<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="0.92">
<channel>
	<title>Toward the Mystery</title>
	<link>http://williamedelen.org</link>
	<description>The virtual home of the William Edelen Symposium</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:00:36 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss092</docs>
	<language>en</language>
	<!-- generator="WordPress/3.0" -->

	<item>
		<title>It is a good day to die</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In her book "Many Winters,” Nancy Wood presents some of the beautiful poetry of the Taos Pueblo in Taos, New Mexico. This is what an old woman wrote:

"Today is a very good day to die....
Every living thing is in harmony with me.
Every voice sings a chorus within me. 
All beauty has come to rest in my eyes.
All bad thoughts have departed from me.
Today is a very good day to die.
My land is peaceful around me.
My fields have been turned for the last time.
My house is filled with laughter.
My children have come home.
Yes, today is a very, very good day to die."

When the great Lakota warrior and holy man, Crazy Horse, was giving General Custer and his 7th Cavalry a "sensitivity" lesson at the famous battle of the "Little Big Horn" he would cry out to his Lakota warriors, "Be brave!! It is a very good day to die." When it was over, Custer and his 7th Cavalry, over 250 men, were dead.]]></description>
		<link>http://williamedelen.org/archives/2144</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>The sin of omission</title>
		<description><![CDATA[There is a sin among a large segment of the Christian clergy that I find despicable. It is the sin of omission. It is the sin of not sharing with a congregation what you know to be true about the bible and Christianity. It is the sin of promoting what you know to be false in order to hold your job. Those graduating in religious studies from every major university in America, as well as every major theological seminary that is independent of Christian financial pressure, know certain facts to be true. They know:

That the entire bible is saturated with common mythological themes, from the creation and flood myth, to virgin birth and resurrected hero mythology.
That the stories of the patriarchs in the Old Testament are known as “temple legends” to enhance the history of the Hebrew people and are mostly fiction.
That the Gospels were not written by anyone who knew Jesus personally, and are to be read only in the context of legends.
That the “Christ” myths and formulas are direct copies of Zoroastrian and Egyptian myths adopted by the Jesus sect.
That these facts, with others, have been known for years, and taught, by scholars who are respected internationally in major universities world wide.
]]></description>
		<link>http://williamedelen.org/archives/2134</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Memory: a mixed bag</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The book stores today are filled with books about "living in the NOW." THIS IS IT. Today, this moment is all we really know. Yesterday is a cancelled check. Tomorrow is a promissory note. There is some truth in this view. But, the problem is that memory is a house with thousands of rooms. Memories are deleted … destroyed ... eroded ... drowned ... faded away ... crowded out or allowed to stay for another day. Without memory there is no experience, which is nothing else than reiterated memory.

One of the miracles of the human mind is memory. Within one single mind, a person can fly from one decade to the next, or the past, one country to another ... past to present to possible future. Memory is imagination and fantasy. It can be flooding our mind, and emotions, with precious and cherished times. To delete these or smother them could leave our lives grim and impoverished. To have these still in our minds to recover at will can make our "present"...our "now" moments, where we daily live, more enriching, more joyful, and put a smile on our faces.

I remember that little West Texas homestead of my mother’s parents where I spent all my summers through grade school and high school ...and I smile as I remember my Grandpa Deaver as having white hair and a flowing, giant mustache, eating clabber and corn bread at breakfast. As his mustache filled, the clabber would start dripping back into the bowl. This brings my "now" moment into a happy focus and brightens my "now" moment into a happy smile.
]]></description>
		<link>http://williamedelen.org/archives/2120</link>
			</item>
</channel>
</rss>
