19 Mar, 2009 - Attentiveness

I was thinking today about a quote I heard (I can't quite remember where) from Malebranche, a 17th century French Catholic priest, who really sums something up quite nicely.

"Attentiveness is the natural prayer of the soul."

I believe this, wholeheartedly. If one is attentive to the world around them, one sees its beauty, its delights and opens up to every experience, good and bad. That is the essential joy of life - and it is exactly that - essential and REAL! Seeing the world attentively allows me to reach towards the universal. That may seem like a contradiction, but allow me to explain.

Most of us spend our whole lives missing things. We fall over, drop things, make stupid blunders that we've made a thousand times before, we forget and put our foot in it. All the time. In seeing the little things that I would normally miss, I express the worth and dignity of everything I see and do, no matter how stupid, mistaken or tiny they may be. In seeing this wonderful dignity, I see how beautiful the universe is as a building of minute parts, and in this, I feel liberated. Free to reach beyond my everyday, stupid experiences and find the unique within them.

I think Malebranche got it right. When we are attentive to all the little parts of the world, we experience joy and gratidute, and express it in our actions and deeds. It is my hope that these actions are worthy of prayer.

19 Mar, 2009 - Whitewash and glass boxes...

Another tough week just beginning. This weekend I travelled. This morning I cried. Over the last week, I have had much on my mind. Some of it, pointless. Other parts, vital.

I have been in a bit of a daze, not considering my place, because it was easier not to. There have been good moments, but somehow they also became lost in the grey blur of existence. I plan to change this.

My other current consideration is about our relationship to objects in the world and how we choose to protect them. At the moment, I am working often in a museum and as such am constantly seeing objects that for whatever reason have been deemed worthy. In placing them in a museum, we automatically ritualize them and cover them in swathes of social and cultural meaning. Have you ever considered how much we are changing history by placing these things together, in one building with its whitewashed walls? An ancient drinking cup, or coin, or stone lion were never meant to sit inside a perfectly protected, zoned building with regulated air conditioning. They were meant to live in the external world, in their contexts. A lion might guard a gate, not a vent. A cup might be slammed on the table with a coin and a demand for another drink. When we view these things in a musuem, we, or perhaps just I, have a tendency to worship them. I revere these objects, sometimes even without consciously reading the label. I trust that these objects are genuine artifacts simply by their presence in a glass case.

It makes me wonder - why do we attempt to shelter these things? For our heritage or culture? But our heritage is in our blood and in our skin; it is how we relate to each other and by what structures we guide and guard our lives.

Perhaps we shelter them for their monetary value? Then why do we protect the shoes and hair of Holocaust victims, or canvasses with splotches of paint that many associate with their six-year-old?

Or do we keep these things in a museum because of our natural love of organizing, our desire to establish the world under our codes and laws? I think this may be nearer the point. We are perpetually structuring and ordering our world around set points that we deem of value, without regard to the surroundings in which those objects are most beautiful. A gold pendant is most beautiful on the neck of someone who loves it; a piece of furniture is of greatest joy where it can be used; a statue is of most worth where it is regarded as beautiful or meaningful in our everyday lives - without the entrance fee.

Every placement we make, every piece removed from its location and set into a glass case surrounded by whitewashed walls is changed by our actions - the people of he future will see our changes and our placements, conceive their own value and regardless of the truth, extend and assume the history of that object further away from its truth.

In our everyday lives, do we try to remove what is beautiful and natural from its environment in order to serve our needs? I know I do. Is this always the right thing to do?

9 Mar, 2009 - Have a little faith...

A few news items caught my attention in the newspaper, which I thought I would share with you.

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Apparently, Italians have been instructed by the Roman Catholic bishops of Italy to go low-tech for Lent, cutting off all technological appliances and refraining from that apparently oh-so-Italian hobby of texting on one's mobile phone every Friday during this period. One diocese suggested that the faithful should not watch television for the month. This can be stretched, for the truly faithful, to cookers, microwaves, washing machines and all those little conveniences of life.

If one wishes to retreat to the true medieval attitude to Lent, one can purchase a washing wrangle, camp in the wilderness in a snow-cave or under bushes and perform some self-mutilation, all for aesthetic glory. Or the faithful could hire a maid for the month, thus fulfilling such requirements.

All this at the same time as the Church is stretching out of its borders and into the internet, with an official Papal YouTube channel. Pope Benedict XVI himself praised social networking sites such as Facebook for their ability to bring people together and spread the word - and yet, those who wish to have a non-face-to-face conversation, or sit blankly watching something on TV, are somehow deemed less "faithful".

Being "faithful" should certainly not be associated with how much TV one watches, or whether one owns a vacuum cleaner! Perhaps that's a personal view, but I think this may be stretching it a little too far. Encourage people to have conversations with each other, rather than with a box or a screen - but do not condemn those who don't! If such things are enjoyed in moderation, go for it!

I do not believe in giving up things for Lent. I am not Catholic, not Christian. However, I do follow Lent, to a degree. I do not give up something, or abstain from the little joys of life; instead I try to pick up something new - perhaps exercise every day, or have a healthier meal, or learn a new skill. Worship should not always be about sacrifice and fear. Sometimes we need a little joy, a few moments of fun and perhaps a little challenge too.

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The other article I noticed was entitled: "Stressed out? Have a little faith", and subtitled: "Religious students remain calmer in the face of errors, study shows".

There are massive flaws in this, which were immediately obvious. They tested 28 people, all of which were required to fit neatly into a named religion-box and asked questions such as whether they would go to war for their faith, or whether their faith was based on objective truth. May I point out, at this point, that neither of these questions quite answer the degree of someone's faith! War for faith depends on the threat presented, and I have never met anyone who could actually say, with vague cohesion, that their faith is objective! A religion separated from personal emotion and opinion - only presenting facts - is not a religion. A religion requires faith, requires that extra moment of emotion that guides your heart, that moment of belief and hope and all associated feelings. Religion for most peole is not rational - it certainly cannot be claimed to be fully rational for all people.

Despite these challenges, the results were that those who were of a strong religion, and thus had a regulated structure or lens through which they view the world were less likely to become stressed when faced with challenges. As far as I am concerned, this is rather obvious. There is less uncertainty, less judgement required in general situations and there is perpetually a wider picture, a sense of being one in a multitude, rather than an isolated unit.

Many Jewish survivors of the Holocaust experienced the same concept at a deeper level; their faith was persecuted because it is so strongly grounded in the here and now, in the truth of this moment and the authority of their traditions, thus prioritising their faith over the authority of the state. But it was precisely this grounding in the present moment that allowed them to survive more strongly and defiantly than the otherwise may have; each moment was, and still is a gift from God and each law must be followed in this moment, each prayer relates to the past and the future, but to both of those elements seen from the second in which the prayer is said. Their reality is daily, earthly and yet still sacred.

I would like to believe that many UU's have the same idea - focussing on the importance of living mindfully and kindly in this moment, seeing the past and future as part of that interdependent web of life that is not only material and spiritual, but also wonderfully temporal. I wonder, if we were faced with such persecutions, would we bear them that well and hold to the importance of dignity and worth? I hope I would. It is my dream to say, one day, that I am certain of that.