What I Got from Cliff
Thanks to Cliff, I arrived home last night a lot happier than when I started out.

I had spent a fruitless hour searching in the drizzle and cold for the pda I depend on utterly. I knew exactly where I had been during the half-hour in which I lost it, but it wasn't there. So I headed home depressed with no confidence I'd find it and insufficient funds to replace it. You have to understand how much I care about this thing... materialistic or not... it is my portable library, with James and Coleridge and Blake and the Bible and Salon and the Times and lots of other web pagesand Henry's Blog, etc., etc., etc.

As I near home on dark and dreary Bay Road, I see a car stalled with blinkers on. I stop, and it's a kid -- Cliff -- he's driving a Lexus with a leaking radiator. He must have felt beyond cool when he got it... a little less so now. He uses my phone to call his friend... no answer. I drive him to a nearby house where another friend lives. Not home. I drive him to another house a little further and while en route he borrow my phone again... to call his Mom. This time, the friend is home, and I leave Cliff off with the advice to move his car soon so the police won't have it towed for a lot of money. He thanks me and I drive home. Only now I feel happy. Light. I think to myself, "This is what 'blessed' means."

A few minutes after arriving home, Cliff's mom calls my cell -- she knew the number from caller id -- and asks the location of his car before calling AAA.

This morning, in the light, I retraced my steps yet again and this time, I was able to see better under the leaves at the edge of Woodside Avenue where my pda had lain all day and night.

Keep it Simple...
I have missed posting since August 30. How time flies. I had lots of time during my recuperation from surgery this summer; now my life often feels like an out-of-control train, and one of the casualties is blogging. I have felt isolated as a result, and so I'm happy to report that my friend Henry Copeland inspired me in an e-mail today to go for small, simple posts, and I will. Here's one:

There's a maple tree on my drive to work that is so iridescent it borders on hallucinogenic... if you don't believe in miracles, come to New England for the fall colors.

Out of the Mouths of Babes...
My eight-year old Willy, when his guinea pig Leafy died the other day, was faced with the choice of where to bury him. He decided on a place in the back yard which, he said, "is where the heart would be if the back yard were a person."

Emerson on Spirit
In her review of Lawrence Buell's new biography,
Emerson, Brenda Wineapple passes on a quote from Emerson that caught me:

''Place yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom which animates all whom it floats, and you are without effort impelled to truth, to right, and a perfect contentment.''

We need more heart, more than ever
In an editorial in the Times Magazine last week called The Tug of Paternalism, James Traub makes a powerful argument for allowing the heart to enter our policy making. He is speaking specifically of deciding whether to intervene in Liberia, but his call for more heart could serve as well in any area of policy, foreign or domestic. He writes,

"When Liberian citizens late last month deposited the corpses of their friends and loved ones, killed by rebel shells, at the gate of the American Embassy compound in the capital of Monrovia, they were not only issuing a desperate plea for salvation but also making a statement of responsibility: it is you, the United States, who must answer our prayers....

"For all the talk of global integration, the fate of the very poorest countries has become, if anything, a matter of even greater indifference to the rich ones than it used to be. Virtually the entirety of West Africa, and for that matter the equally beleaguered nations of central Africa, like Burundi, offer little strategic and only potential economic value to the West and do not really figure in the war on terrorism. And the fate of Rwanda proves all too clearly that, in the absence of self-interest, appeals to common humanity will not bring rescue.

"And so these countries are left with no claims save the utterly unexpected one: paternalism. What could be more archaic in this globalized age? And isn't there something here of the former servant throwing himself on the mercy of his master? Well, yes. And that is a terrible affirmation of failure. But is paternalism so very bad? It's an acknowledgment of obligations incurred by shared history. It's an expression of kinship. After all, Liberia looks to the United States because the United States is in its blood. It is not simply pro-American but, in some odd but meaningful way, American."

