Journey Into old Age (part 5)

 

Last time, I offered the fourth part of the workshop based on the work of Helen Luke in her study of the journey into old age which draws on a number of classic stories.  Luke’s writing on this subject is found in her book – Old Age; Journey Into Simplicity.  Here is the fifth and final part of that material.

 

      I.          The Story: Odysseus is now informed that he must make sacrifices to Poseidon - the god he had offended in earlier years.  The three-fold sacrifice of ram, bull and breeding boar is his alone to find and fulfil.  This seemingly impossible task is made all the more impossible by the fact he must only use a rope to accomplish it.  This was in truth no surprise to our hero as it had all been foretold so long ago by the blind seer Teiresias.  For this fate had been truly forged in Odysseus’ pride filled ambition. 

The three sacrifices are made.  The god is appeased, enmity is ended and honour is thus restored.  Thus, the chasm between man and god - between ego and psyche is mended.  Odysseus place in the cosmos is thus set aright.   Odysseus then returned to where his journey had begun.  However, as has been said it was not the home he left because you can’t go to the home.  He has now fulfilled the life of the hero.  Domestic and divine were there united as the gods had after all ordained. 

The journey of growing old must be marked by sacrifices of those qualities that were forged in our pride and ambition of youth.  We must now as we grow into Old Age see with humility the follies and frailties of youth.  We must by these sacrifices appease the gods which we have dishonoured in the youthful follies.

 Exercise: Identify a god that you have offended in your youth e.g. this could be a value such as truth, honesty, charity etc.  Imagine what a sacrifice would be to appease that god. 

This concludes our journey into Old Age guided by Helen Luke.  I wish you blessings on your journey. 

 

 

Journey Into old Age (part 4)

 Last time, I offered the third part of the workshop based on the work of Helen Luke in her study of the journey into old age which draws on a number of classic stories.  Luke’s writing on this subject is found in her book – Old Age; Journey Into Simplicity.  Here is the final fourth part of that material.

 

III The Story: Odysseus awakes with realization of the path he must take.  He now knows the journey that he must take – a journey that is now not by water as is his want, but by land.  It is a journey he must undergo with a familiar token of his past voyages - an oar, which is now his only companion. Our hero then began this unfamiliar final journey until he came to a crossroads.   At this place he encounters a stranger who repeated words that had been prophesied so long ago.  The stranger did inquire after his well-formed oar, naming it as it was first so long ago – a winnowing fan.

 

Odysseus now is given the clarity vision to see the folly of his former years.  With eyes now clear and sight now freed he looked to what lay ahead and not behind.  His heart’s yearning was to go home.  However, he knew and the stranger’s words confirmed that would only lead folly to follow folly.  He must now face his fate so that he would not condemn his son to follow him in folly renewed.  

 

The stranger continues to tell Odysseus of the effect that oar - now winnowing fan will have on those that see it.  With the taste of that apple, they will be awakened to the possibilities they were not previously conscious of.  And so, a journey now beckons and begins.  Odysseus now plants the oar at the centre of the crossroad.  There it will grow as if alive - for so it is.  Its root will seek the depths of Hades – the Unconscious - and its new-formed branches – now sprouting leaves will reach the heavens.  This axis mundi will bear the fruit of Odysseus’ life work.  And there a carne was laid to mark this monument.    

 

 

Here the symbol of his former life – the oar which cut the water and propelled him through the hero’s journey of his youth – has now taken on a new symbolic meaning – a winnowing fan.  The winnowing fan that separates the wheat from the chaff will enable us to see clearly and differentiate the wheat, which provides the bread of heaven to nourish our souls from the chaff, which feeds our egos with empty calories.

 

The journey of growing old is one of increasing humility - where we see clearly the folly of youth - the striving and the conquests that youth is inevitably err to.  Will we give in to the temptation to hold onto the dream of recapturing our fading youth or will we seek the new way in which our oars will become winnowing fans. Again we face a challenge – to plant the oar of our last journey in a new land that will grow as we continue to explore the new land of our growing old.

 

Exercise: Identify an aspect of your youth - a symbol which propelled you through your journey in life. How can that symbol be transformed into a new symbol for your journey into Old Age? 

 

I will complete our journey with the final part of the material next time.  Blessings on your journey.

Journey Into old Age (part 3)

Last time, I offered the second part of the workshop based on the work of Helen Luke in her study of the journey into old age which draws on a number of classic stories.  Luke’s writing on this subject is found in her book – Old Age; Journey Into Simplicity.  Here is the third part of that material.

 II The story: Odysseus now recalls the words of Teiresias spoken so long ago.  With those words he recalled the folly and fate that youth had brought.  He recalled the prideful blindness his seeing eyes could not reveal.  In those words, consciousness came and with it the knowledge of the consequences they now bring.

 One of the marks of Growing Old is to begin the journey in humility.  To be truly humble is to see clearly as has been noted elsewhere.  We see our lives for what they are, the folly that we have embraced, the mistakes we have made, out of blindness and willfulness, the hurt we have caused others, and the hurt we perceive others have caused us. 

