It is tempting to say that we’ve come full circle, but I fear that we have not. The specter of death looms larger than ever, and the reporters of current events are emphasizing that we are on the brink of something significant, perhaps in human history. We might even consider the election of Joseph Biden as our country’s 46th president as a step forward, but we cannot let our mindfulness of the existential now fail to impress us with how many steps remain, not to mention extreme caution not to take any steps back. Genuine progress for humanity right now requires a paradigm shift that completely abandons our species’ past to open our eyes to each other in ways we never before thought possible.
If any of what I’ve thought, felt, or expressed so far makes any sense to you, then you have already spotted the clues in my opening lines that point to the fundamental changes we must make to better our human relationship with God.
In the April 5 post that began all of this, Life + Death = God, I supposed that, given our current understanding of science, a model based on simple physics might illustrate a singularity containing opposite charges required for its existence.
The other model I referred to, Music, holds a great deal of meaning to me because at heart I'm a musician, just not a good one. When I was born, Dad* was in his first year at the Iliff School of Theology, having just graduated from the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver. Among my earliest memories are Christmas carols. Mom** met Dad when she was a Senior at Fountain High School where he was giving music lessons after his discharge from the Army Air Force Band at Ent Base in Colorado Springs.
When "Great-Uncles" Paul, Rob, and I headed east to our freshman year at Nebraska Wesleyan University (yes, we somehow all three managed to enroll) it was my intention to major in music as that was my focus when I graduated Arvada West High School. Music is one of the most profound connections with my Godself, and it is this connection I would like to explore more fully with you as we journey in search of a more perfect union in our relationship with God. Only you know your thoughts. Only you know what mindfulness means to you. As humans. we attempt to share with others that which is truly known only to ourselves. #AloneTogether is such an appropriate expression of where we all are finding ourselves right now. Unless! We together accept God's invitation to Life and our world truly becomes the whole people of God!
Here is an example of what I mean:
Click here to listen on YouTube Music> The Balance < A Question of Balance, The Moody Blues
And his feet were sore,
And he was tired
He came upon an orange grove
And he was tired
And he rested.
And he lay in the cool,
And while he rested
He took to himself an orange
And tasted it,
And it was good.
And he felt the earth to his spine
And he asked,
And he saw the tree above him,
And the stars,
And veins in the leaf,
And the light,
And the balance.
And he saw magnificent perfection,
Whereupon he thought of himself in balance.
And he knew he was.
Just open your eyes and realize,
The way it's always been
Just open your heart and that's a start
And he thought of those he angered
For he was not a violent man
And he thought of those he hurt
For he was not a cruel man
And he thought of...
In all fairness to the Moody Blues, I share their trilogy from which the above lyric was taken:
Click here to listen on YouTube Music> On The Threshold Of A Dream <1969
Click here to listen on YouTube Music> A Question of Balance <1970
You are a wondrous miracle of God!
On Christmas day (night, actually), 1949, I was literally born into the Methodist Episcopal Church. Dad was a new student at the Iliff School of Theology, and being married to Mom made them eligible to live in Taylor Hall, relatively new housing being provided for returning WWII married veterans. I will never know whether my birth was "planned" in the way that some are today, or whether I was just a Christmas surprise, but either way, my introduction to the music of Christmas came early.
