Dry Bones Dance

Jung Quote of the Day

I'm reading Carl Jung's Modern Man in Search of a Soul at the moment, and I really dig the guy. Here's my favorite quote thus far:

"There are, in fact, many methods, standpoints, views and convictions which are all at war with one another - the main reason for this being that, since they fail to be mutually comprehensible, none of them can grant the validity of any other [...]"

[...]When we find the most diverse remedies prescribed in a text-book of pathology for a given disease, we may confidently asssume that none of these remedies is particularly efficacious. So, when many different ways of approaching the psyche are recommended, we may rest assured that none of them leads with absolute certainty to the goal, least of all those advocated in a fanatical way. The very number of present-day "psychologies" amounts to a confession of perplexity."

You gotta love a guy who essentially admits that his chosen profession frequently doesn't know what it's doing.

Party of One

In the past few months, I have begun a habit of walking to the central library on a Saturday and wandering around the shelves and picking out books that look interesting. I get about ten, read some of them all the way through, skim through others, and make it to page three of others. When the books are due, I take them back and start all over.

This is how I came across Party of One: The Loners’ Manifesto by Anneli Rufus, and it’s one of the most original books I’ve read in a while. I would totally hang out with Anneli, except that if I went to her house and rang the bell, she probably wouldn’t come to the door. Her thesis is that real loners are outsiders by choice – they are not friendless freakish outcasts who spend their time brooding about their rejection by society. Loners genuinely want and need to be alone, and our extroverted culture doesn’t understand that.

I have substantial loner-ish tendencies, whether by nature or nurture I do not know. Probably, it’s a bit of both. Regardless of the origins of my introversion, I found myself resonating with this book.

A Crack down the Middle

I feel like I should write something about Christmas, seeing as how I’m of a Christian-ish disposition, but I’m not sure what to say since virtually every trope of the Christmas season doesn’t apply to me. For me, it’s not a time for family, as I will be having my Christmas dinner at a seafood restaurant with a few friends. Most likely there will be a few drinks involved, because nothing says “Happy Birthday Jesus!” like a nice buzz in the middle of the day. I don’t feel the need to rail against the consumerism of the season, since I give and receive very few presents. Hell, it’s southern California. We don’t even have snow.

I’m not any busier than usual, so I can’t write about needing to slow down and enjoy the “reason for the season.” Since Jesus isn’t all that central to my faith these days, I don’t know if I will understand the reason for the season, no matter how much time I have to contemplate it. I don’t know what it means for Jesus to be our Savior or Messiah or Son of God. I dig the guy, and there’s something very powerful about the idea of God divesting Herself of power and walking among us and getting dirt underneath her fingernails, but that’s as far as I’m willing to go.

The Parent Project and Sticking Around

I went to a meeting this morning (and I must say that, even though it started at 8am, I was EARLY. For some of you, that is not particularly impressive. For me, it is.) The purpose of the meeting was to bring together a bunch of different organizations to collaborate on The Parent Project, which is a program designed to help parents of gang-involved, adjudicated, and otherwise out of control teenagers. I had a very minor role in the whole thing - I made a few phone calls and made people sign in and take a nametag - but it was fun.

I realize that my enjoyment of community meetings is weird, but I get a buzz from seeing a really diverse group of people coming together to do something good for the community. The people aren't perfect, and the organizations they represent aren't perfect, but for the most part, they really care about the youth and families of Pasadena.

Quaker progress report

Today I went to the Friends meeting for the first time in weeks, and I stood up and introduced myself and talked to five people after the meeting. This is progress, I think - well, progress and EMDR. It's so much easier to be chatty when I'm not panicky.

I'm still figuring out this whole Quaker thing, but there's something very different about being in a clergy-free zone. It's more than there being no sermon - although since I've always attended churches where the sermons clocked in at 40 - 60 minutes, not having one does change the character of the service quite a bit. It's more that there is no leader, no interpreter of How Things Should Be or Who God Is.

It takes a long time to be a "natural"

I was evaluated tonight for my spiritual director training program. They said I was a "natural", which feels a little freaky, but it's true - I just seem to GET this spiritual direction thing. I've gotten nothing but incredibly positive feedback. It has nothing to do with my intellectual understanding of mysticism and contemplation - which is shallow - or feeling good or together. This semester has coincided with some very heavy EMDR work, so more often than not, I've shown up at class feeling rather shitty and sad and uninspired.

When I have been in the spiritual director role, I have NO idea what is going to happen or what I'm going to say or where we are going to go. None whatsoever. I just stay present and ask questions and hope it all works out. Apparently, this method is working for me.

Health insurance and my inner statistics geek

I did a little research on the United States compared to other countries with universal health care. I was a little sloppy in my last health care post, saying national health care, when what I really meant was universal health care. There are options other than a nationalized health care system, like the U.K. has. I am not necessarily opposed to that – it’s just not the only choice.

I have a little statistics geek that comes out of me every so often, so here are some statistics for you – stats courtesy of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Panties for Peace

In the latest issue of Yes!, I read this and thought "Finally, Victoria's Secret can do something useful.":

For the "Panties for Peace" campaign, women in several countries are sending underwear to Burmese embassies. The protest against the military regime's violent crackdown on peaceful protestors plays on Burmese generals' superstitious belief that contact with women's underwear deprives them of their power.

(I love this magazine - the no-frills guide to squatting, Reverend Billy, the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, and ecological toilets - all in the same issue!)

But back to panties for peace: Does the type of underwear affect the power leakage? Would a thong or g-string have a more deleterious effect than granny pants? Must the panties have been worn or would new ones suck the power out of them as well? Is one pair sufficient to render a general powerless or would he have to be confronted with an array of colors and sizes? The questions are endless.....

Maybe I should find the address of the nearest Burmese embassy....

Health insurance and eating beans down by the river

You should really read this post over at Real Live Preacher - and the 95 comments that come after it. I realize that the plural of ancedote is not data, but I think that the post highlights how profoundly broken our health care system is. There are 40 - 50 million Americans with no health insurance at all, depending on who you talk to. This strikes me as a significant problem, and that doesn't include all the issues that people face who actually HAVE insurance.

I don't understand our reluctance to consider nationalized health care. Would it be perfect? No, but if the alternative is what we have now, sign me up. If you've got the cash, you could always pay extra for private insurance - just like in schools. Our public education system is decidedly flawed, but the alternative is NOT having public education. The Department of Defense is government run, and despite the fact that this war has been rather desperately botched, I haven't heard any politicians suggest that we dismantle the military - private contractors like Blackwater notwithstanding. Some things should just not be run by corporations.