Exercise: How has humility, i.e. seeing your life clearly enabled you to appreciate this as a temptation? What does it mean for you to be humble?  Describe how you see yourself with clarity that you didn’t see at the age of 20, 30, 40, or 50. Identify a temptation that you experience at this point in your life that would feed your ego rather than enabling you to grow old.   

 I will continue with the next part of the material next time.  Blessings on your journey.

 

Journey Into Old Age (Part 2)

Last time, I offered the first part of the workshop based on the work of Helen Luke in her study of the journey into old age which draws on a number of classic stories.  Luke’s writing on this subject is found in her book – Old Age; Journey Into Simplicity.  Here is the second part of that material. 

Section 2 

In this section we will examine Helen Luke’s imagined epilogue to Homer’s Odyssey.  The epilogue was introduced by Homer in the middle of the story but never fulfilled.   Let us explore the final journey of Odysseus, which is his journey into Old Age.  I have summarized Helen Luke’s story and provided commentary on the different sections.   

I. The story: The peace and order ordained by Zeus has now been established for our hero Odysseus.  His reunion with Penelope long delayed is now enjoyed.  The hero watches his son gain manhood as Odysseus had these many years before.

Within Odysseus, rested but no longer at peace, restlessness stirs.  He yearns once more for the sea voyages of his years gone by where he once more would be the hero of years long gone.  Our hero falls into a sleep, which reveals to him a different journey now unleashed by forces stirring within him. 

The seer long absent to his waking life is now present once more.  Teiresias will reveal that fate, which has always been there waiting to be revealed.  The destiny revealed is no longer one of youth waiting to be lived out.  Rather it is one of completion to be fulfilled.

Teiresias reveals the journey that Odysseus now must make.  It is a journey unlike the others Odysseus embraced with joy and anticipation in his youth.  This journey will be by land not by sea.  It is his final journey he must now embark upon in his maturity.  It is a hero’s journey to be sure but not one for loot or conquest or glory.  Rather it is one of sacrifice and repentance.  

Teiresias, the wise old man, had appeared to Odysseus and revealed the journey that awaits him if he chooses.   This journey in his maturity will be unlike the one that he made as the hero in his youthful pride and exuberance.  It will be a journey by land and not the familiar sea, which he embraced, in earlier days.  

This different journey reveals the challenge of old age – particularly in our culture of eternal youth in which youth is prized and old age is devalued and ignored. The journey so tempting to our Ego will be one, “tempting us towards repetition of our life’s triumph, tempting us toward wreckage and the inferno, the other coaxing us towards the true journey of the soul that has lived long and well, and must turn away from mere continuation of accustomed efforts to new significant, perhaps painful, soul-journeys.” (Old Age viii)

Exercise: Imagine what it would mean for you to ‘Grow Old’ rather than succumbing into the aging process.  How will this journey be different from the journey of your youth?

 I will continue with the next part of the material next time  Blessings on you journey.

Journey Into Old Age

With all the hype about the latest phenomenon at the movie box office – the retelling of the story of the Odyssey – I went back to look again at a workshop that I had developed which involved the story of Odysseus.  The workshop is based on the work of Helen Luke in her study of the journey into old age which draws on a number of classic stories.  Luke’s writing on this subject is found in her book – Old Age; Journey Into Simplicity.  I would like to share the workshop material with you.  The material is too lengthy for this venue, so, over the next three week I will share one of the three sections of the material which deals with Odyseus’ journey into old age. 

Introduction

 

I shall say no more except that I already told you many years ago of the alternative journey you are now called to take – a journey which does indeed lie on the slopes of that mountain but holds no fame or glory for you; only loneliness and sadness.  The choice is yours.  Will you deceive yourself as Dante’s Ulysses did in a sin far worse than the deceit of the Trojan horse? (Old Age 12)

 

These words of the poet Teiresias, the blind poet, imagined by Helen Luke, to Odysseus resting from his toils and trials of youth, sum up the choice which all of us must make when we face the journey into old age.  Are we truly to continue ‘grow old’; to continue to grow in psychic maturity or will we simply succumb to the aging process – sinking perhaps not gently into that perceived not so sweet night fighting that inevitable journey every step of the way.

 

Helen Luke examines this journey as presented in some of the great heroes of literature who made that journey of growth rather than relentlessly sinking into old age.  In Old Age, Journey into Simplicity, Helen Luke examines the hero’s journey into Old Age presented in essays on classical works; The Odyssey by Homer, The Tempest and King Lear by Shakespeare, and Little Gidding by T.S. Elliot.  I will draw on two of these works for this workshop; The Odyssey and Little Gidding.

