I say again . . .

A few days ago I wrote of ‘Seeing Oneness’ in which I referred to The Women’s March 2017 as having brought to the fore the women’s voice— loud and clear.

A voice calling for peace, equality, human rights, concern for Planet Earth, unity, love and respect is not exclusive to women, but is characteristic of them.  That voice seems to have once more gotten lost in the violence, aggression, supremacy, exclusivity and nationalism being championed by men of power around the world.

It is promising to see that many men, especially of the younger generations, are listening to and supporting a kinder more compassionate voice and have joined with that voice to shout it to the world—five million strong.

As appropriate follow up to my last entry I repeat the poem I posted earlier on October 28, 2016.

                                       * * *

                                          HEAR ME

I am Woman, hear me oh Man!

You have intercourse with life from the outside,

            I from within.

You know only half of the reality that is

            --as do I.

Rigid and absolute, your aim is to impose and control;

Yielding and accommodating, mine is to accept and adapt.

You fear that I will limit your fecundity

            your self-serving pleasure pursuits

And so it is, for I seek compassion and understanding

            and protection for my vulnerability.

What you fail to know--for you know only half of reality--

            is that there is satisfaction of a different kind as well as wisdom

            in my experience of life and living.

What you have demonstrated to me--for you have been in charge--

            is that your outside knowing, adventurous to be sure,

            is empty and meaningless without my insights!

You’ve insisted upon leading--your power and logic made it seem right--

            but narcissistically you fell in love with your own reflection

            and forgot to keep my voice alive with your love...

            instead, you asked of me only that I serve and service you

            --forgetting you know only half of reality.

Learn from me, not in a subservient way, but as an equal

            and we will both be enriched.

                                         - - -

Your vital virile outside knowing has changed the face of the earth

            you’ve built and discovered and re-created...

But without the within, it is all empty, hollow, meaningless

            --and above all infinitely dangerous!

You disdainfully dismiss what I have to contribute

My accomplishments seem mundanely simple and unimportant.

I cannot do what you have done

Your achievements are in fact glorious!

You infuse, you initiate, you achieve

            --but you also rape and plunder,

            immediate gratification and conquest is your goal.

Your arrogance is your curse

            because you won’t admit what you don’t know

            or can’t do alone.

You don’t nurture and sustain the developing potential

            you don’t watch and wait and hope for the promise to come

            --that is my task.

You know only half of the reality that is!

Would that you look at me...

            but you only glance at my form

Would that you listen to me...

            but you only scoff at my awarenesses

Would that you learn from me...

            but you only yawn at my wisdom.

Look at me and see me,

Listen to me and hear me,

Understand me and learn from me,

I am Woman, hear me oh Man

Seeing Oneness

In past entries I have written of Teilhard de Chardin and evolution, of our One World, of the Voice of women and most recently The Women’s March 2017 . . . seemingly disparate topics yet I see relationship among them.

Teilhard (1881-1955) a brilliant Scientist and Mystic saw clearly the interconnection of Science and Religion (‘the without’ and ‘the within’) as two sides of the same coin—humanity’s search for understanding and meaning.  In that pursuit we explore, dissect and analyze our world; we philosophize, hypothesize, and theologize our mortal existence.

The world we inhabit is one tiny unit in a vast universe, in its singularity providing all that is needed for its functioning as a life support source—so long as the elements stay in balance.

Throughout the eons of evolution that allowed mankind to develop from primitive, uncivilized, violent cave-men to sophisticated, articulate, rational beings, the voice of women was not permitted to influence the expanding social order (government, religion, conflict resolution . . .) Stated another way: Until recently the unique voice of half of humanity has been omitted from the planning of how we proceed with civilization.  Only within the last century have women gained the right to vote and hold office.  And in that brief 100+ years we’re coming to recognize that the silenced voice is not exclusive to women alone but is the missing piece for achieving ‘full humanity’ and it is women’s privilege and responsibility to awaken and articulate it—the voice of love, compassion and mercy.   It is the same voice that Jesus, the man, spoke with.

