Spread Good

I am blessed in innumerable ways, which of course makes me want to list them: a loving husband, children, and extended family; the most caring, funny, and "wicked smart" friends; a quaint, quirkly old home; a job working in a community that honors my work; and a church where I go and laugh and cry every single time I walk in the door.

Growing up, I had a different experience at church. I loved my grandparents with all my heart and going to church was a way to please them. Still, the church services were stern and filled with references to scripture that illuminated all the different ways one was a sinner. I don't remember laughing, ever and if I shed tears, it was because I realized I was going straight to hell. There were powerful lessons of community but they came at a cost.

Here is what happened at my church today:


Reverend Judith singled me out and asked me how my health was doing and more importantly, how I was doing. "I'm fine, I'm fine...everything is going to be fine". She trained her steel blue eyes on me and said "You call me and let's set up a time to talk." Reverend Judith then called all the children to the front of the church and read them the parable of the 6 blind men and the elephant. After the children left, she preached a beautiful sermon entitled "What is Religion" and tied it in to the parable. The choir sang beautifully, and I was (once again) in tears. Guess what? That was all a prelude to this..................


Mr. and Ms. B stood up and addressed the congregation. Mr. B talked about how they had been impressed with a professional football player with the Detroit Lions. That football player had called together 40 of his friends at the end of the season and given each of them 55.00 dollars. The money was to be used to "spread good", no questions asked. He picked that amount because it was the number on his jersey. Mr. B then turned to Ms. B and with tears in his eyes told her that she was the light of his life, his moral compass, the reason his children were the fine individuals they were today.....and to honor their 55 years together, they were both going to stand in the back of the church and give each person an envelope with 55 dollars. Our simple instructions were to "spread good."


I am now contemplating the most serious decision I have ever faced with 55 dollars. I want to honor their trust, honor my beautiful, beautiful church, and say for the record that I think religion is about spreading good. I am so very lucky to have such people showing me how to do it. I will never forget today, in this life or the next.

Living Philosophies

For those of us who work in the schools, summer break provides an opportunity to fixate on some esoteric ideal and actually read a book or two about it. This is usually in lieu of staining the fence, painting the porch, or dividing the sweet pea plant that is in mortal combat with the pumpkin vines. Last summer it was reading about transcendentalism which is defined as a spiritual ideal that transcends just the scientific or empirical and is knowable through intuition. The thing that struck me, in an overwhelming way, was that Ralph Waldo Emerson was a professional reader more than anything else. He read Goethe in German and the early philosophers in Greek and Latin. He did not want to miss the nuances of what they were saying in their original languages. He then built his own living philosophy based on studying what had come before and applying it to his own unique time in history. I think we all have an obligation to craft our own living philosophy: Where did we come from, why are we here, and what is sacred?

This summer (just in the nick of time as school starts next week) I finished reading a lovely book entitled Living Philosophies: The Reflections of some eminent men and women of our time. The book was originally published in 1931 and Albert Einstein was the lead essayist:


The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art
and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.

Each essayist ponders the meaning of life and many talk about the increasing threat of global warming, the inexplicable horrors of wars and holocausts, and the gulf between science and religion. John Hersey, author and war journalist, says this:

From such frigid immensities I come home to my heart. My deepest conviction is that one's love for a very small circle of family and friends is what matters most in life. Far beyond the satisfaction of work is that intimacy, one with one, face to face.

I could quote at length from each remarkable essay but I will end with this one from Daniel Boorstin:

Probably no one of us has the True Religion. But all of us together-if we are allowed to be free
are discovering ways of conversing about the great mysteries. The pretense to know all the answers to the deepest mysteries, is, of course, the greatest fraud....I see religion as only a way of asking unanswerable questions, of sharing the joy of a community of quest, and solacing one another in our ignorance.

My own living philosophy, at this moment in time, is to stand in awe of the mysteries of the universe, explore what I can through the foundation of Buddhist beliefs and shout with joy that I have the love of a few good people. As summer winds down, take a moment to ask a few unanswerable questions. It puts getting school supplies in complete perspective:)