Musings

Epiphaneous Awareness

An awakening. An opening into higher consciousness.  A discovery.  A parting of the fog of confusion, revealing a new kind of clarity.  The dictionary says that an epiphany is a sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something. What an enticing definition!  It makes me eager to receive an epiphany right now.   In the context of the Christian church calendar, Epiphany is January 6, the day celebrated as the time when the "wise men" visited the newborn Jesus in Bethlehem.  It’s the sudden manifestation or perception of the essential meaning of Christmas to distinguished visitors from Iraq or Iran.  They were the first non-Jews to “get it” about the birth of the Christ.  Think of it! Jesus wasn’t even out of diapers before his message was out of the Jewish box.  Hmmm – isn’t it about time that his message got out of the Christian box?     I love this story for ephinaneous reasons.  Yes, I coined that term.  It's what happens when you have an epiphany – you expand your vocabulary!  I love this story because the three wise men show up with really weird gifts.  Normal folks might think:  let’s get Jesus a rattle, or a rubber ducky, or get his parents a couple months of nappies.  No, these supposedly wise men traveled many hundreds of miles on camelback to deliver gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Gold – sure.  Valuable then, valuable now.  That’s not so strange: at least for Mary and Joseph, it was probably a welcome sight.  But frankincense and myrrh?  Used as burial spices?  Yes, valuable – Mary and Joseph could have traded them for something useful to them and to Jesus.  I just think that the three wise men were like those relatives or friends who feel compelled to give you stuff for Christmas, except they are truly clueless about who you are, what you want or need.    The wise men were convinced something important was going on in Israel because of their religious practice of astrology.  They didn’t show up because they thought the Bible was God’s inerrant word.  They didn’t show up because they accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.  They followed the star because their own religion suggested it.  Faithfully following their own religion got them outside of the box of their own religion.  Hmmm—maybe that’s something we can emulate today?  That by following Jesus in a serious way, he’ll lead us out of the Christian box and inspire us to explore other religions and become more open-hearted global citizens?  Could this be an epiphany to have on Epiphany?   The recipe for epiphany is simple, but still challenging.  The recipe for epiphany is to show up.  Physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  That’s what the wise men did.  They did not just send their presents of gold, frankincense, and myrrh via Amazon and then just email a Christmas letter from Iran.  No, the whole idea was to present themselves.  When they discovered that the star was hovering above a rude and crude manger, and that the so-called king was a peasant child, they still showed up in person.   Alan Hunter, beloved pastor for decades at Mt Hollywood Congregational Church in LA (where I'm a member) composed this short prayer:  “Dear Lord, if it took 6 billion years for you to bring me here, let me be all here, as you are.”   How about us?  Are we here?  Really here?  All here?  Did your body show up to the present moment, but your mind is someplace else?  Are you awake and aware of your whole self, being here now?    It’s hard to wake up and it’s hard to show up – because we live in a culture of overwhelming distractions.  But if you are feeling the attraction of that bright star in the sky, you’ll let go of distraction for a while.   It starts with the truth about ourselves.  What are we really thinking?  What are we really feeling?  To what are we really paying attention right here and now?  Facing the truth about ourselves, reflecting our emotional and physical reality back to ourselves, lovingly, without judgment.  That brings our whole selves to the manger.   When we take a good look at ourselves in the spiritual mirror, when we take a good inventory of our thoughts and feelings and urges, we begin to experience higher consciousness.  This is the kingdom of heaven Jesus talked about.  The heaven’s eye view of ourselves and the world around us.  When we take this God’s-eye view of ourselves, lovingly and without judgment doing an inventory of our inner worlds, then we are able to perceive the the essential nature or meaning of what we observe.  Then we are ready for epiphanies.   It’s New Year's, when we hear all that talk about resolutions.  I say, don’t bother with them at all.  Forget about who you ought to be, what you ought to look like, what you ought or want to weigh.  New Year’s resolutions are almost always about there and then.  I say, this New Year’s, let’s look at here and now.   What is going on inside of you, here and now?  What's going on around you, here and now?  Who are you now?  As the wise men gazed at Jesus in the manger, as he was in that sacred moment, so we can gaze at what is real right now, with the clear eyes of divine love.  Pay full attention to your present reality, with compassionate acceptance of what is.  You’ll be energized to make whatever changes you need and want to make.  Be here now, and you’ll be ready to go there then. So this New Year's, let us raise our glasses to the cultivation of epiphaneous awareness!

 

A Word for Young Men

 

A Word for Young Men

Dear young male friends:

I’m here to share some insights gained in my 71 years of being a white male heterosexual American, advice that is the product of lessons I’ve learned, in many cases, the hard way.
 
I am good with being who I am.  I’m here to offer suggestions that might help you be good with who you are, too, in ways that are good for you and for those around you.  Because there’s a lot of toxic rhetoric floating around us these days, messages that uphold your sense of self by tearing down the sense of self of other people. 
 
There’s another way.
 