Doing the right thing v.s. doing things right
During my annual conversation today with my friend Chris Moore, an Episcopal priest who has much wisdom and whose book, Solitude, is a welcome support for "alone time" in the midst of the crazy demands of life today, we talked about this notion of form v.s. substance. Chris said that the most common failing of ministers is to insist on their way of doing things without enough regard for their parishioners. He said the distinction is often drawn between "doing things right" and "doing the right thing." When all the energy is put to "doing things right," what gets lost is an appreciation for the dynamics of the experience in question. Say, for instance, a new minister insists on moving a small parish's altar from the wall to be free-standing, disregarding the history and dynamics of the congregation in favor of following the letter of Episcopal regulations. This would be "doing things right," but if it detracted from the congregation's experience of spirit, it would not be "doing the right thing."

Form vs. substance
In a book review in this week's Times, Robert Wright raised some questions for me in his discussion of the role of fundamentalism in promoting violence. In his review of the new book, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, by Jon Krakauer, he says,

"Krakauer writes that 'as a means of motivating people to be cruel or inhumane … there may be no more potent force than religion.' But sheer instinctive self-righteousness may ultimately be a bigger part of the problem. It is a common denominator of crimes committed in the name of religion, nationalism, racism – even, sometimes, nihilism."

I think this is true, and I'd like to think out loud why. Is it because religion is just a form – a way in which we organize our thinking about the universe, life, ourselves? If so, does it simply seek to describe substance without containing any substance itself? Is not substance entirely in the experiencing of what religion seeks to describe? Religion can certainly evoke experience, which is then substance, as when the reading of scripture enraptures the reader. But still religion is at best the vehicle, and not the experience itself. The experience is the substance.

I think Wright is making the point that violence is born of substantive experience. Self-righteousness is a more immediate precursor to violence than whatever form motivates the self-righteousness (in the case of the book, it is Mormon fundamentalism). In a free society, we will always have to suffer the existence of forms that we detest – exclusionary fundamentalism, racism, nationalism, etc. – and we will embrace forms that others detest. But we will also always be responsible for the substance of our response to them, and to the rest of society.

In that sense, is it more effective to preach non-violence than it is to preach Christianity or Buddhism? I imagine it depends on the audience; Christians will find non-violence more palatable if it is served along with Christian principles. But Christianity is the form, and non-violence the substance. We will build bridges if we remember that non-violence is a substantive act of will and is not dependent on any particular form. Non-violence can be embraced by all.

Beyond "smelly little orthodoxies"
Terrance Keenan, the zen twelve-stepper who I mentioned in an earlier post as the author of St. Nadie: Zen Encounters with Loneliness, delves on page 12 into one of my deepest concerns: fundamentalism, aka in its sneakier form, dogma. He writes, "...Orwell [George?] would have us stand against all the 'smelly little orthodoxies which are now contending for our souls.'" I want to see if I can tackle this subject from a positive perspective, since I believe it's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

If orthodoxy helps me improve my spiritual condition, how can it be wrong? This presupposes, though, that I am able to avoid the common pitfall of orthodoxy/fundamentalism/dogma which judges other ways. No one has a patent on the truth. As I try to get at in my mini-manifesto, the truth is the truth no matter what we say about it. My path is as good as my perception of truth, as is yours.

Keenan's opinion is that orthodoxy and/or rationality necessarily detract from our ability to perceive truth: "We do not leave make-believe behind when we emerge into so-called adulthood.We just call it rationalization. It is said rationalization is more important to life than money, food, or sex. ...How difficult it is to know the know the actuality of our inner voice, to know it is not some fiction we have created, a rationalized mask over our own godless wildness. I wanted to be free of myself and was at the same time afraid that to be so was a kind of death. ... Perhaps I am too often absent from my own being."

Zen is all about the experience of truth, and Keenan is saying that the experience of truth is different than talking about it. I agree. The truth behind Christian grace and Buddhist dharma and Sufi tales and koans from zen itself is an undiluted and inviolable whole. As the Course in Miracles starts off, "Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists."

