This morning I got up and watched the news. I don’t know that there is anything too spectacular to report, just your typical campaign propaganda. Right now I’m in the chapel watching The Chosen. I had to run down here so I didn’t miss a computer spot. I started The Chosen over, except someone else is already watching the first disc, so I am watching disc 2. I don’t mind. Watching The Chosen is really reassuring and good for my mental health. It takes me out of this place and puts me in a place where I internalize my path a little better. There’s no doubt that the whole series is an inspired work of sorts. The episode I’m watching is about the wedding in Cana, where Jesus turns the water into wine. I think, like all people, I can identify with some aspect of each character. I’m often reminded of what you read me that Rob Smith wrote. Coincidentally, to save the prisoner, you have to go into the prison. There are many ways to comprehend that statement. The straightforward way is to think in terms of saving other prisoners, but are we all not prisoners? Are we all not captive? Slaves to a matrix? Prisoners to the traditions of our fathers? To save the prisoner, you must go into the prison. For you to be free, you must go into the prison, for to come out you know freedom. In losing your life, you find it. In order to free the prisoner, you must go into the prison.
Life is not just a metaphor, we are called to act it out… Seeing past the false traditions, the construct of the Matrix, to see a plain truth, to see the plain and simple truths of a metaphor as literal, is to see and hear. I do often pray that I simply endure the path I am both compelled and guided to walk… not only endure, but to thrive. Here’s another quote from the book falling upward by Richard Rohr:
“It is not that suffering or failure might happen, or that it will only happen to you if you are bad (which is what religious people often think), or that it will happen to the unfortunate, or to a few in other places, or that you can somehow by cleverness or righteousness avoid it. No, it will happen, and to you! Losing, failing, falling, sin, and the suffering that comes from those experiences—all of this is a necessary and even good part of the human journey. As my favorite mystic, Lady Julian of Norwich, put it in her Middle English, “Sin is behovely!” |
He also talks about how: You cannot avoid sin or mistake anyway (Romans 5:12), but if you try too fervently, it often creates those of the Publicans and the Pharisees (Luke 18: 9-14).And what about the famous one about the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), in which one character does his life totally wrong and ends up God’s beloved, now deal with that. In the case of Jesus himself, he did everything right, but the world decided it was the wrong way to live…
…I just got back from Outdoor Rec. I walked two hours and 23 minutes, 9.6 miles. They completely missed the noon move, so I went out at about 1 PM. While I was out a black guy in a wheelchair stopped me on the track and wanted to get the news. I asked him what he thought of Kamala. He said she was fake and will just say whatever she wants to to get in office. He said something about how Trump just has to get in, because he’s “that guy”. There were three or four other people who came hustling to our conversation, so I went down all the positive bullet points… Hopefully it had an impact. Sometimes it’s not who you are talking to directly, it’s who is listening….
When I called you the first time tonight you were at the beach and the phone was forwarded so I went and watched some Planet Earth documentary until count. After count I watched Jimmy Fallon’s show on Fox News at Night. He is a comedian with a show before Gutfeld. It’s really funny. I listen to his radio show most nights and it was fun to see him on TV. He interviewed people in Times Square about who they were going to vote for, and it was 8 to 2 for Trump.It was actually really encouraging. I did get to talk to you. You said the open house went really well. That was great news. My mom was there and said the kids did well at camp. I can’t believe how tall Ben is!
In trivia my friend cheated. I gave him an answer, he totally did not get, then he wouldn’t give me one that I did get. I should’ve won. I’m not mad because it’s just a game of trivia, but I have learned my lesson, no more Mr. Nice Guy. Looks like tonight I’ll be going back to bed with the lights on. I love you.