EmotiCON [100wordwednesday]

"I am not my feelings."

I stumbled upon this comment as a young man and took it to be true. Of course as the philosophy manual has it, a feeling is incorrigible knowledge. If someone says, “I feel bad” we don't say, "No you don't!"

Yet, if feelings comprise our character and decisions, we are done. Discouragement, pain, anger, even laziness or apathy are very real, and very seductive. They describe, but we dare not let them prescribe. They will lead us astray. Faith is the answer: daring to believe that right choices lead to better outcomes, regardless of feelings.

Hurry! Only Ten Minutes!

It's funny to think on the merit of pushing words into time. Free writing, to my mind, is writing without thinking much, what is often called stream-of-consciousness or some such. And it seems to have value in helping to get words on page. It is a trick of writers I guess, often used in writing classes. In this case I thought I'd press such a thing into 10 minutes.

But today I am slowing down a bit. As mused before, what might happen if I took my time, wrote as the words came, but gave them time to develop? A good friend prefers to write exactly what he wants to say so he doesn't have to revisit. He has been quite successful so who am I to question? Another man I knew said the best writing is re-writing. You get nothing worth reading if you do not edit it well.

On this point I have thought for awhile that if I am to produce better value it will need help from a skilled editor. Just a second set of eyes is very valuable.

Two years ago I had the privilege of being in a reading group for an excellent writer, Nancy Pearcey. It was a real joy and I learned a great deal. Nancy has co-written the major title How Now Shall We Live and has written several other books of note. She is a gifted teacher. I was surprised to learn she had several reading groups, perhaps 8-10 and they were selected for variety so she had input from all kinds of people. I am sure it added profound value to the book.

In addition to her long years of experience, her education and gifts, her diligent work and all of these reading groups, she still relied heavily on editors and it was over a year from final submission to publishing date.

So the point I guess is that writing of great value requires extensive and strategic process. And input of others' skill and perspective is essential. This is a good lesson for me in life, and in writing!

Which Identity Matters Most? [A Monday Meander]

The discussion of values from Ivy League Seminar to Western Kansas Diner, Bristol Bay fishery to Cajun Church, San Diego to Philly is filled with hubris and bewilderment -- and some wisdom -- as vast as our geography. At bottom of it all is the most fundamental question: What is the greatest good?

The answers to this question take multiple forms and are expressed in action. Our hearts long for the good, for very goodness itself. And if you doubt that, wonder a bit about what it is you wish from everyone else. When a friend or stranger mistreats us, indignation betrays our innate awareness: “There is Good, and this is not it!”

And all through time we've tried to conceive of Goodness in transcendent and personal terms, and therein we have what is called theology: the search to see and know and describe for others what really matters most. Chesterton put it like this: “The human calling is to discover Reality and when we have found it, to share it with our friends.”

This lands us, again, trying to make sense of all we are debating, and a major piece of that is what we call DEI. This is the great push for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on college campus, in corporate conglomerates, in legislative bodies – everywhere! It is a sort of incarnation of the greatest good. 

And there are myriad factors in such a discussion. Is it not good to care for people regardless of their differences from you? Isn't everyone a person, after all; and do not people have value in and of themselves regardless of various markers embedded in our life together? Doesn't this mean that we should be large of soul and spirit and do all we can to appreciate and enable diversity, equity, and inclusion?

The geography of this question is shaped by its parts, and the most fundamental part – you could even say the landscape itself -- is the human person: what does it mean to be a human person? We all have answers to this, most of which we know in our bones, and most of which have a great deal in common. As I wondered about the pieces of a DEI discussion between Christopher Rufo and Yascha Mounk I came to two questions:

• Values and way of life are inseparable. But how do we determine which values and way of life get to rule the day?
• Secondly, since identity is at the center, what identity matters most, is most defining? The hierarchy question arises and we might even ask, "To which identity do we bow?"

This last question will not leave my mind and it takes us, as do all questions of ultimate value, to fundamentals. Everyone is a fundamentalist, just as everyone who wants to build a good house is a foundationalist. And to the extent those fundamentals comport with reality, we will have a good life. The difficulty is recognizing them, living accordingly, allowing that we are all wrong in some respects, and we have to learn to live together all the same. Because that is also one of the fundamentals.

But the identity question remains a major issue of our time. How does one fundamentally define themselves? By race, gender, ethnicity, religion? By job, hobby, ideology, political party? What identity marker matters most? The sociologists and activists work hard on this and the results of academia on the question are a self-perpetuating (and bewildering) sea of ideas and ideology.

Not being an academic or an activists I stumbled into a question: "What if our most fundamental identity is our family identity?"

Immediately we face that great problem of ours and any time, the desperate need for solid and happy families as the core of society. But whether one's family is a picture from Currier and Ives or is broken without shape, the identity is still this: we are daughters or sons. And in time we become, in metaphor if not reality, fathers and mothers within and throughout the human family. Such a proposal suggests a core identity that shapes everything else. And when we say family is the fundamental, we say life is good, is to be loved and cherished, and is to be prolonged.

What's so wrong about that? I wish to live that way, though faultily for that also goes with being human. But if I am first a son, my identity is tied in to the greatest fundamental -- the union of male and female and the ensuing life it gives -- and all else is defined therefrom.

Such is the nature of my wondering on this happy Monday morning. Perhaps it may help a son or daughter somewhere who, like everyone, needs a foundation.

