God=Love

Trouble believing God exists?

Try this equation: God = Love.

If you can buy that, then it might be easier to believe that Love exists.

The problem though is it’s harder to live by Love than to live by God.

Love is something you have to say “yes” or “no” to every day.

It’s complicated and demanding.

It’s right here, not up there.

Irrelevant artists

Have you noticed that the guests who make the rounds of talk shows are generally authors, comedians, actors, politicians and a few scientists?

Visual artists are conspicuously absent, though TV is a visual medium. Visual art would have a direct impact on viewers, certainly beyond that of a book no one has yet read.

Does that mean artists have nothing meaningful to say? Or they have no product to hawk? Or they haven’t reached celebrity status? Or they artist just irrelevant?

Integrity

Integrity. Truth. Done.

Integrity absent. No, not me. It was him. Not me. Not me. She did it. Not me. Prove it.

The perils of growing Catholic, c.1955

The perils of growing up Catholic (c.1955)

--There was a lightning zone around all churches of other denominations which, if you entered, you were immediately struck dead.
--You couldn’t disappoint the Virgin Mary.
--Your soul was like a blackboard, full of marks, then erased, then full of marks, then erased.
--Eating meat on Fridays was a mortal sin, a condemnation to hell.
--You could buy heaven with novenas.
--All the nuns, in full habit, were there at the service of “Father.”
--You thought guilt and shame were normal experiences.
--God was always watching you masturbate.
--Catholicism was the one true faith.

A man

It’s not enough to be a man.
It’s impossible to a perfect man.
So aim to be a good man.

A leaf

Look at a leaf. 
Observe its vein structure and symmetry.
The mother tree produces hundreds of thousands of these leaves, all the same and all unique.
Just like us humans.
Look at other leaves from other trees and plants.
Veins and symmetry, varied but the same.
The leaf breathes out the oxygen you need to live.
You breathe out the carbon dioxide the leaf needs to live.
The tree’s expanse in the sky is just as deep as its roots.
You will discover that your expanse in the sky is just as deep as the roots of your humanity.
That’s just how life is.

Beauty

Yesterday, a student asked me about my ideas on beauty. What followed was a good and meaningful discussion on both our parts, I thought. But later, I continued to think about the idea of beauty.

In our culture we too often think of beauty in purely superficial terms. We let corporate America—from cosmetics to costume to entertainment—create stereotypes of beauty for us to frustratingly chase after and envy after. Glamour is the goal, even increasingly so for men. Barbie continues to reign. Abs and breasts are sought after, sculpted, admired and surgically amplified.

So then, where do we find the meaning of the authentic person, the beauty that is deep? Where do we find the narratives of the adventurous search for real person hidden beneath the surface? Where are the hero guides we need?

This journey is hard and upstream in our culture. It’s more than time in the gym, or putting on makeup or finding just the right outfit. Movements like #METOO and #BLACKLIVESMATTER have shown us that.

Right now, Barbie wields much more power than Plato.