The Women’s March of January 12, 2017 was unprecedented—more light needs to be shone on it.  All over our world, groups of women recognized their call to make that voice heard.  Estimates say five million people—women, men and children—walked with dignity and calm, without violence, on some part of each of the seven continents of our One World.  Five million people gathered in one day in unity, calling for a voice other than that of violence, division, falsehood, and supremacy . . . a voice calling for peace, justice, equality, unity, love and respect.  Thousands of hand printed signs: “Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, Human Rights”; “Build bridges not Walls”; “Save our Planet”; “Love not Hate” . . . . .

It is that voice which must be heard if we are to survive.

                                                    _ _ _

                        Conduit of Life’s Flow

I write of our One World in infinite space

A singular whole—God, nature, humanity

            This world is given

            with laws of nature

            guiding its continuance.

            That humankind is here

            is not of mortal doing,

            ‘Something’ (I call God)

            gave order to being.

            Life is the miracle

            to which we’ve been called,

            blessed with consciousness

            and the freedom to choose,

            we’re able to bring change.

Life continues its flow—now, through us!

            Only in seeing our Oneness

            and choosing to honor it

            will our world be sustained.

Women's March 2017

This past weekend I drove 200+ miles from mid-Florida to Atlanta Georgia and back again, for the privilege of taking part in the Women’s March of 2017.

The initial plan for this event was to protest the election of Donald Trump—who for many reasons is seen to be the wrong person to lead our country—it grew to become the awakened voice of women around the world calling for peace and justice.  It was a phenomenon of epic proportions: an estimated five million people from around the world took to the streets on all seven continents in peaceful demonstrations of solidarity for human rights, women’s rights and justice—such had never happened before.

For centuries the voice of women has been silenced and the world order has been held firmly in the hands of strong aggressive males—which had led us here and now to the brink of possible world annihilation.  Trump’s hyperbolic male approach that dictates winning at any cost through force and aggression, using crude and malicious insults, divisive dark threats and lies, continuous self-aggrandizement . . . women rose up to say with their presence, “wait a minute, this is wrong, Trump wants to lead the nation and world in a direction we don’t want to go”.

This was not a march just of women, not only for women, but a show of solidarity among women, men and children of all races and creeds to insist that our leaders make choices for a better, more sustainable and peaceful world for all people. 

In 2017 women found their voice on the world stage, “it is time to acknowledge we ARE One World!”

Unfair and Unjust

In a week the transfer of political power in the U.S. will have occurred and I hope to return my attention to the other serious thoughts that concern me.  This election has disquieted me at a fundamental level, not because a Republican won, but because Donald Trump won unfairly and unjustly.  From the Primary’s very beginning his major tactic was to use lies, insults, and libelous innuendoes and threats.  Because those outbursts were sensational, he got much more than a fair share of media attention.  His bombastic approach unleashed the simmering anger and discontent bubbling below the surface in some segments of our society since the financial meltdown of 2008.  (That Obama’s administration saved us from that near disaster was forgotten.)

Trump shouted that our system of government was “broken” and “rigged” and only he could “fix it”.  He made the outlandish claim that he knows more than the generals.  Toward the end of the campaigning the public learned that our information systems had been hacked by the Russians, secrets stolen and misinformation fed in to discredit Hillary and aid Trump.  Despite all that, Hillary won the popular vote by millions but the presidency went to Trump because of the Electoral College system.  When all intelligence agencies agreed that Russia was responsible for the hacking, Trump publically criticized the agencies, defaming them as unworthy of our trust . . . and thus playing into Putin’s efforts to undermine our Democracy.

The man slated to become our next president I believe to be a disastrous choice for this country, which is founded on such high principles and ideals.  With the change in power there will be a dramatic shift of the central focus: from humanitarian concerns for the health and well being of people and our planet to power, appearances, and profit.

* * *

I sometimes like to explore the Psalms and re-write contemporary versions of the thoughts they contain—on seeking something appropriate for here, my attention was drawn to Psalm 10, which I took directly without modernizing but condensed using two translations, NIV and GNB.

