Oh so impersonal

With research you might find them

In the public record

Create your song poem in a minor key

No dancing allowed

Keep the focus on names

Lord, have mercy

Christ, have mercy

Lord, have mercy.

When the raging sea of bankruptcy

Engulfs the soul and hope fades

Will there be a safe haven?

A Glimpse of Resentment and Appreciation

Eventually the Care Giver who survives the death of a spouse reaches a stage of just plain resentment and criticism. When the tears of grief over the spouse have dried, eventually there can come a time of rational survey of just what has gone wrong with life.

 

Here we were, immersed in a life of happiness together and then a vicious killer intruded with the intent of destruction of beauty and goodness.

 

How can a human not be resentful and feel anger? These emotions are not to be denied. I know that some respond by their own death although not by overt suicide. I can  understand that choice. There is no shame in collapsing as a physical being and joining the beloved in the beyond, where ever that may be. 

 

In my instance I have chosen to live on and be as creative as possible. Now all that I think and create in writing and human relationships is colored by resentment at the natural order. I want to give that reality a hopeful face that is reflective of what we were before Alzheimer's disease. This is sounding like embracing the vicious side of Nature in a larger framework of meaning

 

That "embracing" is one challenging assignment. It means taking in stride the acid taste of intended poison of the spirit. There is a chance that mental paralysis will be the result. I know enough about what can happen in people to be aware that I am in a vulnerable place. 

 

Expression of this feeling is basic to growing maturity as a human being. Perhaps resentment and resulting criticism can be topped by appreciation. Perhaps new vistas of what people can be will appear as the horizon turns into reality. Creation of the New is forever possible.  The question comes back to me - Am I up to it?

Delton

Anxiety in the Presence of Technology

When a new technological advance happens there is usually a time of gradual adjustment. This week I do not have time to adjust. 

I choose to write here some first impressions that may prove to be an overreaction. My body tells me that this is not a time for hesitation.

What is this surprise to my system?  This week over in Falcon Heights, Mn near to where Joan was born and spent her youth, a simple police stop turned into a police shooting of an apparently innocent man. His girl friend in  the car had the presence of mind to turn on Facebook Live and put the entire event on-line and broadcast the event live to a global audience.

The change from rational reporting of events to the actual event made public in real time is already being noted by reporters and communications media people. 

I consider the impact upon religious communication and stand in awe of what may come.

Discovering the Need to Learn How to Swim in Primal Consciousness

When looking at Petroglyphs created several thousand years ago, what does the image of a turtle create in your mind? 

You see here the turtle

image at the Jeffers Petroglyphs,. Put into words whatever arises out of the mists of your memory as you are now quiet for several minutes. 

For urban conditioned people this may take a while. The subconscious is increasingly dominated by a secular and commercial world that makes money by shaping  in the mind that which is seen with frequency. So many images are sexual because those images satisfy the curiosity and driving urge toward an orgasmic experience. You may have to pass through this gate to enter the next and even more primal information.

 Underneath  that layer of consciousness are the layers of memory that go back thousands of years in each of us. Some call it the primal memory. 

The turtle image seems so boring at first - just like watching a turtle move across the sidewalk or street. Almost like watching grass grow. Be more patient than you think possible. This time allows the mind to sink to a next level of depth.

All of a sudden the turtle seems to move just a bit as the primal consciousness begins to claim your field of attention.  Hold that image in the present memory.

This exercise is intended to summon a person beyond the usual depth of attention. Much like going into a lake from a sandy beach and then feeling the beginning of a drop off. A new swimmer may thrash around in the attempt to regain footing. So begins a sense of urgency about learning to swim.

This lake of human development is almost  infinitely deep.  

 

What Information?

There is something called the "Sammelweis Reflex" developed in 1840.

The definition of this reflex is: Ignore information if it does not fit within ones world view.

There is another theory which says that it is possible for a person to have induced blindness which involves obedience to a belief how the world works that prevents seeing how the world really works.

Where did I find such challenging ideas? In a book entitled "The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has An Expiration Date" by Samuel Arbesman.  2012

At first the writing in this book struck me as an attempt to destroy all intellectual endeavor and gathering of knowledge as a total waste of time. In the long run I came to realize that Arbesman pushes all claims of certainty about facts to absurdity.  He is a mathematician and network scientist. The notes say he likes to have fun.

My life has been spent working the people who have to make constant decisions on how to manage daily life, raise children, do company management, make military decisions, and create dinner. Those are the easy things. Then comes suicide, taking opioids, memory loss, when to have sex, and such weighty matters. 

The body/mind makes so many decisions for us as each moment passes. How the world really works is at the core of this thought exercise. For the people at the funeral for Muhammad Ali yesterday their universe was on display. The world view was clear as words can express a culture. The expressed world view was interesting but how little staying power does it have? Ali spent years working on the funeral so that it would send a message in this communications based world.

Now the moment is history and the Sammelweis Reflex takes over. Information will be ignored. How does the world really work? These blips of widely viewed information will fade into the background noise of the universe.

My field is religion. The Christian Religion. I am suspicious of all who claim to have the ultimate truth in their toolkit of life. Including myself.

A Prudent Man's Guide to Old Age

Forget right now the noise about "The Golden Years". That is prelude to merchandise of one kind or another. I choose to talk about what actually has faced me in reaching the midst of my 88th year of existence.

Dealing with the inconvenient intrusion of death into best laid plans is part of my resume. Those of you younger than I may write these words off as scare tactics.  I don't do fiction. 

If you need fiction go to the television screen.