Fools and hypocrites
June 28, 2009 by Bill
The word brilliant may be overused, but surely in the case of Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain it applies. Both men used linguistic needles to make precise observations about fools and hypocrites in society.
We are approaching the 4th of July and a celebration of The Declaration of Independence. With only a few word changes that entire document was written by one man, Thomas Jefferson…who also used his brilliant linguistic needles to make precise observations about the dangers of religion in society. From his “Notes on Religion” passed in the Assembly of Virginia, 1786, he made this observation:
“Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools…and the other half hypocrites. Christian creeds and doctrines, the clergy’s own fatal inventions, through all the ages has made of Christendom a slaughter house.”
The “fools and hypocrites” of Christian hypocrisy have never been so obviously revealed as in Mark Twain’s THE WAR PRAYER. You will need one box of Kleenex if you take time to read the entire prayer. A part includes these words: “O Lord our God…Thou who art love and compassion…help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds…help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded…writhing in pain…O Thou who art love and compassion…help us to wring the heart of the widows with unavailingly grief…O Thou who art love and compassion be with us as we water their way with tears…and stain the white snow with the blood of their children…We ask it…in the spirit of love…of Him…who is the source of love…Amen”
In “The Mysterious Stranger”, Twain wrote about the Christian George W. Bushes of the world who will always “shout for war.” “The loud littler handful…as usual…will shout for the war. The great…big…dull bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there should be a war…and will say indignantly…it is unjust and dishonorable..there is no necessity for it…”
Solstice magic
June 21, 2009 by Bill
My calendar of the soul fills me with awe at the miracle of the summer solstice. The dazzling, shimmering light of this solstice period balances the winter solstice. It is the Yin-Yang of the universe, the cosmic dance of complementary opposites.
The heat waves radiate out from the mountain rocks that jealousy guard our home. The animals find shade from the noonday sun and the flowers wait for their daily drink. I live surrounded by miracles and I realize that we humans are only a very, very small part, a unit of one, symbiotically related and dependent upon all of the other billions of protoplasmic relatives. How is it that we are all connected in some marvelous and mysterious way to this cosmic dance of solstice and equinox? This something unknown…doing we know not what.
I stand in awe and wonder gazing at the flowers outside the glass doors of my study. A long, long time ago there were no flowers. And then, just before the close of the Age of Reptiles, there was a soundless explosion that lasted over a million years. It was the emergence of the angiosperms, the flowering plants. And from flowers came the mystifying emergence of man. My flower seeds have a long memory, and I too, as I remember that my very existence as Homo sapiens depends on these flowers.
In these desert spaces of this summer solstice grows thorny plants and spiny creatures. And within this same solstice are forests of giant trees, and great plains covered with the grasses that weave a garment for the naked earth. And I think that the flowers of a rainy spring…and the grasses of a showery summer…are good…and beautiful…and sufficient…even though they will shortly vanish.
I have often wondered, as I wander, what cosmic astrological energy is there within me during these solstice periods? The solstice reminds me that we must come to terms with non-physical realities. It is like ultraviolet light…microwave light and infrared light and many other ranges of frequencies which coexist with our visible light spectrum and yet are invisible. How many other non-physical energy frequencies co-exist with us and yet are invisible to us?
The summer solstice reminds me that we live in the midst of, and are supported by, mysteries beyond our comprehension. It reminds me of our connection to invisible realities, the view long held by Native peoples and Eastern sages. A view that is today being confirmed by physicists and astronomers. “The universe is everything, both living and inanimate things, both atoms and galaxies. The spiritual and material are one…for the universe is the totality of all things.” wrote Fred Hoyle in “Frontiers of Astronomy.”
Even life and death are one. Life is only a short episode between two mysteries which are yet one. Spring begins with winter and death begins with birth. We all share the same breath together in this short episode, the trees, the birds, the four legged animals and the human animal, the fish of the sea and the insects of the earth and water. We all dance to a common cosmic rhythm.
My natural habitat…a writer’s kiva
June 14, 2009 by Bill
During the years that I have been writing for the Santa Barbara News-Press, as well as my weekly essays published on my website, there is one question that has been asked of me many times in one way or another: “I am interested in the work environment of writers, artists, or the study of people who create. What is it like where you work? What stimulates your creativity?” I can strongly relate to that question. I have long had an interest in the studios and studies of writers and artists. I have many excellent books of photographs and texts devoted to that subject.
My study is a “writer’s Kiva.” A Kiva is a spiritual room filled with sacred objects in the Pueblo traditions. When the wife of an Elder of the Taos Pueblo in Taos, New Mexico first came into my study, she said: “I have not felt so much spiritual energy except in the Kivas of the Pueblo.” That is what I feel. Writing is a deeply soul searching activity. It is a place for reflections and creative intuition. Writers need a sense of place to get their words on paper. It should be a happy and joyful place. Mine is.
There are two traditions that prevail throughout my entire study and patio. The traditions of West Texas ranching and the American Indian. When you enter my study you go through a door with a “horse stick” above and you will walk under it. The “stick” was created by an artist of the Ute people in Colorado. His name was “Grey Feather” and he gave it to me after my lecture at the University of Colorado, Pueblo. The “stick” has a carved horse head on one end with the rest being covered with horse hair and prayer feathers. Feathers were called “the breath of life” in all Indian cultures. On the left, as you enter, is the skin of a Siberian Wolf hanging on the wall given to me by the wife of a Taos Pueblo Elder who gave me the honor of being named a “brother” with the name of Thunder Hawk. Past this, on the wall, is a framed letter to me in longhand from Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas inviting me to spend a day with him at his summer cottage in Goose Prairie, Washington. It was one of the most remarkable days of my life. On the right is a 25 foot wall filled with books from floor to ceiling with the subjects that have filled my brain/mind and soul. The American Indian…western history…mythology…the anthropological study of religious traditions…biography…art…essays of Loren Eiseley…Frank Waters…Lauren van der Post…Stanley Kunitz…Eric Hoffer…René Dubos…and on, including the 12 volumes of Robert Ingersoll.