           

Psalm 10: 1-7, 11, 14

1          Why are you so far away, O Lord?

            Why do you hide yourself when we are in trouble?

2          In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak

                 who are caught in the schemes he devises.

3          He is proud of his evil desires

                  he blesses the covetous and rejects the Lord.

4          In their pride the wicked do not seek the Lord,

                  in all their thoughts there is no room for God.

5          The wicked man succeeds in everything

                  he is haughty and Your laws are far from him

                  he sneers at all his enemies.

6          He says to himself, “Nothing will shake me,

                  I will never fail or have trouble”.

7          His speech is filled with curses, lies and threats

                  he is quick to speak hateful evil words.

11       He says to himself “God doesn’t care, he has closed his eyes”.

14       But you, O God, do see—and will call him to account.

* * *

On a more hopeful note I turn to a few verses from

Psalm 27:13

13       I am still confident of this:

                  I will see the goodness of the Lord

                  in the land of the living.

14       Wait for the Lord;

                  be strong and take heart

                  and wait for the Lord.

           

Post of September 11, 2015

Teilhard Series  -  6th

I apologize for my previous posting; my error was to re-post the 5th rather than the 6th (missing from the archives) of my series on the concepts introduced by Teilhard de Chardin.  His ideas challenge us to think holistically rather than compartmentally.   Underlying his body of work is the conviction of interconnectedness of all being, with a purposeful direction inherent in the evolutionary process.

As a paleontologist Teilhard traced evolutionary development back to its most distant origins, then followed its path forward to the present.  He discovered a pattern at work that he called complexity-consciousness.

The slow development of life on earth has proceeded from simple to complex.  In our first biology class we learned that life gradually emerged from the simple one-celled ameba to the indescribably complex human form, not just by changing in size and shape, but also by the increasing complexity of interacting systems.  On the one hand this kind of progression can simply be accepted as the way it should be, but on the other hand it suggests a profound intentionality with direction and purpose.  Teilhard saw its significance—life gradually unfolding by increasing in complexity and moving toward self-awareness. 

from Google/Wikipedia: “The law of Complexity-Consciousness is the postulated tendency to become more complex over time and at the same time to become more conscious . . . The law was first formulated by Teilhard de Chardin in his 1955 work The Phenomenon of Man.”

Before we look further at complexity-consciousness it is necessary to consider another of Teilhard’s concepts—that of the ‘without’ and the ‘within’.  Life (or existence) displays two dimensions.  The ‘without’ is the stuff of the universe.  The things we can see and touch, can experience as material solid objects, the so-called ‘real’ that we know and that to which science gives attention.  The ‘within’ is the non-material, what is called the subjective dimension . . . it is that to which religion, mysticism and psychology gives attention; it includes emotions and the elusive—still not clearly defined—consciousness.

The ‘complexity part of the law is more readily understood and accepted as science has long traced that aspect of the pattern—simple organisms evolve to more complex ones.  Yet there is another aspect of this law to understand.  In complexifying, there is a flow between the lower and higher state—potential for the higher state pre-exists.  In the evolutionary process nothing can come to be in an advanced state that did not pre-exist in some rudimentary form.  The new emerges from the potential carried in the earlier state  (think of butterflies, or oak trees).  Yet the new is a different entity.

Teilhard states, “In the world, nothing could ever burst forth as final across the different thresholds successively traversed by evolution (however critical they be) which has not already existed in an obscure and primordial way.”

It is important to realize both the ‘without’ and ‘within’ are equally bound to the principle that ‘for every synthesis . . . its end is already implied in the beginning’  (T)

Since the focus of science is on the ‘without’ it is easy for scientists to be dismissive of the appearance of consciousness in the human as a ‘fluke’ or an anomaly or an epiphenomenon and simply ignore it.  Teilhard makes the point that consciousness pre-existed in a rudimentary state in even the lowest life forms and came to flower in the human and is yet continuing to evolve.  Consciousness is THE crowning phenomenon that has revolutionized the earth.  Its evolving development as it appeared in the human can be charted: from cave-men just beginning to use tools and fire, to the inventors of modern technology; from a world of landscapes without indications of human habitation, to networks of highways and bridges crisscrossing the globe; from markings on cave walls, to countless books and elaborate communication systems, etc.  The human is much more than ‘just another animal’—a random product of blind chance . . . the human, endowed with consciousness, has emerged from the long complex evolutionary process armed with reflective awareness that enables the species to make of this world whatever they would have it be.  May the consciousness in the species continue to evolve to enable it to reach the potential intended.

