Retired Episcopal Bishop Barbara Harris at a gathering of Bishops: "If assholes could fly, this place would be an airport." Love her!

Tornado hits Branson. Thousands of elderly people across the Country wandering aimlessly around idle tour busses.

Quite often, watching men shop for groceries makes me yearn for the Old West, when it was perfectly acceptable to improve the gene pool one shot at a time.

You can buy a journal made of recycled underwear. Call me environmentally unfriendly, but I don't want to write my on your recycled drawers.

So, I wonder if the news of the serious mistreatment of Apple production workers in China is impacting sales of Steve Jobs' book?

Spiritual Thought: Get over yourself. Seriously.

I am being stalked by a religiously obsessed, cognitively impaired young man. This is a microcosm of my life. I'd bet you wish you were me!

Exclusive: Marines Nazi-Flag Whistleblower Comes Forward | Mother Jones http://ping.fm/YFO8G

Practical Philosophies

One of the interesting things about spiritual systems is the different solutions they post to societal problems.  Buddhist teaches have often said that the only way to achieve lasting peace is for both sides of a dispute to feel that they are heard and understood.  Some teachers say that even acting to stop conflict is to choose sides, to set oneself up as opposed to one side or another and so ensure than conflict will continue. Philosophically speaking, that is probably true. Were I a monk, especially a cloistered monk, coming to that level and kind of understanding would be my only option. The practical problem is that getting everybody to understand everybody else is a long term project, indeed, especially in areas like the Middle East where conflict has been a way of life for thousands of years.

I am reminded of a training I went to some years ago with the Gamaliel Foundation outside Chicago. In the interest of full disclosure, I believe there are serious flaws with the philosophy and practices of the Gamaliel Foundation. Not the least of these is that in their zeal for systemic change they completely dismiss those individuals and ministries that work to address people's needs in the present moment in a practical way. They actually believe, for example, that people who are engaged in feeding the hungry are doing worthless work because they should be working for systemic change to eliminate the causes of hunger - never mind that such work takes time, and in the meanwhile literally tens of thousands of people will die of hunger. Philosophically it all sounds very nice, but practically speaking it comes up rather short.

As someone who considers himself a Buddhist Christian, which is to say a Christian who has been influenced by Buddhism, I am very appreciative of the work of Engaged Buddhists. Engaged Buddhists work to address societal problems in the present while also working for systemic change. Followers of Jesus will recall that he advocated not just forgiving your enemy, but actually praying for your enemy and loving them. He also, in his farewell discourses, suggested that the Apostles carry a sword with which to defend themselves. When we have important work to do, we need to be sure we are actually able to carry it out.

Our society seems to have problems understanding some key distinctions in addressing problems. Among them are the differences between symptoms of a problem and the causes of a problem - including the fact that very few problems have only one contributing cause. Dispassionate analysis is an important component in developing solutions - but in the meantime we also need to do what we can to ease suffering. This calls for  a multi-focal approach to our problem solving, and more than a little compassion. We don't have to jump to hasty decisions if we are prepared to ease suffering until the systemic issues can be addressed. Abandoning our compassion is never an asset.

The belief that "we have always done it this way" is (1) mistaken, and (2) a pretty good indication we need to change how we do things.

At the Drake Hotel in Chicago with Bishop John Selders

True transcendence is achieved when we open our hearts to the suffering of the world.

On my way to Chicago via Amtrak to spend the day with my brother from another mother Bishop John Selders

This is an hour fit for neither man nor beast!

Listen to my new Christ Enlight episode The Sunday Morning Message at http://ping.fm/ET83s #BlogTalkRadio

"We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us." -Joseph Campbell

Haapy Birthday Tali!

Tomorrow is my grand daughter Tali's third birthday. She's growing up do fast!

Listen to my new episode Is Keeping Current Unhealthy? at http://ping.fm/E2Lly #BlogTalkRadio