As Addiction Takes Hold of Us This world provides ample opportunity for us to let go. In last month’s column on this topic, I discussed many types of letting go. This month I consider what it means to hold our dreams and goals lightly. This is not always easy. Sometimes our dreams and goals become addictive. All mammals, humans included, have evolved to take pleasure in the many substances and activities we need to survive, such as water, sweets, fat, sex, learning, and caring relationships. When we feel pleasure from a behavior, we learn to repeat it. When we get hungry or thirsty or lonely, we seek out that which…
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Lent, Passion, and Repentance
Lent: A Time of Preparation for Easter As Easter approaches, some Christian communities celebrate Lent, a time of waiting and preparing for the triumphant return of Christ. According to a blog on the website of the Tullamore Parish, a Catholic community in Ireland, the most important way we can prepare for Easter is to do penance. What is penance? The Tullamore website calls it “self denial” and suggests we fast, give alms, and pray. [1] I think of penance as a kind of punishment, like the repeated prayers one speaks after confession or the self flagellation some sects practice in an effort to rid themselves of sin. Punishing Ourselves in Hope of…
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Mystery, Metaphor, and the Story of the Flood
When Good Turns Evil There is, within the Hebrew Bible, a tendency for that which starts out as good to become bad. God creates the world and sees it is good, but it doesn’t stay that way. He creates humans in His likeness, so can how can we be other than good, if God is good? Yet, somehow we learn to sin. There was the trickery of a serpent, the jealousy of a brother. Over and over, we humans made mistakes. As time passed and generations were born, things just got worse. The wickedness and violence of humans increased until “every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only…
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Yom Kippur, Repenting, and Atonement
Being Good The other day, I visited with a patient who has spent his life being good. With great force of will, he has been humble of heart and mind, respectful to all he meets, kind, and soft-hearted. Occasionally, he lashed out in anger, but the guilt he immediately felt was so enormous, he would hunch his shoulders and hide himself away. Yet no matter how hard he tried to do things right and thus make people notice and praise him, life knocked him down over and over again. He ended up swept away, sick, homeless, and in despair. Though anger seethed somewhere inside him, he could barely noticed it,…
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Feeling Guilt; Receiving Forgiveness
A Forest on Fire As I write this, the Columbia Gorge is burning. Like many people, my heart is heavy at the loss of so much life and beauty. Raging flames engulf trees, moss, flowers, animals, trails, and buildings. So much is already gone. Somehow the tragedy seems worse because the fire was started by a few teenagers who, even though they were warned, tossed fireworks into the dry brush. How many of us have done stupid things that might have led to destruction and even death, yet because of some twist of fate, did not? The window didn’t break, for instance, the house didn’t burn, our friend didn’t die, we didn’t…
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Guilt and Repentance
In the Beginning There Was Shame According to the Hebrew Scriptures, shame entered the world when Eve and Adam ate fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. When you don’t know right from wrong, you can live in blissful ignorance. Once you do, any manner of behavior can leave you feeling embarrassed. Indeed, the very nature of your being can embarrass you, as the original couple discovered once they’d tasted the fruit. They realized they were naked and scurried to find leaves so they could cover themselves. Shame and guilt can be difficult to tell apart. On a simple level, guilt is the belief that we’ve done…