Brain Flotsam V2.007

This evening Mom and I attended the Progressive Forum again. 
Tonight the speaker was Karen Armstrong, and she was amazing. Brilliant. Incredibly well-spoken, fun to listen to, grounded in her knowledge, and beautifully eloquent. Plus bonus British accent.
But seriously, I was so moved at times during her lecture, and her answer to one of the questions during the Q&A portion had me choked up.
It reminded me with deep, loving nostalgia of the best of my class in Seminary.

Her talk was about god, in a very early sense of the word. She spoke of traditions having a special language and breathing to discuss god, the concept beyond realization. About finding the moment when one's word become too much and one is reduced to silence and awe. (Like the moment, the beat at the end of a symphony, the breath before the applause begins.)  The goal of the practice is to breathe in the silence, in the presence of that awe.
She spoke of creation stories or cosmologies as therapeutic exercises, guides for personal creativity with an emphasis on personal sacrifice. Never does something come from nothing; something always from something.
She spoke of revelation as an ongoing process. Scripture, in the Rabbinic tradition, as something to be re-interpreted for and by each generation.
She spoke of the complementary relationship in pre-16th century society between logos and mythos. Logos as knowledge, science, the physical reality. Myth as a way to deal with inner issues, emotion, pain, despair, psyche. Myth as a program for action. Religion, she said, is like dancing - a skill requiring practice.  A belief is not enough. And belief as a word did not mean then what it did now, but represented a commitment, love, dedication, a doing.
She spoke of dialogue as a spiritual exercise in the Socratic tradition, its goal to realize the profundity of human ignorance, and from there begin to seek wisdom. She said that one difficulty we have now is that instead of proceeding in the dialogue with gentleness, as Socrates said, these days we feel the need not only to win, to prove our knowledge, but also to humiliate our opponents.
And of course, she spoke of compassion. She is developing a Charter for Compassion online. (See the page at the TED prize about her wish.)

One of the most intriguing and resonant things she said, to me, was about the need for silence.  Specifically inner silence as a place of spiritual revelation and knowing. This reminded me so much of one of the books that was formative to my young spirituality, Sati by Christopher Pike. We are all god, and this can be discovered in silence.

When asked to describe her idea of god:
"I try not to have any ideas of god at all." She does not wish to 'domesticate the transcendence', but to keep it in the realm of music, poetry, etc. She feels intimations of awe and wonder during the day: "I do feel touched within, but what that is I don't know - and it's better not to ask."

At the very end she spoke about hope for the future in the face of so much misunderstanding and upheaval.

In short, it was an awesome evening.

Also, happy happy birthday to my awesome Dad. :)

Mom and I have some last-minute errands to run before I skip town tomorrow.  (I scheduled another crack-of-dawn flight. Egads.)
We're going to the art supply. Yay!  I will be there more often soon.  One of my Yule gifts to myself was a Watercolor class at the Art League.  w00t! 
I am so excited. It starts my first week back in town. I am really looking forward to getting into more media on paper, and perhaps combining the watercolors with the pencils.  I had great success with watercolor pencils on my travels during high school.  My Poland journal is full of great art. I need to get back to that.

This afternoon the kids promised they'd be around to play games, so yay. Hopefully we can get in some railroad-building, some gloomy family wrangling, and some volcano sacrificing.  w00t! Mom and I have played a few games in the course of our holiday celebrations (which included reading the comics, doing the crossword, baking cookies, and reading aloud to each other from The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation and The Quotable Atheist, which I gave to Mom for Christmas. Yes, irony, I know.) but we haven't had everybody together yet.

Then I have three pieces of digital art to finish and send before I leave town, and I must pack. I am bringing some art with me to work on, already in progress, and will have to decide about the rest of it. I am going to freeze my butt off!  Where did I leave my tights? And my boots? At least I have a new scarf.

Ok, must run. Happy Boxing Day/First Day of Christmas, people!

Mom came in earlier to ask me where I was going to put my altar in my newly re-arranged room.  She asked about what goes on an altar (did I need some doilies? -- this is a running family joke), and I mentioned that I didn't have all my tools yet, missing a ritual knife.
So she goes off and comes back holding several small folding knives with mother-of-pearl handles that belonged to her mother. Now I have two of them on my shelf with my wand, chalice, candles and incense.
She also reminded me that I have a 3-or-so foot tall plaster column with a Corinthian capital left at the house from my younger days, and did I want it back? Perhaps it would make a good altar. So I moved that into my room, too.
Peter had to work today, and Hillary is off with her family, but they are going to be home tonight to spend time with us. Hopefully we will play some games.

There have been so many funny little moments that I'd love to share, but I find they don't all translate very well to screen.  You'll all just have to take my word for the fact that we're mostly enjoying our time, even though we aren't really having Christmas as such.

Now I'm going to work on more art, and write out some cards to send during the Epiphany and pre-Imbolc season.

Well, I'm at the close of my last day of work this year, and it's time to prepare for an art weekend. (And a cleaning weekend, and a purging weekend, and a haircut weekend, etc.) 
I have some deadline stuff that I must get done before I cut out for Philly after Christmas, so I have to buckle down now. I was getting some done as well as reading/commenting at fests and writing/drawing Advent Drabbles earlier, but then I got a cold and then I had some unexpected (but very useful) meetings and now I just can't keep up.  I'm tired of feeling like I'm running late. So, I must now actually stop reading/drawbling and start producing the real stuff.  I'll hopefully be able to do some reading and commenting later next week, or in the New Year.