As we see a pattern emerging and can trace order in development, it belies creation by random chance.

Post of August 11, 2015

In looking back over my blog archives I found an entry missing, it is part of my Teilhard Series of seven which ran between June 28 and October 1, 2015.  I don't know why it disappeared nor how to put it back into its appropriate place so I enter it here, out of sequence.

Teilhard is one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th Century.  He was a noted scientist and a mystic.  He saw beyond Darwin's identification of the 'without' of evolution to its 'within' of pattern, direction and goal.

Teilhard Series - 5th  (evolution)

What is evolution?  Some say it is the scientific theory that explains how species became what they are through changes over long periods of time.  Some say it is the ‘crazy idea’ that claims our most distant ancestors were apes.  Others say it is an idea expounded by atheists to prove there is no God.  And still others say it is a lie spawned by the devil to lead people astray.  A dictionary describes evolution as the gradual development of something, especially from simple to complex form.

Darwin’s explanation of evolution did not include pattern, direction and goal; that is what Teilhard’s work shows us.  From atoms clustering to form molecules, then cells; to human consciousness continually building to greater awareness, there is movement toward increasing complexity.  The goal is realization of the interconnectedness of all that exists.

Although evolution is implicit in all of Teilhard’s writing, he actually uses the word sparingly.  As a scientist he worked with the data that discloses the pattern that is hidden behind all life-struggles at all stages: the simple moves to the complex and so opens to new and greater possibilities.

            Evolution is the underlying principle of all that is.

Nothing in the known world materializes in a ‘poof’ from nothing; development comes through gradual change programmed in the pre-existing state that holds the blueprint for the final product.  Throughout Teilhard’s life-long study of development in all aspects he came to realize that everything unfolds in a direction from simple to complex that expands possibilities for the organism evolving.  Within the earliest stage of the simplest form there exists the possibilities of the ultimate form . . . within the acorn is the potential oak tree, within the egg is the potential bird, within the DNA is the blueprint of the person, and within the energy leading to the explosion of the ‘big bang’ was the universe that came to be.  There is direction: movement is always forward from simple to complex.  We can search all the way back to the ‘primordial soup’ wherein we see and recognize a pattern emerging: elements with affinity join to form new units.  As pointed out in my last blog, our material world took shape through the building of layer upon layer moving from the inorganic foundation to developing the layers necessary to support the emergence of life, then the layer of teeming life forms, and ultimately life that birthed thought which enables humans to discover, evaluate and create. 

            Evolution is the name for the process by which all comes to be.

Even thinking is an evolving process.  We have discovered so much about how our world works!  How do we discover what we know?  By beginning with the simple and expanding to the complex.  We see and wonder, we ask questions and follow leads; we have new thoughts and ideas and test them against what we understand from previous discoveries . . . and if the new discovery contradicts what we thought we knew we re-define our knowledge.  All that thinking, analyzing and concluding takes place in a realm that is not material.  Our ability to think and reason is a quality of our being—a unique human quality.  In the modern world we’ve come to over-value the material—the ‘things’ of life that can be weighed and measured—but we take for granted and overlook the non-material, yet it is with those non-material qualities we have changed the earth we occupy.

Teilhard de Chardin calls us to consider the non-material realm of our existence that he calls the ‘within’ of things, and he does so by study of the material substances that he calls the ‘without’ of things.  He maintains “the internal aspect of things as well as the external aspect of the world [need] be taken into account.” He was a respected scientist devoted to the study of science but also a Jesuit—a man of faith.  He believed in evolution and believed in God as the author of the process.  He saw no conflict between them.  The world has order and is intelligible, that bespeaks design by an intelligent source.