 

Section 1

 

Let us begin our exploration of old age as a state that we are approaching or have reached by first looking at Eliot’s thoughts on the subject.  Helen Luke identifies three ‘gifts reserved for age’ which Eliot has revealed (92):

 

First, changes which take place in our bodies, as our bodies age into maturity.  These can be sudden changes due to a loss of physical health.  Our bodies may begin to betray us.  We can no longer do as much or do things as well as we once could.  However, often it is a gradual lessening of energy in its different forms, which comes to us through the senses.  Our sight becomes dimmer and we need glasses for reading.  Our hearing becomes less acute, and we may need hearing aids to comprehend what people are saying to us.  Our taste, smell and even touch become dull as do those other things that give us pleasure.  What lies ahead is the prospect of an ever-diminishing horizon of the physical world. The ego depends on imaginings of future achievements.  We of necessity turn to the present moment for our satisfaction.  As Luke notes, the Self lives in and for the present.

 

Second, the helpless rage at the folly of people and the laughter at things in which there is no humour.  We see the folly of those in political power whose only concern is reelection and the things which will ensure that.  We see the arrogance and greed of business leaders and politicians who are enthralled to the acquisition of money and power.  We see idealism turn into intolerance.  Growing Old gives us the opportunity to find the place beyond rage, which is true compassion, and joy in all creation. 

 

Third, there is the gift of memories.  As we grow old, we are able to see the past with true humility and see what were once triumphs of the ego at the expense of others.  As Luke says, “the hypocrisy of the ego always at bottom (is) concerned with its own merit and comfort, and most dangerously of all, its own spiritual merit. 

 

Exercise: select one of these gifts which resonates with you most at this time.  Do you see this as a gift or as something less positive?  Has your understanding and perception of this gift changed in your life? 

 

I will continue with this theme next week. 

 

 

Where’s the Holy Humour

Bruce Tallman, who is a spiritual Director, wrote recently about attending a lecture by a Michael Higgins on his new book, The Jesuit Disruptor: A Personal Portrait of Pope Francis:

According to (Michael) Higgins, Francis was first and foremost a pastor, a pope of the heart because, although an intellectual like most Jesuits, Francis believed, like Blaise Pascal, that the heart is greater than reason. The heart has reasons of its own that reason alone cannot comprehend. As Archbishop Oscar Romero wrote, “There are things that can only be understood by eyes that have cried.”

I Believe that when we do just that – let our hearts do the thinking we approach what has been called Holy Humour.  I have written about Holy Humour previously.  So, what then do we make of Holy Humour?  Can there be true humor in such a serious thing as religion?  One author who explores this is Helen Luke in her collection of essays, The Laughter at the Heart of Things.  One commentary I came upon summarizes the essence of what Luke is saying very well:

What is at the heart of the matter, according to Helen Luke, is a sense of proportion.  Luke quotes T.S. Eliot and notes that, “Eliot is, expressing here (in the quote) the identity of a sense of humour with the sense of proportion and the humility that this engenders”.  What is at the heart of things the joy of seeing disproportion restored to proportion.

At bottom, the humour is getting us in touch with joy – the joy of being part of God’s creation.  After all, to quote a group of musical religious sister – the Medical Mission Sisters, joy is like the rain.  Perhaps those are raindrops on roses to bring in another song. 

May you be blessed with holy humour on your journey.  Remember joy is a serious matter not to be taken too lightly – too much of the time.  

 

Let the Mystery Be

 This morning I am pondering the mystery of life.   I have been fascinated by the Book of Job for many years.  It is something of a mystery why the book of Job was included in the canon of the bible as it puts God in a less than favourable light.  Job becomes the pawn in a celestial wager between God and Satan with dire consequences for Job and his family.  However, the story does have a happy ending for Job – if not for his children who perish. All that Job loses is restored to him including new children to replace those who perished  - as if a child you lose can be replaced by a new child or children - and he lives happily ever after and dies at a ripe old age of biblical proportions.

In the course of the story Job demands an audience before God and demands justice.  However, God is less than sympathetic to Job’s plight and states that God and God’s works are beyond Job’s comprehension.  Job humbles himself and admits to God that it is beyond his comprehension:

Then Job answered the Lord: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; ⁶therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”     

It is hard for us human being to live in the mystery of life.  We can deny it as some people with a scientific bent try and believe that we will solve the mystery of creation.  Or, as religious people we can try and put God in a nice box that we define and tie up with a bright bow.  However, if we are honest and humble enough, as Job was, we can try and live in the mystery of life. On this subject I will quote Helen Luke, one of my favourite authors who is one of the great explorers of this mystery:

true mystery is the eternal paradox at the root of life itself—it is that which, instead of hiding truth, reveals the whole not the part.  So when, after having made every effort to understand, we are ready to take upon ourselves the mystery of things, then the most trivial of happenings is touched by wonder, and there may come to us by grace, a moment of unclouded vision. 

True paradox can be difficult to understand and to live with but it is in paradox that we can discover God.  I believe that we are called to let the mystery be in all its wonder and respond to God with praise and thanksgiving.  I will close with a verse from my favourite song on this mystery; Let the Mystery Be by Iris Dement:

Everybody's wonderin' what and where they all came from.
Everybody's worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go when the whole thing's done.
But no one knows for certain and so it's all the same to me.
I think I'll just let the mystery be.

May you be blessed by the mystery in your life.