A major reason I’m good with who I am is that I feel better when I let other people be good with who they are.  I don’t need to belittle or demean them so that I can have pride in myself.
 
Neither do you.
 
Sure, there are folks who dis whiteness, maleness, and American-ness.  So what?  Their attitudes don’t change anything about me.  I have no need to take their bait.  I can silently acknowledge them, and then move on with a dignified demeanor.  My response is to be a straight white male American who is humble and kind.
 
Other people are just that:  others.  And I try hard to remember that.  I don’t want others to assume that I am exactly like them.  So why would I expect others to be just like I am?  While we can get to know people really well, there are always mysteries about them.  And that’s a pretty cool thing!  People are full of surprises.  So the less we judge others, the more we can discover and enjoy about them.  When I was a young guy, I thought that gay people were weirdos, and that gay sex was gross and wrong.  Then I discovered that one of my best friends was gay.  When he told me, it took me about half an hour to process this revelation as I sat there with him.  I felt like somebody had sawed open my skull and reached in to re-arrange my brain cells!  I realized that if such a good person could be gay, then gay must be okay.  I didn’t understand it fully.  I could not relate to being attracted to a person of the same sexual orientation as myself.  But just because it was mysterious to me, that didn’t mean I should oppose it.  I’ve been a strong supporter of LGBTQI+ rights ever since.  So if you’re gay, be gay, and if you’re trans, be trans – let’s let people be whoever they see themselves to be, and let’s live with the mystery of it all.  Your identity doesn’t threaten mine! 
 
Because manhood is defining myself by what I am, and not by what I’m not.
 
I’m good with being a religious person.  I made the choice to follow Jesus when I was 16 years old, and I’ve never looked back, even as my understanding of my Christian faith has gone through changes over the years.  I experience God as the unconditional love that Jesus practiced and preached.  This love is bigger than my religion or any other.  It makes room for other faiths to be as good for others as my faith is good for me.  It makes room for my religion to be good despite the many imperfections in Christian dogma and history.  Divine love moves me to be kind and forgiving and patient, and to do my part in working for justice and peace in the world. My religion prevents me from claiming that it is the only true path!  I am a Christian who doesn’t think everybody else ought to be a Christian.  But I do urge you to find a spiritual practice and a spiritually-centered community that will help you live a deeper, richer, more fulfilling life.
 
I aim to be a man like Jesus:  strong and brave, gentle and compassionate, spiritually awake.  The power of Jesus was in his humility.  He practiced and preached that the greatest person is the one who is the servant to all the rest. 
 
As a heterosexual male, I’ve learned a lot about what it means to respect women.  Much of it was learned by experiencing the consequences of my failures to be respectful.  I’ve learned that I’m responsible for my own sexual gratification.  It’s not any woman’s job to provide me with sexual fulfillment.  Getting this straight is the beginning of having a healthy relationship in which the couple seeks what is best for each other with genuine curiosity and patience and careful listening.  A long conversation, with clothes on, is often the most delicious sexual foreplay.  In the cultivation of healthy sexuality, fantasy is good so long as it does not get in the way of real relationships with real people who have real bodies with quirks and features that need to be cherished rather than negatively compared with unattainable images.  Sex is wonderful so long as it is in the context of kindness and compassion and isn’t harmful, physically or emotionally, to the couple or those around them.  Healthy, caring premarital sex can be a very good prelude to marital sex. 
 
Having trouble finding an intimate partner?  Take a break from indulging in sexual fantasies and practice conversing with people with whom you have no sexual interest.  Ask them questions.  When they answer, ask yet more open-ended questions reflecting your genuine curiosity.  When they answer those questions, ask more.  When they ask you questions, answer them honestly without getting long-winded.  Then ask them more questions.  Get good at having deep and meaningful conversations with all sorts of people.  At some point, it will become natural – and it will be deeply satisfying.   Do this a lot and you’ll be amazed at how much easier it will be to make a connection with a person to whom you are attracted.  And when that relationship gets going, keep up the habit of being genuinely curious about what the other person is feeling and thinking… for the rest of your life! 
 
In college I went to more beer bashes than I care to count, and I found these parties to be uniformly boring.  “’Tsup?  All good.” That was about as substantial as most encounters got.  Then I tried something different, out of desperation.  I would come up to people randomly and ask:  “How is your soul?”  And to my amazement, they would tell me!  They would be so relieved to encounter someone who asked a deep, open-ended question and seemed genuinely interested in their answers.  Immediately they gushed out their true thoughts and feelings.  It was as if I had breached a dam holding them back.  I have kept asking people that question ever since, and the profound encounters that have resulted have enriched my life immensely.  May it be so for you!
 
Being manly means having the strength to be emotionally and spiritually vulnerable.  My wife feels particularly close to me when I share my sadness and failures and weaknesses.  It might seem contradictory, but it is true:  my vulnerability is attractive to her.  Now that doesn’t mean I should fake being vulnerable – she would see right through it.  It just means that manhood makes room for revealing our mistakes and our disappointments and our wounds. 
 
