Posted by dj on June 7, 2000, at 15:24:53
Back in March, after I had taken leave from this board I copied an article I had written a couple of years ago, to Dr. Bob as well as other folks whom I know off-line. It was an re-affirmation of some of my core beliefs.
Dr. Bob encouraged me to post it here but I decided to focus on cleaning up my home and mental space, a never-ending task, before considering posting it.
Instead I've decided to post another piece I wrote, even earlier when I was grappling with various issues, including my father's (who was very Catholic, a faith I rejected) impending death and the meaning of humanity Christianity and other faiths. And though I may return for a brief visit this is basically just another step in my own going house-cleaning and airing out...as I move on to whatever is next, one step and breath at a time. Make of it and do with it as you shall...
As T.S. Eliot elegantly wrote in Four Quartets:
"We shall never cease from exploration and the end of your exploring will be to arrive back where we first started and know the place for the first time."
----- Original Message -----
Date sent: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 14:27:33
Subject: Stone Games...> The Stone People Stirred
>
> "Where the earth shows its bones of windbroken stone and the sea and
> the sky are one. I'm caught out of time. My blood sings with wine. And
> I'm running naked in the sun. There's God in the trees. I'm weak in
> the knees and the sky is a painful blue. I'd like to look around but
> honey, all I see is you." -- Stan Rogers *Forty-five years* from
> *Fogarty's Cove*
>
> They call them the stone people --- grandmother and grandfather rock.
> Here long before the First Nations. They preside at the centre of the
> earth -- a place to truly feel the heat and the heart. Just like the
> stone people's lodges, which is what native north americans called
> them before we came up with our name for them -- sweat lodges.
> Changed it on them. Change happens though, doesn't it. And still there
> remains the spirit. The spirit of the lodges. The spirit of the stone
> people, who endure these many years and indignities. They stand firm
> and solid at the centre of the earth. And here in the fire because
> this too must pass. And that's the point isn't it, whether you wield a
> feather, a crucifix, a star of David or whatever. Suffering is not the
> point. Letting go of suffering is the point. And that's the lesson of
> the stone people. This too can we endure, with patience, acceptance,
> acknowledgment and time. Rather than holding on to our suffering let
> us toss it into the flames and let it go. The embers may glow and be
> painful for a time but it is only when we attempt to hold on that we
> suffer, because we make that choice. And we can choose again.
>
> Stones can communicate many things, if we let them. They have many
> tales to tell. About the Christians who they pulverized in the past,
> and the Jews, Iranians and others today. Stones have long been weapons
> of abuse across many cultures, continents and centuries. Just like
> words. Both can break your bones and your heart, if you let them. Some
> do, some don't. Saint Paul and other Christains were stoned many times
> and kept on their paths, preaching their message by their actions as
> well as their words. And their descendants doubtless used these same
> weapons to injure and abuse the natives, of many places. Christian but
> not Christ-like, these abusers. If they were, they would have followed
> St. Paul's example. But he started by persecuting the Christians too.
> Coversions do happen, on the road to Damascus and elsewhere. Amazing
> Grace was written by a former enslaver of Africans who saw the light
> as have others. But first they have to open to the darkness. And let
> it go...
>
> And conversions happen through the stones too. Through stone games.
> Like the one that Joseph organized between the Sikhs from Newton and
> the Legionairres that had banned them from there. Long after that
> story was national news Joe brought them together to play the stone
> game (www.jamocha.com. -- the "Try it" page links to Joe's intro.
> pages) and to communicate with each other. On a human level. To see
> beyond the turbans, skin colours, narrow view points and pre-judgments
> to the shared joys and sorrows, to the shared humanity. And that's
> what can happen in the stone people's lodges too. Humans being,
> sharing and caring. Opening up, e-moting, letting go and surrendering.
> Surrendering their fears and fatigues to the recognition that they are
> not unique. That they are shared, along with higher emotions. That
> others too have been here and will be again. And many have survived
> and many have thrived. But first they had to surrender to the stones
> and themselves. And the stones blessed them and they blessed the
> stones. And Jesus wept. And rejoiced, for he was not alone. He was
> joined.
> ------- End of forwarded message -------
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> The mere athlete is brutal and philistine, the mere
> intellectual unstable and spiritless. The right
> education must tune the strings of the body and
> mind to perfect spiritual harmony. -- Plato
> ><
poster:dj
thread:36460
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000603/msgs/36460.html