 

Time Stands Still

I have been pondering how time can speed up and slow down.  Returning from our cottage in P.E.I. many people asked how my summer was.  My answer was inevitably, ‘It went by way to quickly.’  There is a general consensus that time seems to speed up as we get older.  However, it can also slow down – for example at the beginning of doing something new – a new job or going to a new place for vacation.  Initially the time seems to go very slowly but picks up speed as you become accommodated to the new situation. 

Einstein’s theory of relativity postulated that time slowed down as an object approaches the speed of light.  So, time really is relative.  I had an experience of this - or something like this some years ago when time seemed to stand still.  It occurred on my first visit to the Apple Farm Community in Three Rivers, Michigan, where later I would go often for spiritual retreats.  The Apple Farm Community was founded by Helen Luke, the author of wonderful books which delved into many different aspects of life as reflected in literature.  Luke’s magnum opus is Dark Wood to White Rose: A Study of Meanings in Dante's Divine Comedy.  It is a wonderful exploration of the journey into wholeness which is offered to each of us.

My introduction to Apple Farm occurred in the mid-1980’s.  I was on what I believe was called an introductory weekend with three other Apple Farm neophytes.  There are many things about my time there which are memorable and were pivotal in my life which was on the cusp of middle age at that time.  My memories of the people I encountered and particularly Helen Luke are to this day important ones as are the dreams I was given while I was there at that time and on subsequent visits. 

Of the many memorable aspects of that time one event stands out.  The four of us neophytes were meeting with Helen in the afternoon of the day after our arrival.  Just being with her was memorable and I remember her as a presence that far exceeded her physical size.  After some time, we were given a fifteen-minute break.  I decided to walk on the grounds and, being very conscious of the time, I checked my watch to ensure that I would not be late.  You need to be aware that I have quite an active complex about being on time, so this was not unusual for me.  After a while I checked my watch and discovered that very little time had passed, and I still had ample time to enjoy the grounds.  Shortly after I noticed one of the other newbies calling me to come back as - horrors of horrors - they were waiting for me.  I had kept them all, including Helen, waiting - one of my great fears.  I looked at my watch and discovered that it had stopped shortly after I started my little sabbatical.  I returned quickly giving my apologies and checking my watch again noticed that it had started working once again and continued to keep accurate time the rest of my stay at Apple Farm. 

For that brief interlude time stood still for me – me who has always been very aware of time and being on time.  I believe that the one who sends us dreams and synchronicities was giving me that lesson.  The trickster was playing with my on-time complex.  I still struggle with an overly active desire to be on time to places, as my wife who has no problem in this regard will attest.  However, when this happens, I remind myself of the time when my unconscious conspired for me to keep Helen Luke waiting.

May you be blessed to have time stand still for you on your journey. 

Holy Humour

A couple of weeks ago, I quoted from the movie The Life of Brian in my sermon.  Specifically,” It reminded me of that wonderful scene from Monty Python’s The Life of Brian, where someone listening to Jesus deliver the Sermon of the Mount asked the person beside him, ‘what did he say, was it blessed are the cheesemakers.  That doesn’t sound right.  Why should the cheesemakers be blessed?  But I guess that’s what he said.”  That is the first time I have done that i.e. quote form the Life of Brian, but it probably shouldn’t be the last.

I did this in the context of preaching on the parable in the Gospel of Luke in which Jesus seems to be commending the dishonest steward who cheats his master.  One possibility in understanding this puzzling parable is that people did not hear Jesus correctly.  I must admit that this was probably something of a stretch, but it brings up the issue of what the role is of humor in religion. 

Often the religious among us take everything about religion and theology deadly seriously.  There are, of course, many things about religion that should be taken seriously – deadly or otherwise.  Many of us believe that we are dealing with issues of salvation and matters of life and death and eternity.  There is no account of Jesus laughing in the bible.  He did weep a few times, but not laughter that was recorded.  A great example of people taking religion and themselves too seriously is the famous debate about the Life of Brian between two Pythons (of the Monty variety) on one side and Malcolm Muggeridge and the C. of E. Bishop of Suffolk on the other hand.  The two representatives of religion – and I must note specifically Christianity – insisted that this was an attack on Jesus Christ despite all protests that it was not about Jesus but about Brian who was mistaken for the Messiah.  They considered the movie the height – or rather depth – of low humor making jokes at the expense of something essential to humanity.  It was on reflection rather a sad and mistaken view of the movie in my view and shows the nee for some to just lighten up form G’d's sake.

Lorna and I have seen the movie in the past and decided to obtain our own copy of the DVD (I know we are technology dinosaurs)  which we recently watched and enjoyed immensely.  The humor in it is, admittedly, sometimes low as British humor can be.  But it is a triumph of satire on the follies and foibles of people who look for something to believe in, in all the wrong places and in the wrong ways.  One of the many wonderful scenes in the movie has Brian speaking to the crown outside his house.  He tells them, “You’ve got it all wrong.  You’ve got to think for yourself.  You are all individuals.”  The crowd responds in unison, “Yes we’re all individuals.”  Brian responds, “You’ve all different.”  The crowd in turn replies, “yes, we’re all different.”  One lone voice, “I’m not.”  Brian tries again, “You’ve all got to work it out for yourself.” The crowd in unison, “We’ve got to work it out for ourselves.”  Thank God that we all got the point and don’t have the mass appeals of demigods today.

