I returned to Moab yesterday, camping out in the heat last night.
The Peace Corps reunion in San Diego went really well. My Peace Corps friend, Stephanie, drove me there from Colorado, and, of course, it was splendid getting to know her better. We were both so happy we overcame our reluctance to go. It was the first I'd seen most those folks in 23 years, since we were in Ecuador together. I was actually really surprised to see how little everybody had changed. Joe Griffith (I think voted the "sexiest" in Peace Corps training), who had disappointed his fellow female volunteers (and some male :-) by marrying an Ecuadorian, pretty much organized the whole event. His Ecuadorean wife and sister-in-law even cooked up a gourmet Ecuadorean feast for us, which brought back a flood of magical memories.
On returning to Moab, I got to spend time with Carolyn and her new boyfriend, Thembe, who had dropped into the area for a couple weeks. They then brought me to Fruita, Colorado, to visit my parents.
In Fruita, I discovered a group of new friends (Kyle and Jeanine, Ken and Rachelle, Cullen and Veronica), and a rad, artsy center they'd created, called Cavalcade. They wanted to jam in Cullen's woodshop (he also makes harps and guitars), and I figured I'd join these refined musicians with my rookie guitar skills. There were a bunch of woodsaws hanging up, and somebody jokingly asked if anybody played the saw. I said, "yes," and sawed some tunes with them. They convinced me to stay longer and play saw in Cavalcade's variety show with Kyle Harvey.
Meanwhile, I've been reading a book my Missoula friend, Kate, gave me, "The Spell of the Sensuous", by David Abram. At first I'd thought it was just another nice nature book. The title kind of throws you. But it is utterly profound, with revolutionary ideas. Maybe if it had a different title, and not classified as a nature book, it might be more well known, in fact revolutionary, to scientific, as well as theological and philosophical, thinking. It's helping me crystallize ideas developing for decades in me. I hope to write them out sometime. Meanwhile, here's some musings it inspires in me:
COMMON SENSE
All physical reality is sensual.
All physical reality is known only by the senses.
The senses are the prophets, the seers, the sent,
bearing witness to Unchanging Consciousness.
To repress the sensual is to deny physical reality,
To deny the sensual is to deny compassion,
to deny the Word in the flesh,
Consciousness in the flesh.
Paradoxically, to repress the sensual is to be a slave to the sensual,
to express and share the sensual is to be served by the sensual.
To express and share passion is compassion.
How?
Passion is sense.
Shared sense is common sense.
Common sense is common passion.
Common passion is compassion.
Senses hidden, senses not shared,
Passion hidden, passion not shared
are our slaveholders,
are our destruction.
Compassion is Omni-pre-sence
Omnipresence is God in everyone,
One Consciousness in everyone.
Compassion is Common Sense.
All physical things are sensed.
To share all things is to commonly sense.
To share everything is common sense!
Common sense is concensus.
To think we own anything
is to deny common passion,
to deny common sense,
is to deny omni-pre-sence!
To breathe is to share,
air common to all.
To breathe is to be alive.
To breathe is to sense.
To breathe is to make sense.
To breathe is common sense!
To breathe is to respire, inspire,
be filled with the Spirit,
To realize all life
literally is One Breath,
One Spirit,
Whole Spirit,
Wholly Spirit,
Holy Spirit.
Can you possess air?
can you own breath for later?
To deny this common sense
is to deny Omni-pre-sense.
Possession means possessed.
Possessed means not free.
Not free means bought and sold.
Only slaves and prostitutes
can be bought and sold,
Slaves to our senses,
because we repress our senses.
Free means priceless.
Free Market is an oxymoron!
Free literally means free!
Market is price institution.
Price institution is pros-titution.
Prostitution is commerce.
Commerce is common market.
Common market opposes common sense.
Common sense is com-passion.
Common sense is consensus.
(In Hebrew, commerce is canaan.
All the world has become Canaan).
Mammon is delusion.
Delusion is idolatry,
mistaking illusion for reality.
Compassion is reality.
Reality is omnipresent.
Omnipre-sence is common sense.
Either love Mammon
and hate Reality
or vise versa.
It 's impossible to love both.
Can you simultaneously love
both the Prostitute of Babylon
(Queen of Commerce)
and the New Jerusalem
(Queen of Grace, of Gratis)?
If life cannot share
how can it be life?
To buy and sell life is to deny life.
Every particle in the Universe is life.
