John Fricks, Anne Lamott And The Best Thing Ever Said By A Jesuit

Dear John,

Thanks for your email and observations.

I love Barbara Brown Taylor's observation: “The problem is, many of the people in need of saving are in churches, and at least part of what they need saving from is the idea that God sees the world the same way they do.” 

 

I'm not sure I agree with one particular; that "the Trumpistas" and "the never Trumpers" see Tom's quote the same way.

Taking into account inevitable exceptions to any rule, I believe Trumpistas are convinced God hates "the baby killers" and "the child sex traffickers."

But I don't think "the never Trumpers" would even think to ascribe hatred to God.

My new working hypothesis is that Trump cultists want liberals dead, whereas liberals only want Trump cultists to leave them alone.

Like they did when they were backwoods snake-handlers instead of snakes.

It never occurs to them to “live and let live.”

Trump cultists -- and most "Christian" "conservatives" -- are dominance-submission hierarchs, and nothing but total domination is even acceptable.

They are absolutely certain God is on their side, and that the rest of us infidels are damned to the lake of unquenchable fire.

And so, since “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it,” they take it upon themselves to be dictatorial-and-cruel because that’s who their God is, and that’s what their God ordains.

It’s hard to see a way out of this muddle.

The good news is that although empires always come to an end, ex-empires tend to be pretty cool places: England, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Rome-Italy, Greece, Germany, Austro-Hungary.

Best wishes to you and Sue.

Wishing you a joyful Christmas!

Pax et amor

Alan

Why "Absolutists" Prefer To See "Relativists" Dead... Whereas "Relativists" Prefer That "Absolutists" Just Mind Their Own Business

https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2020/08/why-absolutists-would-prefer-to-see.html 

My Most Important Late-Life Findings: The Fundaments That Illuminate My Understanding Of The World

https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2020/11/my-most-important-late-life-findings.html 

On Wed, Dec 9, 2020 at 8:24 PM JF wrote:

For certain, Anne Lamott attributes the words to her priest friend, and the context (why does Anne Lamott struggle with the words, when other writers get right it first time) is important.

Barbara Brown Taylor, in “An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith”,  says it a bit differently: ““The problem is, many of the people in need of saving are in churches, and at least part of what they need saving from is the idea that God sees the world the same way they do.”

Among my family members, there are Trump supporters AND Trump opponents who find the quotes fit their perception.

John

From: Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 9, 2020 12:24 AM
To: AC
Cc: CC
Subject: Re: Connecting Family and Friends with our creative dialogue tomorrow Wednesday December 9

Dear Arthur,

I love Step #3!

Thanks!

Pax 

Alan

PS At one time, Anne Lamott's good friend, Jesuit Tom Weston, was my confessor. Annie once used a comment by Tom, and nearly everyone thinks it was her own observation. 

I often "wrestle" with a tormented Christian fundamentalist friend (whose daughter was killed in a head-on automobile accident... at the hands of an illegal, drunk Mexican driving down the wrong side of the Interstate), and just finished a couple hours work tending to that exceedingly problematic relationship.

I came away thinking (and this, of course, relates to Tom's comment):

At all costs, make sure your God is bigger than you are.

Unknowably bigger.

PPS I may have sent this Unamuno link before. It was triggered by your tag line encouraging people to "think like a bakery."

"Miguel de Unamuno and The Bakery Of Life"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/09/miguel-de-unamuno-and-bakery-of-life.html 

While on the topic of Spanish philosophers, Jose Ortega y Gasset deserves attention.

"Is Ortega Y Gasset The Most Important Modern Philosopher? The Most Discerning Prophet?"

https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2020/09/is-ortega-y-gasset-most-important.html

On Tue, Dec 8, 2020 at 1:55 PM AC wrote:

“The meaning of this pandemic is that we are all vulnerable and connected.  We are in this together, spanning the globe, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, pagans, Christians, atheists.  This is so much bigger than the virus, because love and caring are bigger than anything – even, or especially, suffering.”

-        Anne Lamott, National Geographic December 2020

Anne Lamott is also the author of a book, Bird by Bird, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12543.Bird_by_Bird a “step by step guide on how to write and how to manage the writer’s life.”

Recently I began rereading parts of Anna Karenina and again experienced the depth that Tolstoy brings to my awareness of life. 

Imagine what might happen if you were to develop that evocative power of Tolstoy in your own writing.  If you put your mind to it, could you reach the point that you “write like Tolstoy”?  Is it possible?

I think the answer is yes, but just to keep this idea moving, let’s assume the answer is no, and keep going anyway.   Okay, it’s impossible.  But if it were possible, what would it look like?  How would you gradually develop the capability to write like Tolstoy?

One way to approach it would be in five steps:

1.    Consciously develop new strategies for generating story ideas.

2.    Read and reread the author(s) of your choice (try Tolstoy) and emulate them as you make the process of writing a habit, and each part of that process an atomic habit.

3.    Once you have several hundred words of good work, print them out. Then – using the same font and layout as you used for your own work - print out a similar number of words from Tolstoy (or another great author of your choice) and give the two pieces to several naïve readers.  Ask each of them to read both pieces and guess which one is your work, and which one is the work of a famous author.

4.    Make note of the results.

5.    Repeat the process.

Suppose you did this for a year and by the end of that time, sure enough, you can write with that depth and brilliance of Tolstoy.   So what?

My guess would be that your appreciation of every day of your life would be vastly enriched.  You would have to run the experiment to know the result.

Tomorrow, Wednesday December 9, starting at 6:30 PM Calgary time, our creative dialogue team practice will focus on that first step, developing new strategies for generating story ideas.  Here is the Zoom link from Shinobu:
        Dec 9, 2020 06:30 PM
        Dec 16, 2020 06:30 PM
        Dec 23, 2020 06:30 PM
        Dec 30, 2020 06:30 PM

Join Zoom Meeting

Think like a bakery and make it fresh!

Arthur

Virus-free. www.avg.com