Manhood is enriched by a sense of humor.  Not humor that comes at the expense of others, but rather a sense of humor that lifts up and celebrates the ironies in everyday life, that takes things lightly, that makes connections between things that we usually don’t think are related.  Real men laugh a lot.  Not at people, but with people.
 
Manhood requires self-awareness.  It requires mindfulness of our inner lives, consciousness of our thoughts and emotions.  Because what is unconscious within us has a way of controlling us in ways that harm ourselves and others.  To be mindful means practicing the discipline of watching our inner experience without judgment and with compassion, so that when we know we’re angry, we will know to take a walk and breathe before responding.  So that when we’re sad, we’ll notice it and take compassion on ourselves and seek out someone who will listen and care for us. 
 
Men need friends in order to be fulfilled in their manhood.  Not just buddies who share common interests, but real friends with whom they can share the truth of their hearts and give support to each other through thick and thin.  Men need to take the time to cultivate such friendships, face to face, in person… not just on social media.  Men need friendships with different kinds of people in order to see the world more richly and fully. Such friendship usually doesn’t happen overnight.  It takes a long-term investment of time and a willingness to be vulnerable with each other.  Join a community – a temple, a church, a community service group – where you can make good, solid friends.
 
Real men keep track of what is going on in the world, and take seriously their responsibility to make it a better place as active and engaged citizens.  They follow reputable sources of information that are produced and vetted by professional journalists – not just the blogs or podcasts of individuals.  I read The Economist magazine and the Los Angeles Times and listen to NPR for news: I watch very little television.  I read the New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly magazines for excellent long-form stories about public affairs.  I also sample disreputable media regularly just to know what others are seeing.  I pay close attention to the difference between factual reporting and editorial opinions, and only follow news sources that make a clear distinction between the two.  I strive to be skeptical of opinions – even of my own.  The scientific community is organized skepticism that develops and self-corrects.  But opinion based on isolated incidents is disorganized skepticism and generally goes nowhere.  I go with science.  I always vote, and I share with others how I’m voting, and I engage in respectful conversation about the candidates and issues.  Politicians and parties are far from perfect.  But I make the best choices I can, voting strategically for the most positive impact that is practically possible.  I vote for a strong democracy and for the common good, understanding that free enterprise flourishes best when everyone has access to health care whether they can afford it or not, and when people are not at risk of hunger or homelessness.  I’m a progressive patriot.  I love America because here we engage together through our democracy to correct our country’s mistakes and solve its problems.
 
Keep yourself clean.  Keep a tidy home.  Wear decent clothes.  Cook and eat healthy, natural food.  Stay away from hard drugs and limit your intake of alcohol and weed.  Go to the doctor and the dentist regularly.  Spend a lot more time in activities that nurture your body and soul than you spend in front of any kind of screen.  Take responsibility for your own actions and also for the wider community and world in which you live.  Have outrageous fun, but be righteous about how you do it.  Be righteous in your deeds, but maintain a sense of humor.
 
Most of all, be kind.
 
And with that, I wish you a wonderfully rich, fulfilling, and satisfying manhood!
 
Yours,
 
Jim Burklo

Faith, Politics, and Peanut M and M's

(This is an excerpt from the  sermon I gave on Sun Nov 10, 2024, after the election.... see/listen to the whole thing  HERE )

 

Matthew 5: 43-47
 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?”
 
Luke 22: 47-51
While (Jesus) was still speaking, suddenly a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him,  but Jesus said to him, “Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son of Man?”  When those who were around him saw what was coming, they asked, “Lord, should we strike with the sword?”  Then one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear.  But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him.


Years ago, when I served as executive director of the Urban Ministry of Palo Alto, we interviewed applicants for supervisors of our night-time shelter program for unhoused people.  One of them was a woman whose resume was perfect.  But when we met with her, we were a bit nervous.  She was about 5' 2" and had frizzy hair and huge glasses.  We finally asked the tough question:  "When confronted by large, angry people in an altercation, how would you handle it?" 

"I have found that there are few situations like that which cannot be managed with a large bag of peanut M and M's," she answered with a big grin.

After she left the room, we huddled.  It took seconds for us to agree that she was hired.

And on her first day of work, we presented her with a large bag of peanut M and M's.  "Have at it," we said.  And have at it she did.  She was just the right person for the job.

Thanksgiving is coming, and we better get spiritually prepared for some potentially tough conversations.  Bring along peanut M and M's!  They represent what might be called an "orthogonal intervention" that does not directly address the conflict or issue, but rather is tangential - coming out of seeming nowhere to move the encounter in a very different direction.

In times like these, creative approaches are very much needed.  We've had plenty of tit-for-tat, back-and-forth conversations with people who voted very differently than we did.  And it's obvious that the results have been sub-optimal. 

Time to take a very different path. 

