Friday, July 23, 2010

I am back in the blog business for my favorite reader: Me! My ticker may be better, and I will talk about that later, but today I am feeling angry , nonspiritual, and very disconnected from my Higher Power, who I like to think of as SOAPE - Source Of All Positive Energy. And it is all because of a web cast by Richard Rohr. I had heard him do a session on Cosmic Christ a couple of months ago and I was modestly impressed. Tonight was redux and I had zero desire to go to it, but my wife really wanted to go. We had been invited to a barbecue and we were forgoing that for Richard Rohr! (ANDA editing: I repeatedly told him he did NOT have to go!!!)But, I had dragged my wife of fto some stuff I wanted to do today, and was doing the same tomorrow, so Richard Rohr it was. (plus I had eaten like a hungry beagle today and did not need more food!)

Ordinarily I am a Richard Rohr fan. He is a very open minded Franciscan Priest and I like most of what he says. I have what I think is a good line about him: "He is an Atheist who believes in God". I say this as a compliment; he has liberal secular views on everything from sexuality to the environment to war, and yet is able to understand things like addictions both medically and spirituality. I read his daily reflections, have listened to several of his seminars and am joining a study group on him.

So why did he turn me off today? In the Cosmic Christ he floats the hardly original concept that we are all connected and part of one big mass or mess (depending on how you look at it). Christ is nothing more than a piece of silly putty that joins the physical world with the divine world .... sort of a bleeding and punctured thin place. Rocks, amoebas, fishes, rhinoceroses, and people are all brothers and sisters that were born of the Big Bang, and only now, because of Richard, are we figuring this out. Some would argue that I am warping what he said, but it does reflect the way I feel.

Rohr would take snippets of science and snippets of the Hebrew and Christian texts and toss them in the blender with ice, coconut milk, and pineapple and end up with a sort of Saint Paul's Pina Colada with a crucifix piercing the pineapple chunk instead of one of those little umbrellas. I found the result more toxic than tasty.

Am I glad I went? Absolutely without question!!! It is when I have a Spiritual Storm when I am closest to the Spirit. Like in any storm you have to protect yourself. Instead of a sou'wester I use sarcasm. Instead of the oiled leather jacket I use anger. Instead of boots I use resentments. But when the storm subsides, you cast all that stuff aside and look for the rainbow that is always there. Thanks Richard.

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