  I realize that this missive on Holy Humour has been rather serious, so let me give you an old joke about Anglicans.  Question - how many Anglicans does it take to change a light bulb.  Answer – we don’t change, we’re Anglicans and anyway that is a memorial light bulb so we can’t replace it. 

So, what then do we make of Holy Humour?  Can there be true humor in such a serious thing as religion?  One author who explores this is Helen Luke in her collection uof essays, The Laughter at the Heart of Things.  One commentary I came upon summarizes the essence of what Luke is saying very well:

What is at the heart of the matter, according to Helen Luke, is a sense of proportion.  Luke quotes T.S. Eliot and notes that, “Eliot is, expressing here (in the quote) the identity of a sense of humour with the sense of proportion and the humility that this engenders”.  What is at the heart of things the joy of seeing disproportion restored to proportion.

At bottom, the humour is getting us in touch with joy – the joy of being part of God’s creation.  After all, to quote a group of musical religious sister – the Medical ones, joy is like the rain.  Perhaps those are raindrops on roses to bring in another song. 

May you be blessed with holy humour on your journey.  Remember joy is a serious matter not to be taken too lightly – too much of the time.  

 

Growing Old

American essayist and wise woman, Helen Luke, in her book Old Age - Journey into Simplicity, writes of the challenge of growing old as opposed to aging chronologically - her emphasis being on ‘growing’.   I first read this work, along with other works by Luke, when I was in my early sixties.  I embraced that approach, and it has been a goal of mine to do just that – grow old with the emphasis on growing.  I have done this haltingly with very mixed results.   Now that quite a bit of time has passed since then and I am old by most definitions – turning 75 recently, I think it would be useful to revisit what I wrote in my reflection on that work.  This was a reflection on Luke’s imaginings of a journey taken by Odysseus following his epic return home from the Trojan war.  It is a journey in which he grows old – a true hero’s journey. 

Here the symbol of his former life—the oar which cut the water and propelled him through the hero’s journey of his youth—has now taken on a new symbolic meaning—a winnowing fan.  The winnowing fan that separated the wheat from the chaff will enable us to see clearly and differentiate the wheat, which provides the bread of heaven to nourish our souls, from the chaff which feeds our egos with empty calories.

 The journey of growing old is one of increasing humility—where we see clearly the folly of youth—the striving and the conquests that youth is inevitably err to.  Will we give in to the temptation to hold onto the dream of recapturing our fading youth or will we seek the new way in which our oars will become winnowing fans. Again, we face a challenge—to plant the oar of our last journey in a new land that will grow as we continue to explore the new land of our growing old.

 As the signs of aging creep up on me and I resign myself to the increasing challenges of greeting a new day with less vigor than usual and I have what seems to be more “senior moments”, I can see that this new land of growing old is not for the faint of heart.  It will bring new challenges as my horizon shrinks – and not just because I need a new prescription for my glasses.  I find myself a stranger in a strange land. This new land requires a new way to navigate through it which I am just beginning to explore, and I haven’t discovered a GPS that truly works yet. 

I will close with a quote from Atul Gawande, a physician and author who has explored this land with his patients and himself with great patience and wisdom:

 

And what I realized is, we were not really talking about death or dying. We were really talking about: How do you live a good life all the way to the very end, with whatever comes? And that’s where you begin to unpack. 

 May we be blessed to all grow old on our journey in this new land. 

"Growing” Old; Growing Aware

 I shall say no more except that I already told you many years ago of the alternative journey you are now called to take – a journey which does indeed lie on the slopes of that mountain but holds no fame or glory for you; only loneliness and sadness.  The choice is yours.  Will you deceive yourself as Dante’s Ulysses did in a sin far worse than the deceit of the Trojan horse? (Old Age 12)

 These words of the poet Teiresias, the blind poet, imagined by Helen Luke, addressed to Odysseus resting from his toils and trials of youth.  They sum up the choice which all of us must make when we face the journey into old age.  Are we truly to continue “grow old”—to continue to grow in psychic maturity or will we simply succumb to the aging process—sinking, perhaps not gently, into that perceived, not so sweet night, fighting that inevitable journey every step of the way.

As we baby boomers continue our journey into old age, the question of “growing old” or succumbing to the aging process becomes one which is looming larger in our lives.  I originally explored the questions raised by Helen Luke in her work, Old Age, about ten years ago when I was approaching the traditional retirement age of 65 (although I had retired for the first time quite a while before that).  Although, at the time, that age seemed to be appropriate for exploring the issue, I have realized that I was not truly able to appreciate the journey into old age that lies ahead of me.  I am beginning to appreciate the wisdom of Helen Lukes words to a much greater extent than when I began that exploration.  The question of whether I will “grow old” or succumb to the aging process is one that stares me in the face every morning when I regard the old man who stares back at me in the mirror.  It is one that I struggle with as I decide what I will do each day.  