For instance, instead of arguing at Thanksgiving when the topic of politics comes up, just ask questions.  Why did you vote the way you did?  And when they answer, ask yet another question that drills deeper into their reasons.  And when they answer, ask another question.  Every question plants a peanut M and M in their minds and hearts.  Who knows what will emerge from within them, over time?  From your questions, they might even get the inspiration to ask you a question - which then, with respect and loving kindness, you can answer.

When we ask questions - honest ones, open-ended ones - we show humility.  Too often we cut off the ears of folks with whom we disagree with angry rhetoric, however justified.  (I've been guilty of it myself....)  The Christ healed ears so they could hear.  The Christ heals our ears so we can hear.  We do this divine healing work when we ask good, respectful questions.  The Trump campaign, and its right-wing media echo chamber, steadily fed their followers a diet of curated outrage and grievance, to make them feel that "liberal elites" were looking down on them.  This cynical tactic worked.  I don't think it had nearly as much truth behind it as Fox, etc, made it look.  But our country will be served best if we work overtime to show real respect for those with whom we strongly disagree, going forward.

January 20, 2025 will commence a period that is likely to bring political chaos, humanitarian crisis, and economic disaster to America and beyond.  The seeds of its self-destruction have already been planted by the Republican party.  Buyers' remorse is likely to follow soon after Trump's inauguration.  But instead of saying "I told you so" to his voters, we need to lift up a positive alternative vision for our country, as we vigorously act to defend our democracy from an unprecendented threat of corrupt autocracy. 

Our progressive churches will be crucial to this struggle.  Now is our moment to invite into our faith communities the very many people who are looking for spiritual shelter.  Now is our moment to manifest a Christian resistance to tyranny, with our non-violent words and deeds.

Can you think of other tangential, out-of-the-box, orthogonal ways of engaging with people who went the other direction on November 5th?  Let's share our ideas with each other - as ways of accepting the challenge of unconditional love that the Christ puts before us.  The survival of democracy may well depend on it!

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

 

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn
- for they shall be comforted.... Jesus, Matt 5:4

Mourning, when practiced as a contemplative discipline, is the comfort that the mourner needs. 

Since getting the horrible news last night, I lost a lot of sleep.  I used that waking time to practice a mourning contemplation.

I quickly got in touch with the fact that my mind is crisscrossed with thick, powerful neural pathways that I've built up over the years in reaction to Trump, his policies, and his followers.  Pathways carrying thoughts, catch-phrases, and rehearsed responses that spin in my head.  The results of the election abundantly demonstrate what I've known in the back of my mind all along: that ultimately, these pathways lead to nowhere.

So last night I had the opportunity to lovingly examine them.  At first I was overwhelmed by my thoughts - agitated by them, disturbed by them as they roared through my head.  But after a while I was able to observe them as they arose, one at a time:  watching them carefully and thoroughly, with the open, non-judgmental, curious attention that is love.  Watching them with the eyes of God - who is that love. 

I was mourning, and the mourning was its own comfort.  I felt the blessing that Jesus promised those who mourn in his Sermon on the Mount.

This mourning practice became a pathway of its own - leading to enough equanimity to allow me to sleep at least for a while.   I'm still sleep-deprived... as I bet many of you are, as well.

So let us mourn, and help others around us to do the same - in a way that delivers the blessing we will need during this disaster for American democracy.  May our mourning strengthen our souls for the tasks before us in resistance to tyranny.

 

Gaza Action

The continuing slaughter of civilians in Gaza is unacceptable.

 

Below is what I wrote a few days ago to my member of Congress, our two CA senators, and to the Vice President and President.  I have done the same thing several times in the last year, and will keep doing so until we get a cease-fire.

 

They won't know we care about this issue unless we tell them - over and over and over.  Their staff people do indeed keep track of the flow and basic content of the emails they receive and report it to our elected officials.

 

Kamala Harris has not done what we want her to do - but she is definitely listening.  She has indicated serious concern for the civilian deaths in Gaza, and has made it obvious that she supports Israel but not its current government.  Based on her signaling, I believe that once she's not working under Joe Biden, she'll move in our direction.

 

She can be influenced on this issue.  If we really care about what's happening in Gaza, then we must get her elected and then keep the heat on her to demand a cease-fire before arming Israel any more.

 

Trump won't listen to us.  He's Netanyahu's best buddy.  If he is elected, it will be even more disastrous for Palestinians and ultimately for Israelis and everyone else in the Middle East.  Trump has no interest in any real solution to the conflict.  He's in bed with American Christian Zionists who believe that wiping the Palestinians off the map will hasten the return of Jesus.  His son in law, Jared Kushner, wants to turn Gaza into a high-end Mediterranean resort.  Mind-boggling!

 

Here's my message, which I've sent repeatedly and will continue to do so:

"Please deny arms/aid to Israel until it starts a cease-fire in Gaza, allows aid to enter the territory and allows for reconstruction, and ends settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.  Netanyahu and his government have no "end-game" for the conflict, which is now drawing the US into a major regional war.  The US must demand, unequivocally, an immediate cease-fire and an immediate, serious process aimed at establishing a two-state solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict, in order to assure the security of all in the region."

