When you shatter my myth....

Patricia Williams at The Nation:

But for those whose sense of identity has been premised on a raced, masculinist, conservative Christian hierarchy of American power, the world must seem even more emotionally terrifying than any actual facts would indicate.

[Emphasis mine]

Boy, does that sum up a lot.

h/t to Maha

--the BB

Change Is the Only Constant

Change Is the Only Constant

We are not who we were yesterday,
nor yet what we shall be tomorrow.
Our world shifts, and we shift,
every aspect of our being in transition
from subatomic particles to our character.
Today you felt a shift in your feelings
for someone you have gotten close to—
too soon to know just what happened
or how it will sort itself out.
The fact that some deep stuff is involved
becomes obvious when you sense that
you have to reach for the word “Love”
to talk about it, though love is not
some moment or decision or fixed thing either.

Love grows and develops, it is many-sided
and many-layered, you cannot define it.
You can know it by certain distinguishing marks,
so to speak, and by its fruits.
Love will anchor you when you need to be held fast
and uproot you when you need to let go,
yet it will always serve life,
even when it embraces death.
Love will increase your compassion,
your willingness to understand where others come from,
what disasters, blessings, detours shaped their journey,
what scars they bear too deep to be spoken of,
and this is not just compassion for your beloved
or for those whose love carries you in their hearts—
it will be for all beings.
Love will show itself in respect: for others,
for yourself, for creation, and for your Creator—
you will want to treat all things and persons well.
Love overcomes sin and all manner of evil,
not by power but by its ability to embrace
all things and to forgive and make new beginnings possible.
Love is truthful and will not tolerate evasion, illusion,
deceit, manipulation. Love has nothing to hide.
Many passions know shame, and should, but love does not.
Love will be gentle with you but it will not coddle you;
it will hold you to account for your decisions, words, thoughts,
actions and non-actions and their consequences;
by doing so it takes you seriously
and reminds you that you matter.
It is a sad thing that we hurt those we love;
given this painful reality, remember that love itself
will not use or abuse others and love will seek
the restoration of relationship where breaks occur.
Love does not exploit, it does not make excuses,
it does not seek to justify itself, it does not blame or judge—
what it does is see clearly and makes the truth known.
Love is not cowardly, nor saccharine and sentimental;
it has a backbone and it can outlast mountains.

We do not create love, we cannot make it happen,
it is in the very fabric of the universe and is something
of the cosmic dance with the energies of God
whirling all the worlds into being,
a dance we share in. We open our hearts to love,
to the dance, to the rhythms of life,
allowing them to flow through us,
and the tides of those energies and the rhythms of that dance
come to us in times and manners we cannot control.

So as all things change in the endless interchange
of many dancers joined to the One Dancer in the One Dance,
we are changed and changing. For all that,
and for reasons known to the Dancer alone,
we are allowed to shape the dance,
to determine our part, even within the constraints
of all those givens that we cannot alter or evade.
My friend, be deliberate as you choose
which rhythm to step to and how
you shape the next figure of that dance.
By the time you take that next step,
all things will have shifted yet again,
but you are contributing to the ever-unfolding pattern.
Make beauty, make life, open your heart
to feel all things in their uniqueness and reality,
songs and sorrow alike, know them,
and a deep joy will spring up within you,
the joy of the Dancer.
Do not fear change,
choose life!

August 27, 2002
(c) by PES

Thursday Constitution Blogging

Welcome back to our new feature, Thursday Constitution Blogging. Now that I've testified for Jesus I want to put in a few good words for the United States Constitution. I don't think it's perfect but it's one damn fine structure for a free People to gather as a nation and govern themselves.

I currently work as a contractor for a federal government agency. At a "family meeting" a while back the branch chief talked a bit about the oath of office. You know, the one about allegiance to the Constitution? Sort of like the one the President takes. She had been reminded about it and wished she had a judge present to administer the oath to the lot of us. I so wished someone official in black robes were present. Even though not technically a federal employee I was ready to leap to my feet and take the oath. Several times over the course of that day I got teary thinking about it.

You see, I not only love me some Jesus, I love me some United States of America. Jingoism makes me wanna puke, but I love this land and the dream and ideals that shaped it. I remember returning from my first trip abroad, three months in France as a student. I had seen the world through non-Yankee eyes, which was shocking and liberating. But when I emerged from Customs at JFK and saw the words of Emma Lazarus' "The New Colossus" inscribed there and thought of that lifted lamp I wept and wept. THIS was what made America great: that shining promise.

I reread the Constitution periodically. Bored the hell out of me in high school. Not anymore. So now you have some idea why I post about it here.

On a related topic, I urge y'all to give an ear (well, actually, an eye or two) to Dennis. He has something important to say and is calling on us to spread the word [link]. Dennis points us to A Tale of Two Decisions about FBI coerced confessions, a story of the sickness that infests our nation these days. Here's a bit of Dennis that I found moving.

Did you ever think that one day this would be America? That our government would ask a court to help cover up illegal and immoral behaviors? Sometimes I don't recognize America anymore.

It is time for a change in America. It is time for an end to the lies and the secrecy. Someone, please tell Hillary and Barack and John and Chris and Bill and the rest of the crowd running that they need to convince us that they will change these things. And tell the media that this is what matters, not the stupid horse race that politics in America has become.

Let's stand up and fight to restore America to herself, People!

Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

--the BB

Frenchy: most admired, least imitated

Francis by Zurbaran

Professor Gerhard B. Ladner, in his class on early and medieval church history at UCLA, commented that Francis was, perhaps, the most admired and least imitated of all the saints.

There are wonderful posts on Francis (here and here and here and here and here). My thanks to the online company of the faithful who nurture, challenge, and care about one another.

I would like to draw your attention especially to the post by Fr. Jake. He has the lyrics there. Here is the video meditation on Surely We Can Change, David Crowder Band, Remedy (2007):

Dear Francesco,
Please pray for us; we are making such a mess of it all. Help us to see, to really see and know and understand, God's gracious love manifest in all creation. May we see Christ in friend and foe, enemy and stranger, wherever we go. Give my fond regards to the wolf of Gubbio. Thanks.

--the BB

Update: Fr. Jake credits Bob Carlton, and I hereby do the same.