This comes, of course, right as I also really need to be working on original creations, both written and artistic.  Although there is the Azkatraz Art Show to consider, I suppose. I may investigate printing ideas for my tarot cards for that.

I'll probably write the beginning set of Dark Season Greeting Cards before Solstice hits, and then start mailing them shortly after Christmas.
I'll have to ponder what to do for Longest Night this year. I have many many candles, and actually several wands, although a few of those should be restricted to costuming use only. One thing I would really like to achieve during this time of cleaning and re-arranging is finding a place to put up a semi-permanent altar. I would feel so much better if my ritual stuff weren't tucked into odd corners or still packed in bins.

Rather than copy and paste this into everybody's comments (although perhaps I'll do that, too), here are my answers to the 36 questions.

( it might be more than you really wanted to know... )

So Mom and I went for the super crack this morning - a trip to The Painted Pony in La Porte. I asked Mom if she wanted to come with me to the fabric store and she was kind of indifferent to the usual places, then I said, "Or I might trek out to La Porte," and she changed her mind. The rooms full of quilter's cottons call to us, my precious calls.
Mom claims that I bought half the store, but really I only got a few yards of some really amazing, bright prints. Including one that may become the back of the Snape Quilt. There were such amazing and wonderful designs there, and I am *loving* the retro splashy flower prints so much.  Wild. Unfortunately, there were no prints that really truly screamed "potions" or "chemistry", but what I got I think is pretty evocative anyhow. If you squint, you can see magic/science in them. And they work so amazingly well together. Squee!

The Snape quilt (which is a small wall hanging, actually) is going to be so awesome, although I may have to do the Snape center piece several times. Mom and I discussed different techniques for getting him onto the fabric and "painted", so if I have lots of leftover attempts maybe I'll make little pillows or something.
You know what I didn't buy? Thread. Oops. I am so going to need more black for this.

Also found a fun pirate print, and it's an unwritten rule in this househould that if you find a cool pirate print, you buy enough for the family stash.

On the drive home, Mom and I discussed ethics, philosophy, and religion, or lack thereof. I think that having these important conversations with an atheist offers me some very good perspective, as a person and as a minister.
On the topic of irreverence, check this out: God: A Career Retrospective.

We all lost a great man and a great fighter for social justice.

If you want to be important—wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness.

And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.  You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, and a soul generated by love.

[...]

Every now and then I guess we all think realistically about that day when we will be victimized with what is life's final common denominator—that something that we call death. We all think about it. And every now and then I think about my own death and I think about my own funeral. And I don't think of it in a morbid sense. And every now and then I ask myself, "What is it that I would want said?" And I leave the word to you this morning.

If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. And every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize—that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards—that’s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school.

I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others.

I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody.

I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question.

I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry.

And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked.

I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison.

I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.

Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that's all I want to say.

Excerpt from "The Drum Major Instinct", a sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, on 4 February 1968

I have a set of CDs of his speeches and sermons, and hearing it in his voice is quite amazing.
He was a fighter and a rabble-rouser himself, who did those great things but never lost sight of the people he was helping - not only the Civil Rights struggle on behalf of black Americans but social justice for all people.

And if you haven't in a while, go take a look and a listen at King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

(ganked from venturous)
Interesting survey, although some of the questions were the sort that aren't easily agreed or disagreed with, as so often happens.  The answer for some was "Sometimes."  For others it was "Only at specific times of year; or with specific preparation."  Intriguing, though.

My Pagan Practice

Tradition	-1.3	Eclectic
Ecstatic	-0.6	Solemn
Magical	0.9	Spiritual

Pagan Faith Practices Survey created by Otherworld Apothecary
Full Results:
http://www.otherworld-apothecary.com/quiz/results.php?score=_-1.3_-0.6_0.9

Happy Ostara!

Here are some things to do to celebrate the equinox and welcome the fruitfulness of the earth:

- Visit your local Farmer's Market. Eat seasonal fruits and veggies.
- Say hello to a random person at the bookstore, the coffeeshop, the grocery store, or wherever.
- Go visit a local dog run or pet shelter. Play with / watch puppies.
- Use natural vegetable dyes to color boiled eggs. Try drawing on the eggs in white crayon first for cool effects. Then eat the eggs before they go bad. ;)
- Sit outside and run your bare feet through the grass (be sure to check the ground for litter or harmful objects first!).
- Plant your garden with flowers or veggies. Try organic fertilizers. Research the best plants for your latitude and garden situation (small plot, large plot, container).
- Wear bright colors. Smile at people. It's time to shed our winter blues and open to the sun!

Blessed be!

ETA: Farmer's Markets may be subject to individual schedules, but I do think that even if it's not warm outside yet, these are good things to do. Ostara isn't just celebrating something that's here and present - it's also encouraging the warmth and the spring to flourish, to come back to us. Do them as invocations rather than thanksgivings. If your spirit moves you in that way, that is. :)