Richard Rohr addressed this in one of his Daily Meditations this week:

It’s true that the second half of life is a certain kind of weight to carry, but no other way of being makes sense or gives us the deep satisfaction our soul now demands and even enjoys. This new and deeper passion is what people mean when they say, “I must do this particular thing or my life will not make sense” or “It is no longer a choice.” Our life and our delivery system are now one, whereas before, our life and our occupation seemed like two different things. Our concern is not so much to have what we love anymore, but to love what we have—right now. This is a monumental change from the first half of life, so much so that it is almost the litmus test of whether we are in the second half of life at all… Aging can be either a life of nostalgia or a wholehearted engagement with the future.  (Richard Rohr)

 I believe that what we face in our journey into old age is call to be aware, aware that we are created in the image of God for a purpose that can only be revealed throughout our lives.  The purpose is different at differ times in our life and can only be revealed if and when we are awake of the path that inner voice is calling us to follow.

May we be blessed to hear that voice on our journey.

 

 

Bearing One Another’s Burdens

 Recently, I was reading the current copy of our Diocesan Newspaper, The Huron Church News.  I did a double take when I saw what I thought was a picture of me with other clergy in a situation that I didn’t recall.  Then I realized it couldn’t be me as, the person I thought was me, was dressed in bishop’s vestments in a gathering of bishops.  No, it certainly was not me as I don’t have a secret life as a bishop (and don’t have any aspirations to be one).  However, I have one from an occasion in which I played one in a dramatic presentation – my double is on the top left and that's me in the picture on the bottom. 

There is the belief that everyone has a double or a doppelganger somewhere in the world and I guess in my case that is true.  There is also the legend or myth that meeting your doppelganger can bring your bad luck and even death.  I hope that this doesn’t apply to just seeing your doppelganger in a picture.  It hasn’t been a problem so far – knock wood.

This experience brought to mind one of the novels of Charles Williams, Descent into Hell.  In this story, one of the characters, Pauline, was deathly afraid of meeting her doppelganger which she had encountered at various times but had always managed to avoid a direct engagement with.  As these sightings became more frequent, her life become more controlled by the fear of the encounter.  In the story, Peter Stanhope, offers to carry her fear.  Pauline is doubtful of this working; however, she agrees and Stanhope takes and carries this fear on behalf of Pauline in a very concrete, envisioned way.  As a result, Pauline is able to meet her double without the fear which had become so much a part of her life.

In this story, Williams is illustrating his Doctrine of Substituted Love.  The exchange between Stanhope and Pauline is described by Helen Luke:

Peter Stanhope, the poet, offers to carry for Pauline the fear that has tormented her ever since childhood.  He explains to her wondering mind that it is like carrying a bag, a parcel, for someone, for a brief time – but not like carrying the actual person… The essential in such an exchange is that there must be enough real love in both people, so that and exchange is the one helped is willing to let go of his ‘parcel’ as the other is willing to bear it…Carrying someone’s parcel you do not relieve him of responsibility for that parcel and its content; you merely bear the weight of it for a while.  When you carry the burden of someone’s excessive fear or anxiety you do not take away his necessity to suffer, but you give him a chance to face the fact of which he is so desperately afraid…It was precisely because Pauline had been humble enough to accept Stanhope’s offer that, when her moment came, she was willing in her turn to carry, through her imagination, the torment of her ancestor’ fear of the fire.

 To be real love for Williams, “every expression of love is a ‘sacrifice’ of the ego through a simple acceptance of the facts.  A repression of resistance or of hatred is never love.  To speak of partial aspects is always too much or too little, for only the whole is meaningful. “

May you be blessed to carry one another’s burdens on your journey. 

Prison or Refuge

CORDELIA

We are not the first
Who, with best meaning, have incurr'd the worst.
For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down;
Myself could else out-frown false fortune's frown.
Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?

KING LEAR

No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison:
We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,
Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;
And take upon's the mystery of things,
As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out,
In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones,
That ebb and flow by the moon.

That speech by King Lear in Shakespeare’s play of the same name, has resonated down through the years with the essence of old age which, regrettably, has been lost in our modern age.  However, it seems to be even more poignant in this time of COVID-19.  Lear responds to the daughter who has remained true to him as his world has been disintegrating around him throughout the play.  Little by little, through Lear’s folly rather than wisdom, he has made assumptions and followed his ego rather than seeking the higher wisdom that is possible for people who “grow old, instead to merely sinking into the aging process,”[1] to quote Helen Luke who was an exemplar of someone who did just that, ‘grow old’. 

