Thich Nhat Hanh, Mindfulness, Vietnam: Another non-Westerner who has influenced my life in recent years.
Nhat Hanh taught that you don’t have to spend years on a mountaintop to benefit from Buddhist wisdom. Instead, he says, just become aware of your breath, and through that come into the present moment, where everyday activities can take on a joyful, miraculous quality. If you are mindful, or fully present in the here and now, anxiety disappears and a sense of timelessness takes hold, allowing your highest qualities, such as kindness and compassion, to emerge.
This was highly appealing to Westerners seeking spirituality but not the trappings of religion. Burned-out executives and recovering alcoholics flocked to retreats in the French countryside to listen to Nhat Hanh. An entire mindfulness movement sprang up in the wake of this dharma superstar. Among his students was the American doctor Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course that is now offered at hospitals and medical centers worldwide. Today, the mindfulness that Nhat Hanh did so much to propagate is a $1.1 billion industry in the U.S., with revenues flowing from 2,450 meditation centers and thousands of books, apps and online courses. One survey found that 35% of employers have incorporated mindfulness into the workplace.
Source: Thich Nhat Hanh, Father of Mindfulness, Awaits the End | Time, http://time.com/5511729/monk-mindfulness-art-of-dying/
Rumi, quotes: I truly love Rumi quotes. So why had I never heard of him until a few years ago. He’s only been around for 700+ years
The inspiration you seek is already within you.
Be silent and listen.
~ Rumi
stuff that doesn’t matter:
“As is usually the case with viral stuff that doesn’t actually matter but that we pretend matters anyway in order to give ourselves some semblance of control, identity, and distraction in this exponentially disastrous world, the arrow question has kindled fierce arguments between folks who believe their way of drawing X’s is THE ONLY CORRECT WAY and EVERYONE ELSE CAN GO TO HELL.”
LOL; 
1.24.19
Cultural Rorschach test, Covington Catholic viral video, viral video:
I’ve been slow to opine on the Covington Catholic viral video. I reposted two days later this post by Fr. James Martin, SJ whom I respect.
And I hope that the students are ready to apologize as well.
Until then, dialogue is essential. Among Covington High School administrators. Between the students and indigenous peoples. Or simply between that group of students and Mr. Phillips.
In disagreement, dialogue is essential, as is what Pope Francis calls a “culture of encounter.” For example, a service trip for the students to a Native American reservation–as a learning opportunity.
Another essential lesson, which transcends whatever happened in Washington this weekend: an understanding of the appalling treatment that Native Americans have endured in our country. That lesson needs to be learned regardless of what you think of Covington High School.
This Teachable Moment can offer us, if we are open, lessons about dialogue, encounter and reconciliation during this coming week, which is, believe it or not, Catholic Schools Week.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/46899546495/posts/10155810610636496/
And then I saw this. Did you pass or fail? I waited … and I’m not sure why. So I barely passed.
The story is a Rorschach test—tell me how you first reacted, and I can probably tell where you live, who you voted for in 2016, and your general take on a list of other issues—but it shouldn’t be. Take away the video and tell me why millions of people care so much about an obnoxious group of high-school students protesting legalized abortion and a small circle of American Indians protesting centuries of mistreatment who were briefly locked in a tense standoff. Take away Twitter and Facebook and explain why total strangers care so much about people they don’t know in a confrontation they didn’t witness. Why are we all so primed for outrage, and what if the thousands of words and countless hours spent on this had been directed toward something consequential?
Source: Julie Irwin Zimmerman: I Failed the Covington Catholic Test – The Atlantic,
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/julie-irwin-zimmerman-i-failed-covington-catholic-test/580897/
And I loved having a conversation about cultural Rorschach testswith Davidson friend A. Hall
Yes, it is. Fascinating. We’ve had some vivid reminders that what we perceive as reality is based on the lenses with which we view it. And those lenses can change depending on the information we put in or on our lived experience. It can feel like vertigo to know that people have a completely different perception of reality – but it looks like understanding that is a challenge we should take up.
Ditto what she said!
At the same time, I regret commenting on another friend’s post, because my comment only gave friends a g”otcha, you’re a racist moment.” I wanted a discussion of cultural Rorschach tests and lenses and respect, and instead, I felt that the commenter was saying, “gotcha.”
The Great Comma, Epiphany moment, liturgical Christian traditions,Apostles Creed, Niceness Creed: The Great Comma! So, I guess I worship in one of the liturgical Christian traditions, and I participate in proclaiming the Great Comma. An Epiphany Moment for me.
. . Born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, . . .
—The Apostles’ Creed
If you worship in one of the liturgical Christian traditions, you probably know the opening words of the Apostles’ Creed by heart:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended into hell; . . .
