Reflections

When he opened his eyes he was blind ~ Acts 9:8 Shoes on the Danube Bank Why are we blind to those we oppress? How can we be deaf to their cries? These days we seem to care so much about our environmental footprint yet so little about stepping on the toes of people right beside us.  Why? I don't have an answer, but I do wonder if the power of rank and privilege is something to which we cling just because it feels good, and looking under our shoes something from which we run- unless a foot catches us from behind and we *feel the heat*. Saul of Tarsus was a Jew of Roman privilege who persecuted the early Christians.  Heaven only knows what possessed this man, not just to oppress other men, but hunt them down, put them in chains and murder them.  Beyond the thrill of power and privilege, a person has to be deluded.  Utter darkness. When Saul was on his way to Damascus, he had a revelation. The story goes that he heard a voice say, "Why are you persecuting...

We are asleep with compasses in our hands ~W.S. Merwin I just realized that the words compass and compassion are only three letters apart. They mean different things of course.  The word compass means to circle or go around, and comes from the Latin com ("with") + pass  ("a step"). The word compassion means to feel for someone else's suffering, and comes from com ("with") + passion  ("pati").  Both are ways of moving with, and being moved by, a person or situation; both are ways to orient ourselves. How different are these orientations in fact? A compass is set to be magnetized to true north.  Compassion resonates with others' feelings. Both are ways to find oneself.  Or lose oneself.  Or maybe finding and losing oneself are the same thing! Setting our minds and hearts on something outside of ourselves, we find a path and direction.

I’m gonna say it: Men scapegoat women They cannot hear us when we cry, Just squawking and pecking Then feel attacked And bludgeon us like chickens With stony silence- at best At worse, words And worst- their fists So many stories in their heads Muffling our real voices And killing us It’s not their fault, Women, you need to know They’re made that way The world’s that way War goes that way It whores that way That’s just… How it is Sad. Because they’re our boys ! They have a great lack A missing-something… Compassion, lucidity, wisdom, estrogen… Emotional intelligence?? Whatever that precious silver is Lining our hearts Breaking us open like a blue sky When we are struck And hold our loved ones closer A mysterious padding around our ego That lets us turn the other cheek And look past our pain into them A gift, a huge muscle! That protects us From taking it personally Go figure gals, We’re stronger. ...

It is an extraordinary human ability to be able to shift from being me-focused to other-focused.   This can happen spontaneously like in an emergency when, without thinking, we put ourselves aside for someone else or, on a more regular basis, when we cannot rest knowing another is in pain.  This is compassion or sympathy, the human ability to suffer with another. As quickly as we may open to others, we can snap shut again in an instant.   We turn away from others’ pain and shut down to feeling.   This is indifference or apathy- a form of ignoring others (literally, “not knowing” them).  As much as this may preserve individual survival at times and perhaps, even, our bliss, ignorance causes tremendous suffering to others . The Buddhist god of compassion, Avalokitesvara ,  is depicted as having one thousand hands and eyes with which to see and respond to suffering.   Central to Avalokitesvara’s name is the word “lok” or “look”.   To see, t...

No wonder, then, if these waters be so deep, that we hover over them with a religious regard. ~Emerson There is a gloom in deep love as in deep water; there is a silence in it which suspends the foot; and the folded arms, and the dejected head are the images it reflects. No voice shakes its surface; the Muses themselves approach it with a tardy and a timid step, and with a low and tremulous and melancholy song. ~Landor Today my friend George told me about something that had happened to him when he was a boy swimming at the beach many years ago...   He and his friends were getting ready to go home when one of his friends started calling “Help!   Help!”   George thought he was joking- he was always teasing like that- and kept heading for the shore.   But the cries persisted and soon they sounded more like gurgling as his friend went under water.   George started swimming out toward his friend.   The sands were shifting underfoot and s...