Macbeth and self-control

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One of my favorite lines from Shakespeare comes from Macbeth. Caithness said of Macbeth, “He cannot buckle his distempered cause within the belt of rule.” “Distempered” meant swollen or even, in the context, “fat.” Caithness was noting that Macbeth lacked self-control, that his “cause” (or will) was so enlarged that it could not be contained by the “belt of rule.” The image is that of a corpulent man who cannot fit his belt around his middle.

It makes me think of Proverbs 25:28, “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.”

Group think and lunacy

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Here is the most brilliant sociological analysis of group-think and the lunacy that it can lead to.  It features Tom Hanks, Chris Farley, Michael Myers, and the rest of the SNL gang from the early 90’s.  You must watch this as it is hilarious but also will bite you in the but for all human’s have this tendency to isolate themselves in the comfort of a smug group.  (Unfortunately, you will have to copy and paste the link into your address bar.)

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/mr-belvedere-fan-club/1354072/

 

SEX!

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Well, I thought that would get your attention!

Actually, all I have to offer is a bunch of random quotes about sexuality that have stuck in my mind over the years.

One of my favorites is from Woody Allen, “Of course sex is dirty. If you do it right.” Recently I read a line from Mary Karr when she was describing her failing marriage, “Any sex that took place was of the calf-roping kind.” And I love H. L. Mencken’s pithy observation, “The trouble with abstinence is its over emphasis of sex.” Shakespeare in Othello described a copulating couple as “making the beast with two backs.” And then there is the beautifully worded phrase from the Old Testament, “the way of a man with a maiden.”

richard rohr

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I have quoted Richard Rohr frequently.  Here, he actually gives us permission to quote him freely without regards to copyright!  I will not abuse the privilege but I will quote him more freely.  My main intent today is to sell you on him.  He is a tremendous voice for the Christian faith and you can hear from him daily by going to his web-site and signing up.  He is very astute and very humble.

“You can catch more flies with a spoonful of honey than a barrel of vinegar,” says Francis de Sales.

Enlightenment cannot be manufactured, manipulated, or delivered on demand. It is always passed on from another. Jesus both claims to be the Light of the World and then says the same for us too! (See John 8:12 and Matthew 5:14-16.) It is surprising that most do not connect these two scriptures. Wisdom is not a do-it-yourself project. It is a mystery of transmission, contagion, and the passing on of life, as Francis de Sales did so well through his many loving messages in very hostile 17th-century Geneva.

I always tell people who ask if they can quote me that if it is true wisdom then I have no copyright to it. I learned it from someone else. If it is true wisdom it is always “common domain.”

Enlightenment is not about knowing as much as it is about unknowing; it is not so much learning as unlearning. It is more about entering a vast mystery than arriving at a mental certitude. Enlightenment knows that grace is everywhere, and the only reasonable response is a grateful heart and the acknowledgment that there is more depth and meaning to everything. A too quick and easy answer is invariably a wrong one.

Rohr understands that faith involves going beyond ideology, even “sacred” ideology and seeking the truth that lies beyond mere words.  For example, the term “jesus” is far removed from the experience of “Jesus.”  Or, as the Buddhists say, “The finger pointing to the moon is not the moon.”

Now if I can only humbly learn to practice what I here preach.

 

Faith and the transitoriness of life

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The goal of all spiritual practice is to help us see that we are more than temporary and meaningless collections of automatic emotional and physical responses. All spiritual practices are designed to lead us to see a higher reality — that we are, in truth, eternal consciousness, occupying physical form for a purpose, animated and connected to the creative and sustaining source of everything. (Rabbi Alan Lurie)

It is challenging to pay attention to “the automatic emotional and physical responses” that we are; for, to borrow a line used in the past, asking one to do this is like asking a fish to see water. We are very ephemeral creatures, existing for but a moment in this mysterious, ever-expanding universe, and it is human nature to take ourselves way to seriously and assume that we objectively grasp “reality”. As Rabbi Lurie noted, our task is to grasp our finitude and affirm, by faith, a “higher reality” which I like to describe as our Source. It is much easier to cling to what Kierkegaard described as the “flotsam and jetsam”, i.e. the prevailing dogma of the day…that we fleetingly see in this vortex of life. The goal is to let go of the “flotsam and jetsam” for a moment and, by faith, cling to the Ultimate.

Conservative-Liberal impasse

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The meaning of “conservative”, at least in the political sense, means “to conserve.” The conservative presence is any culture wants to protect the status quo, including religion, politics, social mores, and economics. This is a valid historical phenomenon and needs respect. In its extreme, this “conservative” presence wants not only to maintain the status quo, but wants to do so with a vehemence. It fact, it often would like to return to an earlier, halcyon day when, in our case, “truth, justice, and the American way” prevailed.

The liberal presence wants change in the aforementioned categories. It sees the status quo as problematic and wants to bring about changes, often sweeping changes. If this force is not checked, it too can lead to problems.