The difficulty is in bringing this unified whole from one's solitary experience into the world, and to find unity with others in the shared work of constructing an enlightened society. This statement is in one sense a tautology, since authentic holy work will inexcorably lead to a higher manifestation. But my point is that our most immediate environment is our relationships, and we are rational creatures. Therefore, our responsibility is at least two-fold: 1) to do our holy work so we can experience truth and 2) to maintain our awareness in our "worldy" experiences, including our reasoning (Keenan's "rationalty") and our relations with others.

Truth is one. Orthodoxies are many. Let's hold hands and jump towards unity.

Helping helps
I missed a couple of posts Sunday and Monday because my car broke down on my way back to Mass. from Maine, and I ended up in a motel for the night with my son Taylor and his girlfriend Emily. Besides the chance to spend the time with them, the other good part of the whole fiasco was the helpfulness of people throughout. One example: the manager of the truck stop where we had broken down sent baking soda and a scrubber from his kitchen to the nearby motel to which we were towed, because he had heard we needed these things for cleaning the battery contacts. I was reminded of a similar situation I had been in eight years earlier, and of the help I'd received then. That time I was so impressed I wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper. I think when we help, it sends a wave out into the world that radiates as surely as ripples on a pond.

Technology encourages disclosure, at least while holes are open...
Here's some great research that shows how Word document info revealed British truth-tweaking -- Microsoft Word bytes Tony Blair in the butt: "Microsoft Word documents are notorious for containing private information in file headers which people would sometimes rather not share. The British government of Tony Blair just learned this lesson the hard way." The link came to me courtesy of Woody's Office Watch.

Blogs shake the political discourse
An article in yesterday's Boston Globe entitled 'Blogs' shake the political discourse is worth the read. It says in part: "Blogs, they predict, are harbingers of a new, interactive culture that will change the way democracy works, turning voters into active participants rather than passive consumers, limiting the traditional media's role as gatekeeper, and giving the rank-and-file voter unparalleled influence." You already knew that, but isn't it nice to see it in mainstream print?

My friend Tawnya Kelley Tiskus sent a thoughtful response to my previous post, reproduced here with my reply following:

"Hi, Lee! -- ....I just got back from a weekend with Mike & 2 friends camping in Vermont. The Dali Lama's comments were tuned into human matters (which of course is what usually concerns us) but when I stretched out next to the campfire, the stars visible above me, the fire warming my legs and the ground cool and bumpy beneath me I felt connected to the earth in a more spiritual way than I have in a long time. I thought that this is part of what's important in the world, just being. So the human matters are vital, but I think it's also true that we have to first find our self and then we can work find our personal relevance and work in the world. For me, my self is rooted in nature, and I have to spend time outside, walking, hiking, looking, exploring to remember who I am once again. Because I spend so much time doing other stuff (which warrants some examination too) I forget that I need this kind of regular retreat to recalibrate. :) -- Tawnya"

"Tawnya -- .... I agree with you completely. I would say we are spiritual beings by nature, directly connected to all other experiences in the universe, born of the earth. If we don't get in the way, or if we don't let our "other stuff" (as you call it) get in the way, we naturally experience the depths of our connectedness to each other and all nature/all the universe. I think probably all "true" faiths start with an experience of wholeness and then lose it as followers attempt to codify the experience, or own it, or in some way grasp it too tightly. It becomes splintered. What results is dogma and, worst, fundamentalism (like the religious right of my previous post). But I think the core connectedness remains, just as it remains in each of us, if we want to look for it, and I think there are traditions/practices alive today which can accelerate the search. As it does for you, connectedness sometimes comes for me when I can let go into the wonder of nature, and I experience myself as one with it. These are moments to be treasured. Thank you. -- Lee"

I heard the following story about the Dalai Lama a number of years ago. I have never seen it corroborated, but as an indigenous storyteller might say: I don't know if this is how it happened, but the story is true.