 

Kamala Harris:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/vicepresident/

 

Joe Biden:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/share/

 

Congress:

 

To contact your local member of Congress:  https://www.house.gov/

 

Senators (CA):

 

Laphonza Butler:  https://www.butler.senate.gov/share-your-opinion/

 

Alex Padilla:  https://www.padilla.senate.gov/contact/contact-form/

 

 

Write, write, write  - and spread the word to others to do the same.

 

Love will prevail, but only if we do what it takes for it to prevail!

 

 

Jim

 

VOTIVATOR: How I'm Voting Nov 5

VOTIVATOR

How I’m Voting Nov 5

First of all, it ought to go without saying that this election is momentous.  Democracy itself is on the ballot.  The list of reasons to vote against Trump is very, very long – but I think it is important, in communicating with people inclined to vote Republican, that we should keep things very simple.  Trump denied the outcome of the 2020 election and has pushed his lies about it ever since, and the consequences have been devastating – and Jan 6, 2021 was only one of them.  He lied and people died.  The trust of the people in the process of elections has been severely damaged.  If people don’t believe in the outcome of elections, then the Constitution isn’t worth the paper it’s written upon.  Trump has repeatedly violated his oath of office to protect and defend our Constitution, and therefore he must be considered unqualified for any office in the land. 

So with enthusiasm I’m voting for Kamala Harris and for Democrats all the way down the ballot.  (And I’ve been knocking on doors for George Whitesides for Congress in the close election for the 27^th CA District – let me know if you’d like to join me!)

I don't follow LA City/County issues closely any more, because I'm in Ventura County now - but I've always voted pretty closely with the recommendations of the LA Times:  https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-09-10/los-angeles-times-elections-endorsements-2024-november  .   I also have a lot of respect for the info provided by LAist.com - our regional NPR station:  https://laist.com/news/politics/voter-game-plan

Here are the LA Times rec’s for propositions – with my notes/additions in italics:

Proposition 2: Yes

Proposition 2 is a $10 billion bond that will fund repairs for California’s public schools and community colleges, many of which are run-down and lack basic functionality, such as air conditioning.

Proposition 3: Yes    Re: same-sex marriage - reverses Prop. 8 which is unenforceable now, but which in 2008 banned same sex marriage.

Proposition 3 gives Californians an opportunity to formally renounce a wrongful moment in our voting history and step forward to positively affirm that bigotry toward same-sex couples has no place in our state or its Constitution.

Proposition 4: Yes
Proposition 4 is a $10 billion grab bag of spending on climate, fire prevention, energy, conservation and agriculture projects so disparate that this bond measure almost defies categorization. But it is still better to spend money today to prepare for climate change than to pay much more to respond in the future.

Proposition 5: Yes   Substantially corrects one of the most onerous features of Prop 13 from 1978.....   

Proposition 5 would get California closer to majority rule by lowering the threshold to pass local bond measures to 55% instead of 66.7%. We think it’s a fairer way to make spending and taxing decisions. Requiring supermajority support gives disproportionate power to the naysayers to decide the appropriate level of taxation and spending. Why should one-third of voters get to set priorities for an entire community?

Proposition 6: Yes
Proposition 6 will remove the language in the state Constitution that allows prisons to force incarcerated people to work and punish them when they refuse. If we want people to emerge from prison rehabilitated — and if we care about public safety, we should — that requires allowing them to access as many opportunities as possible to get an education, learn a skill and get treatment to best prepare them for a productive life.

Proposition 32: Yes
Proposition 32 would give the state’s lowest-paid workers a modest raise, setting the minimum wage to $18 an hour in January, up from the scheduled $16.50 under current law. Businesses with 25 or fewer workers would have until 2026 to start paying $18 an hour. Earning a decent wage shouldn’t be a privilege afforded to people who happen to work in a city that has a higher local minimum wage, and raising base pay statewide is more equitable than a patchwork of rules for different regions and industries.

Proposition 33: No   Re: rent control - sounds good but the devil's in the details - it would obstruct low income housing development.  This proposition was put on the ballot by the fabulously rich AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which ought to "stick to its knitting" and focus on its core mission.

Proposition 33 would repeal a state law that restricts local governments’ ability to expand rent control. But it goes too far by including sweeping language that would prohibit the state from imposing any limits on rent controls set by cities and counties in the future, even if they stymie housing construction.  "Cities that are anti-growth and don’t want any new housing built could use their authority over rent control (diabolically) to require that developers set extremely low rent caps on new apartment buildings, which would make new multifamily housing financially unfeasible."

Proposition 34: No   AIDS Healthcare Foundation in LA has, unfortunately, become a corrupted nonprofit organization that pours millions into political projects that have nothing to do with its core mission.  But using the initiative process to punish it for its sins is going way too far....