As noted by Luke, Cordelia has the passion of youth and wants to go out and confront the evil that has overthrown the ruling value represented by Lear.  No, no – a thousand times no, is his response showing that as a result of all his trials and tribulations, he indeed has grown old, “Come, let us away to prison.”  The question for us today is our staying in place and self isolating a prison or a refuge.  It can be either depending on how we decide to see it.  This is a time, which seems to be more suited to introverts who seem to be more easily embracing this self-isolation, as a refuge than a prison.  At least that is my experience and the experience of Lorna as we are both strong introverts.  I’m not sure how the extroverts who are used to living in a world made for extroverts, are fairing.  I would suspect it is more of a prison for them.

Lear asks some engaging questions for these times; “Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;” I don’t know for sure who are the winners and who are the losers in this time of pandemic.  I suspect that it will be the usual suspects that win - those with the resources and influence seem to be able to win regardless of the circumstances.  The team of NBA basketball players that were all able to be tested while those on the front lines of dealing with the pandemic couldn’t.  It has become more evident in this time who is in and who is out in our society during the pandemic.  The essential workers have been recognized and acknowledged.   The front-line workers, the people who deliver the supplies and food, who work in the food store, and all the health care workers including cleaners, to those who pick the crops are now recognized as essential in our society.  Many of them are the lowest paid as it is clear that their remuneration has little or nothing to do with the essential nature of their work. 

It has, unfortunately, been brought front and centre what value we give to the aged in our society.  The fragility and inadequacy of the institutions where so many of our senior citizens spend end of their lives has been put in the spot light.  If that recognition is turned into action in the new normal of our lives that may be something positive that comes out of this dark cloud of COVID-19.  I live in hope that our society will grow in wisdom as a result of this rather than simply sinking back into the old ways of doing things.  I live in hope but am not hopeful - if that makes sense.

Blessings in your journey in this time of COVID-19; stay safe and keep the distance.

---

[1] Old Age, Journey Into Simplicity

The Laughter at the Heart of Things

Recently I wrote a couple of News and Views about control.  I want to follow up with my thoughts and reflections on humility and humour.  Now it may not be obvious that there is a connection between these three things i.e. control, humour and humility. However, I would like to explore the relationship that I see.The first connection was when I heard a commentator on TV talk about his time observing Donald Trump, the “so called” President of the United Sates.  Now as an aside, Mr. Trump is of course the President having won the Electoral College vote, if not the popular vote.  In any case, the commentator noted than in his extensive observation of Mr. Trump he had never seem him laugh.  I wondered, on hearing this, why that would be?  My initial reflection was that Mr. Trump, at heart, if he has one (which of course he does in the physical sense), was a very insecure person who needs to have his ego constantly stroked. 

At the time, I had been reading a book of essays by Helen Luke which is entitled, The Laughter at the Heart of Things.  It is a wonderful collection that deals insightfully and widely of many subjects.    The essay from which the title is drawn delves into the attribute or gift which she quotes Schopenhauer as stating, “a sense of humour is the only divine quality of man.”  In the essay she expounds that, “ But the individual may tragically remain obsessed into adult years with his or her superiority or inferiority as the case may be.  Nothing more quickly kills the ability to laugh at oneself which is the mark of a sense of humour.”  I cannot imagine Donald Trump ever laughing at himself.  However, I can imagine Barrack Obama do that and I am sure f I investigate I would find examples of just that―not to say that Obama was a perfect president, but I know it would annoy Donald Trump to be compared unfavourably to Barack Obama if he were to read this―which he won’t,

What, then, does this have to do with humility?  Well, the best statements about humility is that someone who is truly humble cannot be humiliated.  They are too humble to take themselves seriously and therefore cannot be humiliated.  Following on that thought is another quote by Helen Luke, “to be humble is to see things clearly.”  When we see ourselves clearly, we will be humbled by what we see—our warts and imperfections; our shadow; our desire to be perfect despite our imperfections. 

Okay, so there is a connection of all this to the need to be in control.  If we are insecure and at heart, if we have one at that sense, are not truly humble enough to see how we are in relation to the world that God has created, there is no way that we can laugh at the ideocracies and foibles and incongruities of life and most importantly, at ourselves. 

What is at the heart of the matter, according to Helen Luke, is a sense of proportion.  Luke quotes T.S. Eliot and notes that, “Eliot is expressing here (in the quote) the identity of a sense of humour with the sense of proportion and the humility that this engenders”.  What is at the heart of things the joy of seeing disproportion restored to proportion. 

Finally, when we have a sense of restored proportion as Julian of Norwich is credited with saying, “all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

May you be blessed on your journey with a sense of the laughter at the heart of things.

Actually, What is Contemplation?

I was away at a retreat last week from Wednesday to Sunday.  I usually go once a year to Apple Farm Community in Three Rivers Michigan―or I try to.  I didn’t make it last year so it was good to be back an connect with the place and the community members. 

Now you may be asking why I go there for a retreat rather than some place in Canada―which is what the customs official at the U. S. border asked me (I still don’t know why I feel guilty when being questioned by a border guard even though I don’t have anything to hide).  The answer I gave him was that I have had a relationship with that community for about 10 years.  That is the short answer which he accepted.  The not quite so short answer is that the community was founded over fifty years ago by someone who is probably my favourite spiritual writer, Helen Luke.  She was a very wise woman who wrote inciteful, meaningful explorations of the human soul using the bible and many classics of literature such as the Divine Comedy by Dante.  I highly recommend her books and essays to anyone who wants to explore the soul and the human condition.