The Dalai Lama was scheduled to speak at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. When the ceremonies began, there was standing room only -- he is exotic and legendary, after all, and people were craning to get a glimpse of him. A number of speakers preceded him, and they went on a little long, so by the time it was time for His Holiness to speak, people were anxious to hear what he might say. He stood up, a small Tibetan monk in a maroon robe, walked up to the microphone, and said, "We're here to help each other." And then he turned around as if to return to his seat. People gasped. "Could that possibly be all he is going to say, after all the time we've waited? " And then the Dalai Lama hesitated, returned to the microphone, and said, "And if we can't do that, then we should try not to hurt each other." And then he sat down.

Frightening fundamentalism: destroy the environment to save it(!!!)
During the Vietnam War, I found one slogan particularly meaningful: "Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity." Now an article I just read posits that some of the Republican leadership/Religious Right believe they can save the world by destroying it. Their idea is that environmental science is bunk, and that God's real plan is to destroy the earth through environmental degradation in order to wipe out all the non-righteous, followed by renewal. Others believe that there will always be enough to go around -- land, food, water, fossil fuels, etc. -- no matter how large the population, so why worry? These beliefs are detailed and attributed in the frightening Religious Wrong: A Higher Power Informs the Republican Assault on the Environment by Glenn Scherer, which was reprinted in Earth Action Network's emagazine.com after being published by salon.com. Here are some of the scarier passages:

"Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma... new chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee...is a Big Oil backer who once characterized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as 'the Gestapo bureaucracy'...

"Bush and Inhofe will likely move to modify or overturn the National Environmental Policy Act. This Magna Carta of environmental law demands study, disclosure and public comment on the environmental impacts of federal projects. Bush has already demanded 'excessive red tape' be hacked from the law, fast-tracking road and airport construction and cutting the public out of the democratic process....

"The U.S. District Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. holds almost exclusive jurisdiction over environmental law, hearing cases concerning federal authority, involving the powers of the EPA, for example. Senate Republicans blocked two Clinton appointments to the court, setting the stage for a bench packed with conservative judges who, appointed now, could shape environmental law for decades....

"In his book The Carbon Wars, Greenpeace activist Jeremy Leggett tells how he stumbled upon this otherworldly agenda. During the Kyoto climate change negotiations, Leggett candidly asked Ford Motor Company executive John Schiller how opponents of the pact could believe there is no problem with 'a world of a billion cars intent on burning all the oil and gas available on the planet?' The executive asserted first that scientists get it wrong when they say fossil fuels have been sequestered underground for eons. The Earth, he said, is just 10,000, not 4.5 billion years old, the age widely accepted by scientists.

"Then Schiller confidently declared, 'You know, the more I look, the more it is just as it says in the Bible.' The Book of Daniel, he told Leggett, predicts that increased earthly devastation will mark the 'End Time' and return of Christ. Paradoxically, Leggett notes, many fundamentalists see dying coral reefs, melting ice caps and other environmental destruction not as an urgent call to action, but as God's will. Within the religious right worldview, the wreck of the Earth can be seen as Good News!

"Some true believers, interpreting biblical prophecy, are sure they will be saved from the horrific destruction brought by ecosystem collapse. They'll be raptured: rescued from Earth by God, who will then rain down seven ghastly years of misery on unbelieving humanity. Jesus' return will mark the Millennium, when the Lord restores the Earth to its green pristine condition, and the faithful enjoy a thousand years of peace and prosperity....

"One powerful fringe group, the Reconstructionists, doesn't speak of the 'End Time' at all, Bokaer notes. They put the onus for the Lord's return on their own political activism. Reconstructionists say Christ will only return when a righteous nation acts to purge unrepentant sinners and applies biblical law to its populace. They want to spread the Gospel in a political context, making the Bible the foundation of U.S. jurisprudence. That includes an end to environmental regulation.

"Reconstructionists believe the Lord will provide, and their view is laid out in America's Providential History, a religious right high school history textbook: 'The secular or socialist has a limited resource mentality and views the world as a pie... that needs to be cut up so everyone can get a piece,' write authors Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell. 'In contrast, the Christian knows that the potential in God is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in God's Earth. The resources are waiting to be tapped.'...