AIDS Healthcare Foundation calls this a “revenge initiative,” and we agree. Proposition 34 would change the rules for healthcare providers in ways that seem designed to cut off the foundation’s tenant advocacy. Voters should emphatically reject Proposition 34 and send the message that they will not tolerate such a weaponization of the state’s citizen initiative process.

Proposition 35: No  This complex problem re: Medi-Cal reimbursement should be hashed out by the people we elect and pay for this purpose - the state legislature.  Again, The purpose of this one is righteous, but the devil's in the details -- this one could backfire re: funding Medi-Cal:  https://calmatters.org/health/2024/10/prop-35-health-insurance-tax/

Proposition 35 involves a tax on managed-care organizations, Medi-Cal reimbursement rates for medical providers, federal healthcare funding and the state budget. It’s complicated policymaking that is better suited to the full-time Legislature.

Proposition 36: No   

Proposition 36 won’t end homelessness or crime waves. Existing laws already give police the tools to stop petty thieves and smash-and-grab robbers. Proposition 36 will only refill prisons, push more people to the streets and erase criminal justice reform progress. And it would suck up much of the funding Californians recently approved for mental health care and gut programs that have successfully slashed recidivism.

Ojai CA:  (where we live)

Mayor:  Andy Gilman, a long-time resident and community-engaged person.  Endorsed by the Ojai Democratic Club.  His opponent looks like a reasonable and appropriate candidate as well, though I was turned off when I found out she had worked for Marianne Williamson’s presidential campaign….

Other city candidates are unopposed….

Measure O, Pickleball:  No.  The City Council decided to ban pickleball at the court near City Hall due to noise, and set up new courts at Soule Park – a reasonable solution.  The people who lost that vote put this on the ballot to restore pickleball at the City Hall courts.  This is the sort of thing we elect a city council to decide! 

Recreational Violence

What if the shooter whose bullet grazed Donald Trump's ear had no motive but the urge to have fun?

What if he woke up that day and thought, "Oh, I could take Dad's semiautomatic rifle and go and shoot somebody famous today - that would be cool." Why go to the firing range, when he could play for keeps?

Such was the motive that led a shooter to kill 60 people with military weapons he fired from a hotel room in Las Vegas in 2017. It appears that he did it because he felt like it. Not out of hatred, but because it was a satisfying form of entertainment. Some folks go to Vegas for the shows and the gambling. He went for the pleasure of shooting people.

What happened on Saturday ought to be the occasion for deep soul-searching by Americans of all political and religious persuasions. We have created a society that produces people who kill people for kicks. To turn this horror around, we have spiritual, cultural, and political work to do.

I run the risk of analyzing this latest event before it has been thoroughly investigated. But it isn't too early to speak out vigorously against a lot of the rhetoric that has followed it. If indeed the mere urge to play motivated the shooting, it ought to re-frame the conversation.

As of today, it appears that Trump is not the victim of political violence, which of course should be universally condemned, but rather of recreational violence committed with a military weapon that no civilian should own. This event should mobilize citizens and politicians to ban civilians from owning weapons which have no practical purpose but the mass killing of human beings. And until serious gun control laws are passed, we must engage in the cultural work of making it cool to engage in life-affirming recreation, and making it uncool to play with weapons of mass mayhem. (Calling all creatives in all mediums: let's get busy with this!)

The shooter hardly fit the stereotypes of someone angry at Donald Trump. He was a white male who wore camo and patriotic tee-shirts and loved shooting guns and was registered as a Republican. So Senator J.D. Vance's instant reaction to blame the shooting on Joe Biden was particularly outrageous. Donald Trump is indeed a mortal danger to democracy, and Biden is absolutely right to make that case, and to continue to make it. Speaking this truth is not an incitement to violence against Trump or anyone else. Let us not fall for this attempt to silence us about the threat to our constitutional order that Trump represents. He is going to use the nick on his ear to amplify his attacks against democracy. Let's not let him get away with it.

Trump is no more a martyr than the 60 folks in Las Vegas who were killed just for fun.

Another outrageous response has come from so-called Christians proclaiming that the hand of God reached down to save Trump from death on Saturday because he is divinely anointed. This is spectacularly bad theology. It begs the question: why did God allow the bystander to be shot to death? Why did God let bullets rip through the other bystanders who were critically injured? God saves Trump but not Trump's loyal followers? Why would an omnipotent God let anyone shoot at people just for laughs? This ought to be an occasion to reconsider belief in a supernatural God who picks and chooses those whom he allows to live and those he allows to suffer and die. Progressive religious people need to double-down on offering an alternative understanding of God as nothing less nor more than unconditional love.

We are called to lift up that love and and spread it. And in particular to share it with the socially alienated. We must transform our society from one that generates loneliness into one that extends conviviality. Progressive religious folks should count this terrible incident as a call to be more vigorous in inviting people, especially those who are isolated, into our faith communities. The salvation we offer is not from hell in an afterlife, but from an empty existence in this one. What if someone had invited the shooter to play a game of tennis on Saturday? Or dominoes? Or to watch a funny movie together? (There are documented stories of people who were on the verge of violence but were held back because someone treated them kindly at exactly the right moment.)