A Saturday Verse

Wrung

Writing, wringing, wrung;
Singing, swinging, swung;
The mix of words and varied vowels
Can leave the soul undone.

Stately, stable, stunned;
Canny, comely, cunned;
Contriving words from meaning known
Can peaceful thought expunge.

So what are we to do?
Imagining we know?
Is thinking long and peering deep
A worthwhile practice – No?

Or is a wayward verse,
That makes the writer wince,
A reasoned effort, soulish breath,
That helps the inner sense?

It is, we dare to know –
and hear the Master say,
The answers sought for word by word
Are found on that Great Day!

Presuming On Loved Ones: Missing What Matters Most

Stay put long enough. Die to the next thing, the must, the urgent, the insatiable distraction-thirst.

There is no good reason for assuming, presuming, often ignoring those closest to us. Oh there are explanations, and we understand and forgive and bear with. But the reasons are not really good ones.

“Too busy.” Really?
“I'm with her all the time, or at least I live in the same house. That goes a long way.” It does?
“He understands and he's busy, too, and so this is just the way it is.” Happy with that one?

Busyness feeds on itself, addicts itself, sickens healthy thought. Busyness is necessary, or so we think. What if we avoided it in every possible way? What if we embraced the oft-heard dictum: “Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”

With what do we replace this busyness, the drug of self-importance?

Presence. Faith. Quiet.

Dare to believe being is enough and learn to “turn off the comfort of noise” in it's myriad manifestations.

Be with, enjoy the person as the miracle she is, listen to what he thinks and speaks and stay put long enough to really learn from it.

Stay put long enough. Die to the next thing, the must, the urgent, the insatiable distraction-thirst.

Begin with God. He is enough. This is no religious notion or guilt-baiting as such. Just reality.

Begin with God. He is enough to capture the soul for eternity and we scarcely give Him the time of day. Begin with Him and you will begin to know what is. The dullness will begin to lift.

Begin with God and soon you will discover others – dis-cover. They have been covered to you because you have accepted all kinds of stultifying diversions as if they were reality. As being present before God begins to burn away the fog you will begin to awake.

“Who is this person, really?” you may hear yourself ask. This is halleluiah.

It is wrong for us to presume on our loved ones, and making excuse only entrenches the wrong. Leave off excuse and explanation. Practice gratitude for what is, prayers for making real what can be.

Presence. As we know Him we find we know what matters and begin to lean into it. And that makes all the difference: in our soul, in our everyday life, and, happily, with those we so dearly love but too-easily take for granted.

Loving and Doing the Good

"It is better to do a thing because God said to do it 
than because you think it is a good idea."

I've been told the above line is in the Talmud, the central work of and for Judaism, a commentary on the Jewish Bible, i.e., the Christian Old Testament. It came to mind this evening as a friend spoke of verbatim compliance. He had worked high security military projects and verbatim compliance was required. If following the book was impossible for any reason, rather than proceed according to what "made sense," the workman had to contact a supervisor to resolve the problem.

Verbatim compliance: doing exactly as the book says to do because the book says to do it. This, says the Talmud, is how we are to obey God.

This brings to mind the matter of faith seeking understanding. That is, we want to know the reasons for our faith and by direct implication, the reasons God says to do thus and so. Even then, however, it matters not why he said it and furthermore it is very likely we often will not know much of the reason. So we are safest to simply do it "because God said so."

Does it matter to know the "why" of a thing. Yes, but with God we must always obey verbatim whether we understand or not. Hesitation can be deadly and questioning Almighty God, while allowed, is not the wisest strategy.

Conclusion? We do it because God said it, not because it sounds like a good idea.

This implicates another classical discussion: Euthyphro's Dilemma. C. S. Lewis phrases the dilemma clearly: Are these things right because God commands them or does God command them because they are right?

The first option means good is by fiat, "because God says so." The second means the good is something outside of God to which He is accountable. As Lewis says, both options are intolerable. Rather, goodness is found in the very being of God and is the primary expression of His existence.

Where does this leave us?

If we know God clearly prescribes a course of action, we ignore it to our peril. Immediate, cheerful obedience is the rule. Understanding is beside the point. Verbatim compliance.

But how do we know? Scripture lights the way; and in the Person of Christ we see endless guidance. But faith is required as well, for our eyes are dimmed by frailty and failings. This means we often wonder, our faith seeks understanding, and we must trust God in the dark.

But where God clearly speaks we are safest and most faithful children when we do as he says without needing to know the reason.

One final caveat. Perhaps everyone who has sincerely tried to follow God has stepped into a ditch while thinking they were following God. I know of people who plotted to murder an abortion doctor, believing they did God's bidding. On much lesser matters I often grappled mightily with mind and heart to avoid doing what seemed right while everything of good sense said otherwise.

And so, as in all things we are at the mercy of God and, thankfully, that mercy endures forever. He will see us through if we ask, believe, and walk with Him. That is enough because He is enough.

Selah, which is being interpreted in this case, "I'm done."

Fear of Rejection

 [One Hundred Word Wednesday]

What could we do if we stop worrying about what people may think; if we lay aside concern that our work be appreciated or approved? Certainly writers would write far more than they do. Is there merit in writing without care for acceptance? Is it wrong to be reticent about rejection? If fear of rejection is obvious then readers will be tentative, knowing disapproval will hurt us. So maybe we just have to do our best, put it out without caveat, and not worry about the reception: be it good or ill, nonexistent or overwhelming, or likely, somewhere in between.