6/30/20
READING. The June NonRequired Reading List hit the email shelves today. Get your copy there or use this link.
6/28/20
ANNIVERSARY. This weekend marks the anniversary of my marriage. My wife and I often forget our anniversary, an omission as an outcome of the tender chaos of raising children. The best advice marriage advice we received was from a marriage I greatly admire. A couple who moved slowly together in their three cord braid of unity. His wife had passed already (he gave me the exact amount of days since she had crossed the veil) and said we should consider celebrating month-a-versaries. Each month on the given date they would pause and celebrate another month of marriage. He said a marriage is worth more than an annual celebration or acknowledgement. The underside of this advice was the constant attention it takes to treasure the wild choice to bind yourselves together in love and commitment. As a man slow to commitment, rarely a day passes that I don’t look at my wife and sigh in disbelief at our lavish union. May it continue.
6/26/20
BECOMING. Food for thought.
“Peter Sloterdijk describes change as the modern name for something that classical philosophy called becoming, because everything that is, is not given in stable, everlasting forms but has to become what it is. He says modernity is all about interfering with this process of becoming, and putting it or pushing it into a direction that fits better with human purposes.” Read the interview here.
6/25/20
START SMALL. My son loves Michael Franti. He may not be two, but his taste in music is impeccable. The first time he heard Michael Franti he went bananas dancing until his feet burned into a cartoonish fever pace. I can’t wait to show him this music video that embodies so much of my own personal philosophy. (h/t to Cliff for tipping me off that Franti had a new album)
6/24/20
SAY THANK YOU SAY I’M SORRY. Jericho Brown is one my favorite poets for a reason. Check out Brown’s poem ‘Say Thank You Say I’m Sorry‘.
6/23/20
I WAS WASHING MY HAIR. Forgot to post…
6/22/20
MORE PLEASE. When you have friends from two far-off corners of your life come together and find resonance in one another’s presence magic occurs. I know musicians collaborate all of the time, but when I am discovering Scott Avett and Clem Snide in song (see 6/15/20) and Rhiannon Giddens and Yo-Yo Ma more recently…I might as well be setting up camp on the moon. I am viewing the planet’s brightest with a mouth agape and swooning in my moon dusted lawn chair. This song is otherworldly, achingly beautiful, is from the heart of today.
6/21/20
DAY OF THE DAD. Profundity is greeted at the intersection of opposable experiences. Stingy attitudes of the past and gentile moments of the now meet without arms in no man’s land and embrace. Impossible to predict, but blasphemous to deny–fatherhood has changed me. Without intent or forethought, an unexplainable gift from my children.
6/20/20
CONTEMPLATIVES ON THE DIGITAL STREETS. There is a long tradition of contemplatives challenging the status quo of their times. It takes inspiration from Jesus, who stirred it up with every power broker of his day, often saving some his nastiest one-liners for the teachers of the law and Pharisees. Jesus had the gift of gab that he backed up with a healing touch, alternative community, and a new way of being united. This tradition continues today.
The Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington is a 2.5 hour program that will be broadcast on Saturday June 20 at 10AM and 6PM EST, and again on Sunday June 21 at 6PM EST, right here at June2020.org.
6/19/20
JUNETEENTH. Perhaps like me, you never heard about Juneteenth growing up. Jamelle Bouie lets you know “Why Juneteenth Matters“.
6/18/20
WHO POETS TURN TO. If you are an old hand at Contemplify you know how much poetry informs my perspective. As Wallace Stegner says, poets are the “priests of the invisible”. I make it a practice to read at least a poem a day to blink away the dust blocking my vision of reality. In this article poets of today were asked which poems (and poets) they turn to in times of strife. Elevate these suggestions to your eyes and notice which poems your vibrating attention finally comes to rest on. Read here.
6/17/20
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BOB DYLAN. From a NYT’s interview with Bob. I lift up the first two paragraphs as the meta-message of gospel music and then his particularities through specific artists.
Why didn’t more people pay attention to Little Richard’s gospel music?
“Probably because gospel music is the music of good news and in these days there just isn’t any. Good news in today’s world is like a fugitive, treated like a hoodlum and put on the run. Castigated. All we see is good-for-nothing news. And we have to thank the media industry for that. It stirs people up. Gossip and dirty laundry. Dark news that depresses and horrifies you.
On the other hand, gospel news is exemplary. It can give you courage. You can pace your life accordingly, or try to, anyway. And you can do it with honor and principles. There are theories of truth in gospel but to most people it’s unimportant. Their lives are lived out too fast. Too many bad influences. Sex and politics and murder is the way to go if you want to get people’s attention. It excites us, that’s our problem.