Apple Farm Community was founded as a contemplative community.  I had not previously considered   what a contemplative community is until is read an essay based on the thoughts of the founder during my most recent retreat.  It is described in the essay as first of all what it is not i.e. it is not an intentional community.   I take that to mean it does not set out to intentionally create a community of and for people.  It provides opportunity and space for people to be themselves in reflection and introspection.

More specifically, to quote from the article, “The ultimate way of contemplation lies not in increase in knowledge or even understanding, importance, or in refusal of life or love, and not in the quest for spiritual experience but just simply in an ever-deepening sense of wonder.” 

 I think it is that sense of wonder, which I find so hard to recognize in my day -to-day life, that is what is truly meaningful for me.  It is the sense of wonder at the wonders of God’s creation which I am able to recognize and experience there more than most other places.  I do find it in other places such as the wonderful architecture of an ancient cathedral or a natural cathedral such as a majestic sunset.  However, my time at Apple Farm enables me to see and experience it in the small things which I otherwise would miss. 

The key is to turn to wonder especially when you find you don’t have the answer to your questions or are not sure why life is happening to you the way it is; or just because. 

As Paul Simon said, “These are the days of miracles and wonders”. 

Blessings on you journey. 

Let the Mystery Be

This morning I am following up on yesterday’s sermon and pondering the mystery of life.  I based my sermon (which is posted seperately) attached) on the reading from the book of Job.  It is something of a mystery why the book of Job was included in the canon of the bible as it puts God in a less than favourable light.  Job becomes the pawn in a celestial wager between God and Satan with dire consequences for Job and his family.  However, the story does have a happy ending for Job. All that Job loses is restored to him and he lives happily ever after and dies at a ripe old age of biblical proportions.

In the course of the story Job demands an audience before God and demands justice.  However, God is less than sympathetic to Job’s plight and states that God and God’s works are beyond Job’s comprehension.  Job humbles himself and admits to God that it is beyond his comprehension:

Then Job answered the Lord: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; ⁶therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”     

It is hard for us human being to live in the mystery of life.  We can deny it as some people with a scientific bent try and believe that we will solve the mystery of creation.  Or, as religious people, we can try and put God in a nice box that we define and tie up with a bright bow.  However, if we are honest and humble enough, as Job was, we can try and live in the mystery of life.  In my sermon I quote Helen Luke, one of my favourite authors who is one of the great explorers of this mystery:

true mystery is the eternal paradox at the root of life itself—it is that which, instead of hiding truth, reveals the whole not the part.  So when, after having made every effort to understand, we are ready to take upon ourselves the mystery of things, then the most trivial of happenings is touched by wonder, and there may come to us by grace, a moment of unclouded vision. 

True paradox can be difficult to understand and to live with but it is in paradox that we can discover God.  I believe that we are called to let the mystery be in all its wonder and respond to God with praise and thanksgiving.  I will close with a verse from my favourite song on this mystery; Let the Mystery Be by Iris Dement:

Everybody's wonderin' what and where they all came from. Everybody's worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go when the whole thing's done.
But no one knows for certain and so it's all the same to me.
I think I'll just let the mystery be.

Being Truly Humble

I have been pondering what it means to be truly humble as part of my preparation for Christmas this Advent.  I like to think of myself as a fairly humble person but being humble is something I have not been all that successful at it I am being honest with myself.  One of my favourite quotes about humbleness is from Helen Luke, “to be humble is to see things clearly.”   When we see ourselves clearly we will be humbled by what we see—our warts and imperfections; our shadow; our desire to be perfect despite our imperfections.  As we approach Christmas and the incarnation of God among us we are given a wonderful example of humility. 

The birth of Jesus—in lowly estate, in a stable, among animals—does not happen by chance; nothing in the birth narrative does. In the terms of Carl Jung, Jesus, as the archetype of the divine child, is the incarnation of the Self—the God image. Edward Edinger explores the significance of this happening among animals in their abode:

Birth among animals signifies that the coming of the Self is an instinctual process, a part of living nature rooted in the biology of our being. As Jung told a patient, an experience of the transpersonal Self, if it is not to cause inflation, “needs a great humility to counterbalance it. You need to go down to a level of the mice.”

As Edinger proposes, Jesus’s birth is a balance between the humble and the grand. The stable has two sets of visitors who come to worship the new king of the Jews at the call of the divine. There are the humble shepherds—who were the lowliest of the low in those times—and the wise men, or magi, from the east, who are also transformed into kings by the later mythologizing. 

It is very easy for us to not see ourselves clearly.  In fact it seems natural for that to occur and it take a great deal of effort to begin to see ourselves as we truly are which is how God sees us.  God chose to humble himself and become one of us—not as prince born is a palace but he chose to be born in the lowliest of estates.  I hope that each of us will be able to see the Christ child and see ourselves more clearly this Christmas.