"The administration has repeatedly turned a blind eye toward good science. When the National Academy of Sciences came to Bush in 2001 with a report saying that global warming was real, serious and human-caused, he ignored it. When the EPA sent a 2002 report to the United Nations saying that global warming will result in 'rising seas, melting ice caps and glaciers, ecological system disruption, floods, heat waves and more dangerous storms,' Bush rejected it as a document 'put out by the bureaucracy.'

"Marty Jezer, writing for the online Common Dreams News Center, notes that 'One has to go back to the Stalinist Era of the Soviet Union to find such a display of political arrogance and ignorance of science.' That's when Trofim Lysenko told Josef Stalin that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and Gregor Mendel's theory of heredity were wrongheaded 'bourgeois science' not suited to a communist state.

"Lysenko's theories were practiced on collective farms on a massive scale, displacing traditional agricultural knowledge, and killing millions in the Russian famine of 1931 to 1933. His beliefs were exported to China, says Joseph Becker, author of Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine. Farmers were told that seeds of the same species act like 'comrades,' and wouldn't compete with each other. Chinese farmers were ordered to plant up to 15 million seedlings per 2.5 acres, rather than the scientifically proven 1.5 million, helping bring on the 20th century's worst famine. An estimated 30 million people starved to death between 1958 and 1961."

I could go on, but I'm too spooked.

Ghandi's 20-20 vision
"The things that will destroy us are: Politics without principle; Pleasure without conscience; Wealth without work; Knowledge without character; Business without morality; Science without humanity, And worship without sacrifice." -- Mahatma Gandhi
This quote courtesy of Care2.com, the environmental site that brings us Race for the Rainforest and other pages which provide click-throughs to secure real money for eco-needs.

Amnesty International's 2003 report
Amnesty International recently released its 2003 Report, which "documents human rights abuses in 151 countries and territories during 2002" and "is a contribution to the work of human rights defenders struggling to achieve a safer world, a world where human rights take priority over political, military or economic interests." Those interested will find summaries of human rights situations around the world and Amnesty International's specific concerns in each. Although the full report must be ordered for a small charge, the Web site contains a significant amount of information including a message from the Secretary General, a 2002 "in focus" a
description of Amnesty's activities, news stories, multimedia products, regional summaries, and information on each nation's specific activities.

Weekly "blog"
The post above actually came from a blog-like e-mail that's been sent weekly since before Blogs were a gleam in David Winer's eye from The Scout Report listserv, part of the Internet Scout Project at the University of Wisconsin. I've been getting it for years and always find at least one link I want to pursue.

Because the kids will lead us
A post by Henry Copeland yesterday led me to David Weinberger's wonderful web book for kids -- What the Web Is For, which was written by Weinberger for his 11-year old as a kid's version of his Small Pieces Loosely Joined: a Unified Theory of the Web. I wonder where the web will be when my Emily (10) and Willy (8) are my age (none of your biz).

Will the real Pat Roberston please stand up?
For a good blog search engine that reviews listings, check Blog Search Engine. It led me to a new favorite -- Meditatio, whose delightful truth-telling includes a post that advocates Operation Pat Robertson -- a 21-day prayer offensive "to change Pat Robertson and make him a compassionate human being." This in response to Robertson's 21-day prayer offensive against the Supreme Court

Sojourners
An excellent site offering progressive social action interactively is Sojourners: Christians for Justice and Peace

Blogging through the presidential race
Presidential contender Howard Dean is mining the internet's campaign potential in a big way. His Blog for America offers many ways to connect to Dean's platform and effort. An early benefit is to his warchest, which a July 16 post says is fatter than other Democrats' for the April through June quarter. Close to half of it came from the Internet and most of it from gifts under $200. "This reverses a decades-long trend and could represent a major positive change in presidential campaign financing, which has been monopolized by wealthy donors...."