We know the brain is changed by bouts of mental illness, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we know it. Joel Stottlemier goes to the mat for his fellow bipolars:
I don’t have a cold that I’m going to get over and be better in a week. I’ve had a spike shot through my head and I will never be the same. It’s easier to understand this disease if you stop thinking about germs and medicines… We look the same as we did, maybe even sound the same, but the experience of surviving Bipolar disorder has changed us emotionally and physically.
“Is UU history relevant?” seems to be the question of the hour. I want to add a word of caution.
Relevance isn’t a project. It isn’t something you prove or disprove. To say that coming from the other direction, if you have to prove something is relevant, it isn’t relevant.
Modern Christianity raged with the question, “Is Christianity relevant to the modern world or not?”
Which was followed by, “Of course it’s relevant! How could you ask such a thing?! Don’t you love Jesus?! Isn’t he good enough for you just the way he is?!”
Which was followed by, “Why don’t you care about modern people living in the modern world?! Do you like making oppressed people cry?!”
Which was followed by, “I’ll see you in hell!!” Which, interestingly, was the one thing both parties agreed about.
Let’s not have that kind of conversation about relevance. Click to continue reading “But is it snake bite relevant?”
Looks like they’re going to put in a power station in my favorite plot of un(der) developed land in Atlanta. But the neighborhood is working to keep the beautifully busted up buildings intact and is asking for real planning before the whole area is super-developed.
Why do we welcome the stranger? Seems to me there are two types of motivations: mercy and justice.
Merciful welcomers focus on the giving of gifts. For them, welcome is an expression of the abundance of life. It’s a matter of generosity. They give because they have been given much.
At its worst, merciful welcome devolves into a parody of itself—making nice. At its best it creates circles of relationship that never existed before.
Just welcomers seek to rectify unwelcome. They see people who have been shut out in the cold and want to bring them in to join the party. (There’s a good chance that they were shut out of the party once themselves.) For them, welcome is a matter of what we owe each other.
At its worst, just welcome turns into the opposite of welcome—a closing of the circle against all who are judged not just enough. At its best it opens up a space for reconciliation to happen, where wrongs can be righted and forgiveness can begin.
Justice and mercy tend to compete, and it is no different with welcome. Click to continue reading “Welcome: Gift giving or justice making?”
Joe Bageant just posted a six-page excerpt of Deer Hunting With Jesus. Go nab it. There’s also a link to several dozen PDFs of his essays.
