InSpiritry

 Your imagination, my dear fellow, is worth more than you imagine.
Louis Aragon

This past Thursday, February 12, was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, one of the world’s most imaginative and influential thinkers. In the UK, a celebration called Darwin200 is taking place to honor his scientific ideas and their  impact. Events are taking place this month and will continue until November 24, the 150th anniversary of the publication of his famous book, The Origin of Species.

You remember Charles Darwin: the 19th century God-fearing husband, father and naturalist who stumbled upon an idea so revolutionary and disturbing that he waited 15 years to publish it, for fear of alienating his friends, family and faith. In fact, his fears were confirmed. His discovery of Evolution–the idea that plants and animals with some traits survive and others do not leads species to emerge or change into new forms over time–did cause alienation, not just in Darwin’s life but for us 200 years later! Even today in state houses across America, educators and boards of educations are arguing, often with raised voices and tear-filled eyes, both sides of the issue of biology curricula: evidence-based science or creationism/intelligent design. As the debate rages, our poor teachers are faced with trying to inspire the scientists of tomorrow while maneuvering the storm.

Thinking about all this, I imagine God shaking his heavenly head and wondering about these miraculous human creatures made of the same stuff as water, spring flowers, sea turtles, star dust… people who by design endlessly long to understand the world, but who sometimes ask “why?” and then refuse to believe the answers they find.

And that is it in a nutshell: Darwin’s explorations as well as human discoveries from the beginning of time are rooted in that very human, and for the faithful divine-inspired, question, “why?” In fact, asking “why?” is at the heart of learning, that thing we humans must do to survive. (more…)

The problems that exist in the world today

cannot be solved

with the level of thinking that created them.

Albert Einstein

Hope! Change! Possibility! Excitement!

The year 2009 began with a bang. The amazing celebrations surrounding the inauguration of Barak Obama as the new President offered Americans some much-needed optimism about the future. Some of us even let ourselves believe the worst was over!

While it was nice to have that brief January respite from the storm of bad news from around the world, February seems to have tossed us overboard: Worsening economic conditions.  The catastrophic environmental crisis. Governmental gridlock. Terrorism. Genocide. Famine. Illness. And so far, most of our leaders are displaying a stubborn and often selfish allegiance to old ideas and older fears. (more…)

Don’t ask what the world needs.

Ask what makes you come alive, and do that…

because what the world needs

is people who have come alive!               

Howard Thurman (1900-1981)

Howard Thurman was an author, philosopher, theologian and educator, who after meeting Mahatma Gandhi became passionate about the ideas he heard from the great spiritual leader. Back in America, he went on to work for civil rights and to write about non-violence in words that informed Martin Luther King’s thinking and inspired other civil rights leaders of the mid-century.

As we make our resolutions for the New Year, plan our futures and even consider the politics of American presidential race, Thurman’s suggestion about doing what makes “you come alive” may be just what we need to hear! Many of us lead lives that, while addressing the needs of the world, can feel…well, uninspired. How can we change that in 2008? (more…)

There are a hundred ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Jelaluddin Balkhi (Rumi)

The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

Imagine yourself so filled with gratitude and joy that you feel compelled to kneel–to kneel!–and kiss the very ground on which you stand, to thank God/Nature/Life for the pleasure and priviledge of living! Now imagine a hundred ways to express that joy!

(more…)

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Some time ago I was at a writers’ workshop at the Poetry at Roundtop festival near Austin, Texas. The instructor, Texas Poet Laureate Jack Myers had asked us to bring a photograph of ourselves as a child, and I was intrigued about what we were going to discuss. The photo I chose was one of me at age thirteen standing with my parents near an American flag hung in our yard on the Fourth of July. (more…)