When these two forces work in tandem, a society will have a dynamic quality that is necessary. When they are at loggerheads, problems are in the offing. If there can be no compromise, if there can be no respect for each other, then historically catastrophe has often been in that offing.

As Rodney King said, “Why can’t we just all get along.”

Anne Frank and courage

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In spite of everything, I still believe
That people are really good at heart.
I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation
Consisting of confusion, misery and death.
I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness,
I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us, too,
I can feel the suffering of millions, and yet,
If I look up into the heavens
I think that it will all come right,
That this cruelty will end,
And that peace and tranquility will return again.
In the meantime, I must uphold my ideals,
For perhaps, the time will come
When I shall be able to carry them out.
— Anne Frank

It is marvelous that she could have such an optimistic viewpoint of life, given the circumstances in which she was living and even more so given how she would die. In my clinical work I have come across many teen-agers with similar courage and faith even in difficult circumstances. For courage and faith are not merely a function of maturity and education but often of some intrinsic hope in the human race, and more importantly in God.

Elif Shafak and faith

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English: Elif Şafak

Image via Wikipedia

Elif Shafak delves into faith in her book, Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within. From her book, I think she would call herself a “Sufi” personally. But she makes a thoughtful distinction between atheism and agnosticism. She noted that she lacked the arrogance to outright reject the notion of God, as in atheism, but implied that she found herself agnostic at times. She described an agnostic as “befitting of people who were perpetually bewildered about things, including religion.” She described an atheist as “sure of his convictions, and speaks in sentences that end with a full stop. An agnostic puts only a comma at the end of his remarks…he will keep pondering, wondering, doubting.”

Shafak might describe me as an “agnostic.” Hmmm. But, I appear to have the gift of faith which perseveres through the tribulation of doubt. Though to reiterate on old refrain of mine, “I’ll take an agnostic ( or an atheist ) over the notion of blindly regurgitating what one has been indoctrinated with.”

Reza Aslan on fundamentalism

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I am now reading for the second time Reza Aslan’s book, Beyond Fundamentalism: Confronting Religious Extremism in the Age of Globalization. Aslan, an Iranian born American citizen, explores fundamentalism of all stripes though his main focus is on Islamic fundamentalism. He thoroughly explores some of the basic concepts of fundamentalism and how that when core beliefs are taken to an extreme, the consequences can be severe.
For example, he notes that the word “jihad” in Arabic means simply, “a struggle” and comes from the verb “jihada” which means, “to strive for something.” Aslan argues that the word in its context implies “a struggle against the self, against one’s passions and instincts and the temptations that oppress the soul.” But that is a far cry from the popular meaning of the term in today’s world. This demonstrates how easy it is for anyone or any group to take a simple word or concept and interpret it to fit their own ends.
Ideologues of any stripe are dangerous people. If you run into one, give them wide birth! Unless, of course, it happens to me moi!
Aslan’s exegesis of the term jihad reminds me of Proverbs 25:28: He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls. And of course we know what happened back then if the walls of a city were broken down. The enemy could get in.

“Black Milk,” feminism, & depression

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I’ve read a lot of feminist literature in the past two decades, scholarly
endeavors as well as literary. Feminism was one of the powerful “isms” that the
20th century introduced and I think one of the most important of them in terms
of creating a new voice and in introducing to us the notion that new “voices”
are always in the making…or they should be if there is any “life” present in
the culture. Elif Sharak’s memoir Black Milk reflects one of these new
“voices” in Turkish culture. Sharak’s experience of becoming a new mother is
the framework of the memoir but it also delves significantly into the history of
feminism in the past century or so. She intertwines into the story line of the
memoir short vignettes of significant feminist figures in this time frame and
highlights some of the battles they fought with themselves, their romantic
partners, and their culture. She also eloquently describes her battle with a
debilitating post-partum depression.

There are many astute observations she makes in the book. I will share only
one, a piercing observation about depression which touches on faith in God. She
describes depression as, “that sinking feeling that your connection to God is
broken and you are left to float on your own in a liquid black space, like an
astronaut who has been cut loose from his spaceship and all that linked him to
Earth.”

I have read clinical tomes on the subject of depression and many of those that I
find most insightful, from a psycho-dynamic viewpoint, approach the subject of
depression as a loss, as the experience of “the lost object.” And from my own
clinical work I can note that one of the most significant signs of depression is
when a person starts breaking off connections, therefore “losing” friends, work,
family, faith…and if the downward spiral is not interrupted even life
itself. Ultimately this spiral leads to Hamlet’s famous lament, “To be or not to be,
that is the question.” These words of Shakespeare and the quotation above from
Shafak bring to my mind the famous Edvard Munch painting, The Scream. That is
one visual image of ultimate despair, the subjective experience of that
aforementioned astronaut being cut loose from his spaceship.