Not a random happenstance; Teilhard sees meaningful order in life.  We see all of nature as balanced and purposeful.  The earth and sky provides conditions for trees and plants to produce their yield; all living creatures are provided with the means necessary to develop and flourish.  When given the freedom to exist in their environment there is a natural balance between predator and prey and each species instinctively knows how to self-protect and seek appropriate shelter and sustenance.

Only the human, gifted with intelligence, has the ability to alter the course of nature . . . and/or to disrupt it so as to threaten the planet’s very existence.  That quality—intelligence—must have a better purpose!  It will be discovered when humanity comes to truly recognize that all of life is interconnected—with that realization we will ‘learn to think in a new way’.

Our Global World

The Age of Nations is past, the task before us now,

If we would not perish, is to build the earth.

                                                                                                      Teilhard de Chardin

It is not easy to see and acknowledge that we are one world, interconnected and interdependent, but that IS the reality: earth is one tiny unit in this vast universe that will survive or perish by the human choices made.  To say we live in a global world is somehow threatening because it has political connotations which can be used divisively to make people want to retreat to ‘their own corner’ and protect themselves against ‘other’.

That protectionism is the strategy that was used successfully by Donald Trump to win the election.  His slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ has a subtly implied anti-world view, a nationalism that sets us apart at the ‘top of the heap’.  Throughout the campaign he carried a slightly different message to each group, bringing their fears and prejudices forward invoking a ‘them’ as enemy, saying he alone held the answer.  There was no message of unity or hope, no strategic plan, just fabricated lies about the opposition (the ‘enemy’, “lock her up”) and the fantasy that, given the power and authority, he could/would ‘fix it’.

There are reasons for the alarm being felt by many in this country and around the world—Trump has duped the American public.  While claiming to be for the average working citizen he was primarily in it for his own aggrandizement.  He is now building his cabinet with billionaires and planning to tear down the advances made for improvements in our country’s health care system and reverse the steps taken to improve the environment of the planet.  Without providing an alternate plan, Trump’s expressed intent is to repeal Obama care, and consider privatizing Medicare.  His choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is Scott Pruitt a fierce EPA critic, climate change denier, and is closely linked to the oil industry.

Trump’s multiple real-estate holdings all over the world makes conflict of interest unavoidable and that is not amended by appointing his children to run the business.  He has been openly disdainful of: government (“the system is broken”), our voting system (“its rigged”), studied intelligence (“I know more than the generals”)—undermining the public’s faith in our democracy.  Beyond that he is also disdainful of verbal restraint, diplomacy and protocol, as well as facts and honesty.  As president, Trump’s cavalier attitude toward truth weakens the moral fiber of our country.  His arrogance is astounding!  His expressed admiration for Putin as a “strong leader” gives evidence to his penchant for authoritarianism.

Everything about Trump’s approach is a step backwards to less enlightened times.  All scientific evidence confirms Global Warming and warns of the advancing unprecedented crisis that can only be averted by unified action; yet he claims climate change is a hoax and plans to curtail green energy development while expanding reliance upon fossil fuel.

The human species has developed the ability to destroy our world in many ways, the most catastrophic way being with atomic weapons . . . those weapons have already been produced and awaiting the finger willing to push the button—that specter makes working toward cooperation between nations a necessity.  These are perilous times.  Cooperative interaction used to be optional, but daunting though it may be, in the 21^st Century it is mandatory. 

Earth, the common home to us all is the only world we’ve got, protecting it is paramount for continuation of the human species.  To ignore the perils facing it is blasphemy.  Stirring divisive nationalism and shamelessly promoting exclusive self-interest above global concerns while justifying withdrawal of support from international globally conscious organizations is heresy!

It may not be easy to accept that planet earth is one interconnected, interacting, interdepended world, but that is the reality . . . and its survival as a habitable planet depends upon our recognition of that.