Little Richard was a great gospel singer. But I think he was looked at as an outsider or an interloper in the gospel world. They didn’t accept him there. And of course the rock ’n’ roll world wanted to keep him singing “Good Golly, Miss Molly.” So his gospel music wasn’t accepted in either world. I think the same thing happened to Sister Rosetta Tharpe. I can’t imagine either of them being bothered too much about it. Both are what we used to call people of high character. Genuine, plenty talented and who knew themselves, weren’t swayed by anything from the outside. Little Richard, I know was like that.
But so was Robert Johnson, even more so. Robert was one of the most inventive geniuses of all time. But he probably had no audience to speak of. He was so far ahead of his time that we still haven’t caught up with him. His status today couldn’t be any higher. Yet in his day, his songs must have confused people. It just goes to show you that great people follow their own path.”
6/16/20
MERTON TALKIN’ REVOLUTION. At the modern Christian contemplative picnic, the Trappist monk Thomas Merton was the first to arrive. When searching for wisdom from within my own contemplative lineage to speak into the present revelations, some friends suggested Merton’s Seeds of Destruction. I’ll be sharing passages here for a bit I’m sure. This first one comes from a portion of the book called ‘Letters to a White Liberal’ (p.28 / bold is my substitution). This was published in 1961, Merton was a seer of his times and ours.
“A little time, a perhaps only a few more months, and we will realize the two have a moment of unparalleled seriousness in American history, indeed in the history of the world. The word “revolution” is getting around. Accepted at first with tolerance, as a pleasantly vivid figure of speech, it is going to be regarded with more and more disapproval, because it comes too near to the truth. And why? What is a revolution? What does it mean to say that [Black Lives Matter] amounts to a revolution?”
6/15/20
INTO THE MYSTIC. Music is for all seasons of life. Uprisings. Quarantines. Fried eggs with garlic and onion at dawn. And every once in a while an album slips under the red tape of categories and sprints into the mystical. The album Forever Just Beyond by Clem Snide & Scott Avett offers plenty of exploration to the bent ears of a seeker.
I will reflecting more on this album in an upcoming electronic mail letter I am sure. For now feast your ears on the title track, “Forever Just Beyond”.
6/14/20
BROKEN HEARTS & DIRTY WINDOWS. Turn this on in the background of your Sunday, scoop up some ice cream, and watch the day grow up with this Tribute to John Prine. Expires at the end of the day. [Updated 6/16: Video is expired, read the article here]
6/13/20
CHAPPELLE. God bless Dave Chappelle. This comedy special will not be for everybody; the language will be too crass, the descriptions too rough. This special is not for ‘polite’ society. That is the point. There is a genius to Dave Chappelle’s comedy that honors the legacy of the griot, prophet, truth teller, and jester. In the midst of the uprising of people tired of bearing the costs of systemic racism, suppression, and killings of Black people, Dave Chappelle speaks. For those who have ears to hear, lean in and listen closely.
6/11/20
SLOW & FAST. Contemplative groundwork manifests in direct action in the service of love. I see many clergy steeped in the multivocality of contemplative traditions standing up for racial justice right now. The forms vary by circumstance and calling, but the contemplative muscle is being flexed in public. My heart is ablaze in that public witness. I thought this headline spoke to the immediacy and committed steadiness of both the work of contemplative and racial justice — “These Authors Are Glad You’re Buying Their Books. Now Do the Work.“
6/10/20
SABBATH POEMS. Wendell Berry is known for walking the woods near his home and crafting a poem. This is one such poem that speaks to the deathless soul having a shared incarnational experience.
I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.
Then what is afraid of me comes
and lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings, and I hear its song.
Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.
After days of labor,
mute in my consternations,
I hear my song at last,
and I sing it. As we sing,
the day turns, the trees move.
from A Timbered Choir by Wendell Berry (h/t Brian)
6/9/20
BIRD ON A WIRE. This song levels me. The bird call I hear is freedom. This warble tickles my ear and allures me to take hot pursuit of boundless freedom. Pay attention to what freedoms are being chased, loved, demanded, invoked, held in your community, and if you can join in with the lyric, “I have tried in my way to be free.”
6/8/20
RADICAL DHARMA. Check out this interview with Rev. angel Kyodo williams on encountering as much truth as one can handle. If her name rings a bell, she was a co-author Radical Dharma with friend of Contemplify Lama Rod Owens. A quote from Rev. angel below to stir your curiosity.