Divine, unconditional love could have saved the day on Saturday. Through our personal and collective action, may it save the day for our country - today and tomorrow.

The Original Fascination

Recently I was in Ohio for the memorial service for my best friend of 65 years.  It was a beautiful, soulful time of remembrance and reunion. Bruce and I had a lot in common, and one fascination we shared was with fossils, which abounded in the area around our hometown.  Above is a picture of me, last weekend, searching for them behind the school we attended.  Near that spot, when I was ten years old, I found the beautiful little crinoid coral flower head pictured here.  Who knows how many millions of years ago it swayed in the current at the bottom of an ocean? 
 
Now, I’m the old fossil, a relic left behind by my friend who preceded me into the great sea of eternity. 
 
And that’s okay.  Poking around for fossils reminds me of the true place of us humans in the grand scheme of the cosmos.  The human era on earth is but a blip in geologic time.  Will we be but a thin dark line in the strata looming above a tumbling, turning river at the bottom of some future abyss?  Such were my thoughts as I flew home, looking with wonderment into the Grand Canyon out the window of the plane.
 
We can grieve our finitude, but there is beauty in it.  As the Psalmist said, “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.”  
 
Who knows what sentient creatures one day will pick through that thin strata of the Anthropocene Era, enraptured? 
 
So let us be in wonderment at our existence, appreciating each other fully, reverencing the universe that brought my best friend to be, and brings the rest of us to be, here and now…. 

 

 

 

Simplicity

 

I grew up with Mennonites in a little town in Ohio.  One of them, a kid named Elmer, was in my class.  He wore overalls and boots to school.  In the spring, he reeked of the onions he had to thin from the fields of his family’s farm, first thing in the morning.  The Mennonite girls wore gingham dresses and very cute little white lace caps on their heads. 
 
We called them black-bumper Mennonites because unlike their Amish cousins, also followers of Menno Simons, the 16^th century Dutch founder of their wider religious movement, they would buy brand-new vehicles, mostly vans to haul around their big families, and paint the bumpers black to avoid appearing ostentatious.
 
Years ago, Roberta and I were wandering the back roads of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to admire the world of the Amish.  We went down a gravel road in our quest to get as close to authentic Amish life as we could.  We spied a tall old guy with a long grey beard wearing overalls and the typical straw hat standing by a stall where he sold shoo-fly pie.  Which consists basically of flour, shortening, and brown sugar.  Which attracts flies.  Hence the name.  Well, it attracted Roberta very powerfully, so we kicked up a rooster-tail of dust as we stopped.  Next thing you know, we took up the old man’s offer for us to stay overnight in the “bed and breakfast” he and his wife maintained in their barn.  Price:  $20 a night.  Roberta was entranced.  I laughed when we went into the upstairs of the barn and discovered a fly-infested space with a sway-bottomed spring bed and a toilet that consisted of a plastic bucket with a seat on it, and a shower that drained directly into the corral outside.  At breakfast next morning, sitting under the gas lamp above the kitchen table as we ate a hearty meal, Roberta announced that she wanted to be Amish.  Our hostess immediately answered:  “Oh no you don’t!”  and proceeded to describe how much hassle and work it is to be Amish.  You have no privacy, your house gets inspected to make sure you’re not living like the “English” – their term for everybody who isn’t Amish.  Her main objection to her Amish way of life was that it was more about the appearance of simplicity than simple living itself. 
 
Gandhi made a big deal about living simply.  He spun cotton to make the fabric for his simple dhoti clothing.  He went about in flip-flops and tried to do life the way poor Indians did.  But to maintain this lifestyle while he was leading the nonviolent revolution against the British raj in India, it cost a lot of money and hassle to schlepp his spinning wheel and to deal with all the special accommodations he required.  It was anything but simple for his retinue to deal with his proclivity for simplicity.
 
Simplicity sounds really nice for a lot of us who suffer from the complexities that life hurls our way every day.  But it isn’t always simple to live simply, is it?  All too often, you end up trading one kind of complexity for another. 
 
When traveling in developing countries, you might be entranced by the joy in the faces of poor people who appear to be enjoying the simple life.  And yes, there’s joy in those communities to which we can aspire.  But a closer look reveals how much difficulty is involved in the simple life that they appear to be living.  Roberta and I visited her son when he was in the Peace Corps in a very remote Quechua village in the Andes of Peru.  We loved the place!  It was bliss to wander through fields where women were singing beautifully as they picked and shelled peas.  But we also were sobered by the tough choices facing the villagers every day.  These were proud people whom the Spanish had never bothered to conquer.  They did not think of themselves as being poor, which was a spiritual blessing for them.  But the deprivations they had to deal with were difficult.  They didn’t have to deal with the time-consuming, maddening arcana of the Internal Revenue Service, but they had plenty of other stuff that weighed on their souls and consumed their time and energy.
 
