without metaphor
At the moment, I am living without a metaphor for G?d.
:- Doug.
G-d is presence
Presence is embrace
Embrace makes the in between
small and wide
Between is love
Encircling
:- Doug.
Archive for September, 2007
small and wide
The spectrum of conversation
There is a spectrum of conversation, from one way broadcast to print to Web to e-mail to letter to telephone to face to face to heart to heart to being to being. Start choosing from the latter end: here we are most solid. Over there we become ephemeral and float away in the air.
:- Doug.
Afraid of conversation with you
We’re all afraid of something, aren’t we? I’m afraid of starting a conversation with you.
:- Doug.
More intimate than that
G?d is more intimate than that
Think God controls the minutes and hours of your life?
G?d is more intimate than that
God knows what you have done with your life?
G?d is more intimate than that
God knows what evil lurks in your heart?
G?d is more intimate than that
Brings about meaningful coincidences?
G?d is more intimate than that
Needs you to sell his story?
G?d is more intimate than that
Needs you as surely as any lover needs beloved?
G?d is more intimate than that
:- Doug.
Who are our children?
Who is my brother they asked Jesus. Who are our children, the times ask us. Will our reply be as expansive?
:- Doug.
The knots are made from the lines
We may be conscious only in relation, only in the between; perhaps then reality is only in the betweens. After all, that is how stoplights and the scientific method and business and human enterprise works—and it is the one way I see you. So: we are only brought forth between, and G*d perhaps is here also brought forth! Thus, G*d is not so much noun, nor even so much verb, as arising. The knots of the net are made from the lines.
Positing you who means us as the ground of our being, we are the strands who are you brought forth and embodied and you are expressed in human form as the whole gossamer web of humanity.
:- Doug.
Stay away from that tree
Last night I read in Northrup Frye’s Fearful Symmetry the notion that the orthodox try to work out what the world is about in terms of good and evil, while the poet-prophets speak of divine vision. This is the solution to the two trees puzzle of Genesis: Stay away from that tree, the one which reduces you to thinking that the real is about cutting things into two pieces, dividing good from evil: it will kill you ever trying to make yourself good and trying to eliminate your evil. Rather, choose life! Life is about divine imagination, creating not the good but the full. The cup running over, abundance of life, love, inclusiveness: all these speak to fullness. Imagination is that to which the prophet invites us.
:- Doug.
No generally speaking
Generally speaking something is true; but there are no general situations, only specifics.
:- Doug.
Footprints in the Wind sm # 793
Footprints in the Windsm # 793
Be bold—
Say it!
Own it!
We’re helping change the world!
Please pass it on.
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Our resignation
This morning I read a word that seems to fit a lot of what afflicts us in our modern age—resignation: we are resigned to not being able to do anything—we cannot fight city hall, the world is too big, and anyway it is too technical, for us to make any difference. So we won’t try.
That perhaps explains why changing the world seems so bold. And it raises the question, Why do we think we cannot change the world? Is it we do not want to—perhaps we are afraid of engaging other people, or more precisely, other people engaging us? Or, have we resigned our commission as change agents?
:- Doug.
the imperative to hold back
It is a shame that people feel awkward to express themselves, that there is in any culture an imperative to hold back from what is powerful coming out of us.
:- Doug.
It is amusing: hierarchy and control
It is amusing that we think hierarchy and control are necessary. 120 people can make a decision together—I have seen it. Invitation works at least as well as autocracy—and is more fun!
:- Doug.
People are heard. Invite me.
People listen. People are heard. People change things. This is our great work. Invite me.
The me is not Douglas Germann. The me is someone you would not think to invite. Invite a Palestinian and a Jew to your living room for dialogue. Invite a homeless person into your home. Invite the scowling person you see everyday. Invite the person standing next to you in the crowd.
:- Doug.
