Spring and COVID-19 Looking out my office window, I see sunshine brightening the green of the sprouting grass. Dandelions bloom, the dogwood tree leafs out, birds dart around the yard seeking sticks and down and bark to build nests that will shelter the eggs that hold new life. It is Spring, and the world is being made anew. But what kind of world will it be? With COVID-19 sweeping throughout the globe, we are facing new threats and new opportunities. Some people are frightened; some blasé, perhaps thinking nothing bad will ever happen to them. Yet it is not only the elderly and those with chronic illness who are at…
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Informed, not Controlled, by Our Past
We All Have a Past In the play, Rosmersholm, by Henrik Ibsen, the white horse symbolizes the past we can’t release. All of us have a past. Not only are we born into this world beholden to those who have come before us, made up of the flesh, dreams, and stories of our ancestors, but our own histories, events, and experiences mold themselves into our DNA. In the book Live Bait by P. J. Tracy, a police officer, Gino Rolseth, notices a scar on the chest of a retired colleague. Upon learning that the man’s own father had cut him, he closes his eyes and thinks “of all the history…
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The Power of Love Versus Hate
The Air You Breathe When you grow up feeling loved, you don’t notice it. At least not at first. After a while, you begin to understand your home is different from the homes of your friends. You realize that other mothers, for instance, don’t call their girls “dear darling daughter,” that sometimes they call them cruel names you never heard before, and they chastise them in front of you and invade their privacy, breeding shame and insecurity. As you come to understand this, you feel shocked. You start to be grateful that, though the polite stillness in your own home sometimes drives you crazy, and though you sometimes feel lonely…
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Rahab, Delilah, and Making Righteous Choices
To the Victor Lies the Story When the battle is over and the dust has settled, the victor frames the story. The vanquished, if they survive, create myths of their own, of course, but since they’re unlikely to mesh with those of their new rulers, the official tale will come from the one who conquered, like American history books written to glorify the white man. In recent years we have begun to be more honest about our past, at least in some parts of our country, but our human tendency is to understand the story from our perspective, to justify our actions, and to condemn those who acted against us.…
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Ash Wednesday and Opening Our Hearts
Ash Wednesday My mother, who died in 2015, has been turned to ash. The remains of her cremation sit in a box on a shelf in my room. The ashes aren’t her, nor do they symbolize some essence of her nature. Still, I’m in no hurry to spread them across the scattering ground at the cemetery where she bought a place to rest. One day I will do so, when I no longer need her quiet reminder that I am destined to end up as ash myself. Whether we are talking about the dust out of which the Hebrew God formed us or the carbon created in the belly of…
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Enlightenment and the Bird who Sang
A Sad Bridegroom The story dates from Medieval days, a Jewish cautionary tale told for those who seek the secrets of the gods. It does more than warn us about the dangers of hubris, however. “The Bird That Sang to a Bridegroom” also suggests that once we see the true nature of the universe, we cannot remain on earth. Normal human relationships will be impossible, and God will send Death to bring us home. It is as if, once enlightened, we might feel a generalized love for all humanity, but our individual loves will fade. In this tale, a couple have just gotten married. The bridegroom escorts his new wife…
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“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” and Valentine’s Day
Baby, It’s Cold Though usually sung around Christmas time, Frank Loesser’s song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” has nothing to do with a holiday. It does mention snow, which we don’t get much of in the Willamette Valley, but February is still winter. So as Valentine’s Day approaches and our minds turn to love, let’s take a look at this jaunty piece that was so popular in its day and has been so criticized now. Originally used by Loesser and his wife to entertain their friends and business associates, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” tells the story of two characters named Wolf and Mouse. It became popular when, Loesser sold the song…
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Tamar and the Power of the Trickster
Trickster Tales of Scripture In last week’s column, we looked at the trickster motif and its relationship to honesty. We concluded that sometimes we must earn the right to be told the truth. This week, we look at the same trickster theme, but consider how it relates to power. The trickster claims power, but not a power of violence or aggression. Though not always a force for love, at least the trickster doesn’t destroy. The Hebrew Scriptures are full of trickster tales. Younger siblings supplant older ones. Women survive and even save their communities by using their wits. Cleverness is appreciated, deception encouraged, and audacity rewarded. You could say that…
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Honesty in the Face of Challenge
A Cycle of Lies Let’s call her Honey. She’d gotten pregnant. Her boyfriend was thrilled; she was not. If her parents learned she’d had sex outside of marriage, they’d be crestfallen. If her conservative Christian college found out, she’d be expelled. Since she was in a special program that would allow her to get a combined bachelor’s and master’s degree in only five years, she didn’t want to transfer someplace where she wouldn’t have the same opportunity. Besides, regardless of where she studied, Honey knew how stressful it would be to raise an infant while in school, and her career was important to her. She wouldn’t jeopardize that. To make…
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Prayer, Power, and Love — Martin Luther King, Jr.
History as Story I’ve written before about how our stories create us, how the memories we hold make us who we are. [1] This is true for us as individuals and as a society. Now, as we in the United States prepare to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, we explore this topic again, because how we tell the story of this man’s life and ministry affects how we either carry on, or obstruct, the work he did. Perhaps King’s story doesn’t seem complicated enough for multiple interpretations. After all, he led a Civil Rights movement, he believed in beloved community, and he said we shouldn’t…