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is a call to simplicity.  When you think about the Sermon on the Mount, it helps to be aware that these few chapters in the New Testament were the only words that Jesus’ audience would ever hear from him.  There were no newspapers, no televisions, no internet to record and disseminate his words.  So we must assume that everything Jesus wanted those folks to hear was in his sermon.  And what is very striking about it is what’s not in it.  There’s no dogma.  No doctrine.  No catechism.  No statement of faith.  It’s not about what to believe, but rather about what to do and how to be.  There are admonitions to love and care for others, to give up oppressing others.  Don’t worry about your clothes, don’t worry about food.  If you don’t worry about stuff, you won’t be obsessed with consumption.  You’ll be much more likely to more fully enjoy whatever you already have.    It’s simple religion - much, much simpler than the dominant paradigm of Christianity in America today.  Apparently, that was all the religion that Jesus thought folks needed.  Of course, we’re all going to have to deal with complicated stuff, no matter how hard we try to live simply.  But we can approach that complexity with simplicity of spirit. 
 
We can be clear-eyed about what ultimately matters and what ultimately does not.  We can cultivate satisfaction with the life we are living today, as it is today, as best we can.  We can savor what is good around us and within us.  We can value our relationships more than our stuff or our ambitions.  We can avoid entanglements that get in the way of our precious relationships.  We can cultivate a life of contemplation that makes the mundane sacred. 
 
Simplicity is a way of seeing and being, an ideal to which we can aspire, even as we negotiate and engage with the tangle of tasks and choices that beset us every day.  Simplicity of spirit will naturally guide us toward greater simplicity in our way of living.  Who knows?  If enough of us engage in spiritual simplicity, maybe systematic simplicity will follow!

The Shouting Stone

Bounding bootsteps puffing pale dust on the steepening trail, dodging boulders to get to a promontory opening to an aspect to the east of the salt lake below, she stopped upon hearing a yowl, a yelp, a whoop, a holler, a yip, a yap, and turned to seek its source.  Where?  She swiped her forehead with her bandanna, waited for her breath to abate so she could echolocate.  The sound emanated from a jumble of rocks above her.  She approached as the howling got louder.  It came from – a stone?  About the size of a loaf of bread.  Can this be?  Her jaw went slack as sweat dripped off her nose.  She drank a slug of water and splattered some on her face for fear of heatstroke.  But as her face cooled, the joyful exaltation from the stone still resounded off the cliffs and down the desert mountain.  She feared, but what was to fear?  It was the sheer sound of untrammeled joy.  And as she looked about, exhilarated, she shared in that joy.  The stone seemed to celebrate the stupendous grandeur that surrounded her.  So as the stone roared, she began to whoop along with it.  It responded to her yelps with more of its own.  Back and forth, in crescendo and diminuendo, in falsetto with bravado, they resonated until in exhaustion she paused, and the stone went quiet, and she asked:
 
“Who or what are you?” 
 
The stone replied: 
 
“I will answer.  But first you must tell me who or what you are.”
 
“Dorit,” she answered, hesitantly.  “My name is Dorit.”
 
“That’s the name to which you answer.  But who are you?”
 
“Uhhh…. A marketing executive.”
 
“That’s what you do, but who are you?”
 
After a silence she spoke.  “A human being?”
 
“Well, you are getting closer,” said the stone. 
 
“Closer to what?” she asked, bewildered.
 
“Closer to who you really are.  But let’s get closer yet.  Are you only your human mind and body?”
 
“Well, not just…”
 
“So what are you?  Your thoughts and feelings?” 
 
“What do you mean?” she asked, taking off her backpack and setting it against a rock wall and wiping sweat from her face.
 
“You aren’t just your body nor just your mind nor just what your mind experiences.  Who or what is aware of your body and your mind and your experiences?”
 
No one had ever asked Dorit such a question before.
 
She sat on a boulder in silence that the stone did not interrupt.  She observed her breath, her sweat, her sore leg muscles, the aroma of her perspiration, her swirl of thoughts and her shock at having a conversation with a stone.  For the first time she asked herself:  who or what was doing the observing?  “The universe?  God?  Consciousness itself?”
 
“Ahhh!” blurted the stone loudly.  “Yesss! Waaaahooooo!” – followed by more whoops and echoing howls.  Dorit could not help but howl along.  As she caught her breath, she said: “It’s your turn to tell me who you are!” 
 
“Fair enough!  I am who and what you are.” 
 
She stared at the stone in stunned silence.  “But you are a stone.  How can you speak?”
 
“How can I not speak?  How can I not shout with joy, any less than you?”

And together they howled and hollered till the sun hid behind the mountain and the moon rose over the desert to the east.......
 
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.  The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’ ”  Luke 4: 1- 4
 
Now as he (Jesus) was approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying,
  “Blessed is the king
    who comes in the name of the Lord!
   Peace in heaven,
    and glory in the highest heaven!”
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.”  He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”  Luke 19: 37 - 40