Insane Earthlings

Yesterday I attended the funeral of my father's life-long best friend. His funeral was exactly one year from my own mother's funeral.  This past Monday we had a small family gathering on the one year anniversary of my mother's passing. We met at the columbarium where my mother and my niece are interred and memorialized. I decided to mark the occasion by sharing an experience and a statement about my beliefs concerning the nature of our existence. My thoughts on this subject are always changing and my mind and heart are open to new perspectives and possibilities. I structured my thoughts for this occasion in theological terms. I could have easily substituted secular language and used words like psyche or consciousness instead of soul. The infinite instead of God. But all of the possible uses of language fall short when attempting to describe the reality that remains hidden from us. Our brain is encased in bone. We only have five measly senses to make sense of everyt...

We were in the basement. The T.V. had sent out that alarm that would usually say, “This has been a test, only a test of the Emergency Broadcast System.” But instead, the voice had warned that a tornado had been spotted and had touched down in Southeast part of town.” We looked outside and it was eerily calm and still. And yellowish.   I was only 10 years old, but recognized an ominous scene when I saw one. Then we heard the train whistle noise. We had been warned about that in school.  It meant a tornado was very close by. So, now we were huddled together. My father had grabbed the mattress off of my brother’s bed in the basement. (His hippie dream room, beaded curtains and all) All four children and my Mom and Dad crouched behind the mattress. We could hear the sounds of tree limbs cracking and falling, hard rain, wind, and unpleasant crunching of metal and wood. I was scared. My sister suddenly remembered that our cat, Scooter, was upstairs and vulnerable if the giant...

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” Franklin D. Roosevelt We have all heard this famous quote. We were raised in a world that has the capacity to destroy itself in an instant. I never really understood the words uttered by FDR at his first inauguration. It has been re-quoted over and over by people of every political viewpoint. It has been used by both well intentioned people and those who seek to do evil.   These words feel powerful and reassuring, but in such a way that they can be easily manipulated by anyone for any cause of action. We were taught these words, but rarely were made aware of the context in which they were used. In my life, I do not recall ever having an in-depth conversation about what having only fear itself to fear means. But the world is once again at a key juncture in which we must choose between fear and hope. So, as I read an article by David Brooks in the New York Times just now, I realized that the meaning of Roosevelt’s words should ha...