But have you ever noticed the huge leap the creed makes between “born of the Virgin Mary” and “suffered under Pontius Pilate”? A single comma connects the two statements, and falling into that yawning gap, as if it were a mere detail, is everything Jesus said and did between his birth and his death! Called the “Great Comma,” the gap certainly invites some serious questions. Did all the things Jesus said and did in those years not count for much? Were they nothing to “believe” in? Was it only his birth and death that mattered? Does the gap in some way explain Christianity’s often dismal record of imitating Jesus’ life and teaching?
There are other glaring oversights. The Apostles’ Creed does not once mention love, service, hope, the “least of the brothers and sisters,” or even forgiveness—anything that is remotely actionable. The earliest formal declaration of Christian belief is a vision and philosophy statement with no mission statement, as it were. Twice we are reminded that God is almighty, yet nowhere do we hear mention that God is also all-suffering or all-vulnerable (although it does declare that Jesus “suffered . . . , died, and was buried”). With its emphasis on theory and theology, but no emphasis on praxis (i.e., practice), the creed set Christianity on a course we are still following today.
The Apostles’ Creed, along with the later Nicene Creed, is an important document of theological summary and history, but when the crowd at my parish mumbles hurriedly through its recitation each Sunday, I’m struck by how little usefulness—or even interest—the creed seems to bring as a guide for people’s daily, practical behavior. I hope I am wrong, but I doubt it.
Both creeds reveal historic Christian assumptions about who God is and what God is doing. They reaffirm a static and unchanging universe and a God who is quite remote from almost everything we care about each day. Furthermore, they don’t show much interest in the realities of Jesus’ own human life—or ours. Instead, they portray what religious systems tend to want: a God who looks strong and stable and in control. No “turn the other cheek” Jesus, no hint of a simple Christ-like lifestyle is found here.
https://email.cac.org/t/ViewEmail/d/EA7137F1585CAE9E2540EF23F30FEDED/1DC1AEAE5E535C1F0B3A73003FEB3522
1.23
Peripatetic Posse, kith/kin, wasabis, safety in numbers: My friend reposted one of my favorite of her blog posts. I’m not the letter writer.
My friend Dennard Lindsey Teague reminded me of an article I wrote several years ago in tribute to my group of Davidson College Alumni women from the Davidson College Class of 1982. They are my “peripatetic posse.”
In honor of Dennard’s upcoming birthday (and our particular friendship going back to first grade), I wanted to post this again in celebration of her, of MY friendships, and in celebration of ALL women’s friendships.
And yet fifteen years after graduation we came back together for a reunion, setting in motion a powerful force, the original “us” reconvened and buttressed.
Now we see each other yearly, as many of us as can get there, with the “there” moving between vacation homes, rented camps, and urban hotels. We have a system for choosing location and time, and it begins anew each spring so we can gather in the fall. We pool resources to be sure all can come.
On the appointed weekend, from the time the last one arrives on Thursday or Friday until the first one leaves on Sunday, we sit in a circle with a single purpose: listening to what has happened in each other’s lives throughout the last year. Listening to hear, not listening to solve or fix. Just listening. We take breaks only for meal preparation, pouring coffee or wine, a long walk or hike each day, and a little sleep.
There’s power in our honesty and in our safety. There are opportunities for us to see both sides of an issue through each other as we skip the “How could someone think that?” in favour of the “Oh, I can see why you feel the way you do.” Maybe one woman has parenting challenges that help another imagine that her own mother did all she could; a rant on health-care annoyances is met with a doctor’s own perspective on her disappointment in her changing profession. Yet we don’t go out of our way to stir up the subjects on which we would disagree (and there are probably several). It’s not a place to be right; it’s a place to be loved.
Source: My Peripatetic Posse: Safety in Numbers | Comment Magazine, https://www.cardus.ca/comment/article/my-peripatetic-posse-safety-in-numbers
Lunar eclipse, wolf moon: I was so excited, but I slept through the entire event: I’m glad some people were up,and shared their photos!
The Evolution of Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Evolution of Lin-Manuel Miranda is just fun to watch!
https://youtu.be/u-gte9G2urU, The Evolution of Lin-Manuel Miranda,
1.21.18 … We cannot be held responsible for bibliomania!
Baltimore MD, Lee’s Oyster and Pint, The Helmand (Afghan), Gnocco, Pitango Coffee, The Book Thing – Baltimore MD:
So far, lunch at Lee’s Oyster and Pint, great Afghan meal at The Helmand last night with Averie and Suzanne, brunch today at gnocco, now coffee at Pitango … endless opportunities for good food, good drink and good company in Baltimore. And then The Book Thing. We cannot be held responsible for bibliomania!
We cannot be held responsible for bibliomania!
Dennard's Clipping Service 
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