“So, radical dharma asks people—particularly people who have taken on dharmic religions, the Eastern religions of yoga and Buddhism, but also beyond that, people of the Jewish faith, people of Muslim faith, people of the Sikh faith, people who are spiritual but not religious—to be willing to look at the complexities of things that make up our realities, not just the realities that make us comfortable and keep our story, our narrative, intact. Radical dharma says there’s no such thing as a singular narrative. So, will you look at the whole truth and not just the story that you want to tell yourself, not just the story that you’ve inherited, not just the story of your privilege and your entitlement to your privilege? But, what is your privilege based on? Who is it costing?”
— Rev. angel Kyodo williams (Emergence Magazine)
6/7/20
BELOVED. It was my beloved’s birthday, so I went postless for the first time in months.
6/6/20
FAMILIES VIRTUAL PROTEST FOR BLACK LIVES. We live in a time when protesting and organizing takes multiple forms. After putting my son down for a nap I came out to my wife and daughter watching/dancing/singing/engaging with “Families Virtual Protest For Black Lives“. Parents, grab your kiddos and check it out!
6/5/20
LETTER TO WHITE MEN LIKE ME. White men like me, you are mad as hell about the lack of justice in our country. The cloak covering white eyes is lifting. Maybe your lids have just risen to see or perhaps you were able to face reality a long while ago. Either way, we are newer to the work than our brothers and sisters of Color. White brothers, I feel all of the complex feelings of what to do, say, not say, not do as you do. And when my discomfort builds and spills over, I can take a break from my tension, anguish, and rage at the suffering from structural racism. Think about that for a second. This is more than white privilege, it is white luxury.
Doing the work of racial justice is not about pity or helping others, white man, because your well-being and self-interest are linked to the state of every Black body and soul. Pray to feel that interconnectedness.
When I read this letter from Dax-Devlon Ross I knew it was for me and the white men of my generation. If you are in your 30s or 40s and identify as a white man, read this letter entitled, “A Letter to My White Male Friends of a Certain Age“. It just might change your relationship with friends of Color, how you process whiteness, and how you show up as an ally. (h/t Cliff)
6/4/20
SHOW YOUR WORK. I like funny people who activate both subversive and overt angles to raise consciousness. W. Kamau Bell is one such man. He deftly challenges the comfort seat of fellow funny person Conan O’Brien’s understanding of his own whiteness and structural racism. Bell invites O’Brien to show his work to his audience in his gleanings on whiteness (Bell assigned him a whiteness coach Kate Schatz, examine the makeup of power at his television show, and the TBS network his show is on. Conan agreed to do this. *IF* Conan does this regularly over the next year (and doesn’t get a hand over his mouth in the process) this would be a significant model in American television culture. And *IF* this happens, white folks will likely lift Conan on their shoulders for leading the way and W. Kamau Bell will quietly carry on doing his work of comedic justice.
This is worth watching in its entirety. Deep bow to you W. Kamau Bell and looking forward to seeing your work Conan.
6/3/20
MAY IT CONTINUE. This is just a start of right action in faith. May it be celebrated as that, and more importantly, may it continue.
White folks asking for forgiveness from Black folks.
(h/t Baratunde)
6/2/20
WASH, RINSE, REPEAT. In days of uncertainty and when you feel rudderless, stay tethered to the practices that provide a sense of sacred ground. As James Finley says, “Be faithful to you practice and your practice will be faithful to you.” So, below you will find once again the invitation to the Nightly Examen.
In the quiet of night, how do you draw the day to a close? A cup of tea or bowl of chocolate chocolate chip ice cream perhaps. Concrete practices do not push against the flow of the day but welcome its pooling as blessing to the end of an arduous journey. Daily practices on the sly can birth new life more than a near drowning or ecstatic break dances. The fine folks at the Cathedral of the Incarnation have been quietly offering practices that serve as signposts through the life of a day.
Check out their latest, A NIGHTLY EXAMEN. “So many of us go to bed at night with the day racing through our minds. We need a way to both reflect and let go. A daily examen is one way to do this. By reviewing the day that has passed, and preparing for tomorrow with the expectation of God’s continued care, we create the habit of really turning our lives over to God.” Di McCulloughThese days of intensity are showcasing leaders who are not dreaming of power over people, but power with people. This wisdom is arriving from those not holding any political office.
Listen to the Nightly Examen here
6/1/20
KILLER MIKE’S WISDOM. These days of intensity are showcasing leaders who are not dreaming of power over people, but power with people. This wisdom is arriving from those not holding any political office. Listen below to Killer Mike, an artist and activist in Atlanta, cry out like the prophet Jeremiah to the complexities, turmoil, grief, anguish, and oppression enmeshing and swirling together and bubbling over right now . This is what a contemplative in their power sounds like.
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