Universe means omnipresence.
To not share is to reject all the Universe,
to repress your own senses,
to not sense the senses of others,
to reject compassion,
to not make sense,
to reject common sense.
Compassion is the Spirit
breath, sense,
Spirit confessing the Word in the flesh,
beyond words.
Any spirit that does not share
denies the Word made flesh.
Because any spirit that does not share
is in a lung that does not breath,
not speaking the Word beyond words.
Common Breath
Common Sense
I said in my heart,
"Concerning the condition of the descendants of Adam,
God tests them,
that they may see that they themselves are animals."
For what happens to the descendants of Adam
also happens to animals;
one thing befalls them:
as one dies, so dies the other.
Surely, they all have One Spirit*.
Adam has no advantage over animals,
for all is emptiness.
All go to one place:
all are from the dust,
and all return to dust.
(The Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:17-20)
*Hebrew, Ruach, meaning Spirt or Breath.
The Peace Corps reunion in San Diego went really well. My Peace Corps friend, Stephanie, drove me there from Colorado, and, of course, it was splendid getting to know her better. We were both so happy we overcame our reluctance to go. It was the first I'd seen most those folks in 23 years, since we were in Ecuador together. I was actually really surprised to see how little everybody had changed. Joe Griffith (I think voted the "sexiest" in Peace Corps training), who had disappointed his fellow female volunteers (and some male :-) by marrying an Ecuadorian, pretty much organized the whole event. His Ecuadorean wife and sister-in-law even cooked up a gourmet Ecuadorean feast for us, which brought back a flood of magical memories.
On returning to Moab, I got to spend time with Carolyn and her new boyfriend, Thembe, who had dropped into the area for a couple weeks. They then brought me to Fruita, Colorado, to visit my parents.
In Fruita, I discovered a group of new friends (Kyle and Jeanine, Ken and Rachelle, Cullen and Veronica), and a rad, artsy center they'd created, called Cavalcade. They wanted to jam in Cullen's woodshop (he also makes harps and guitars), and I figured I'd join these refined musicians with my rookie guitar skills. There were a bunch of woodsaws hanging up, and somebody jokingly asked if anybody played the saw. I said, "yes," and sawed some tunes with them. They convinced me to stay longer and play saw in Cavalcade's variety show with Kyle Harvey.
Meanwhile, I've been reading a book my Missoula friend, Kate, gave me, "The Spell of the Sensuous", by David Abram. At first I'd thought it was just another nice nature book. The title kind of throws you. But it is utterly profound, with revolutionary ideas. Maybe if it had a different title, and not classified as a nature book, it might be more well known, in fact revolutionary, to scientific, as well as theological and philosophical, thinking. It's helping me crystallize ideas developing for decades in me. I hope to write them out sometime. Meanwhile, here's some musings it inspires in me:
COMMON SENSE
All physical reality is sensual.
All physical reality is known only by the senses.
The senses are the prophets, the seers, the sent,
bearing witness to Unchanging Consciousness.
To repress the sensual is to deny physical reality,
To deny the sensual is to deny compassion,
to deny the Word in the flesh,
Consciousness in the flesh.
Paradoxically, to repress the sensual is to be a slave to the sensual,
to express and share the sensual is to be served by the sensual.
To express and share passion is compassion.
How?
Passion is sense.
Shared sense is common sense.
Common sense is common passion.
Common passion is compassion.
Senses hidden, senses not shared,
Passion hidden, passion not shared
are our slaveholders,
are our destruction.
Compassion is Omni-pre-sence
Omnipresence is God in everyone,
One Consciousness in everyone.
Compassion is Common Sense.
All physical things are sensed.
To share all things is to commonly sense.
To share everything is common sense!
Common sense is concensus.
To think we own anything
is to deny common passion,
to deny common sense,
is to deny omni-pre-sence!
To breathe is to share,
air common to all.
To breathe is to be alive.
To breathe is to sense.
To breathe is to make sense.
To breathe is common sense!
To breathe is to respire, inspire,
be filled with the Spirit,
To realize all life
literally is One Breath,
One Spirit,
Whole Spirit,
Wholly Spirit,
Holy Spirit.
Can you possess air?
can you own breath for later?
To deny this common sense
is to deny Omni-pre-sense.
Possession means possessed.
Possessed means not free.
Not free means bought and sold.
Only slaves and prostitutes
can be bought and sold,
Slaves to our senses,
because we repress our senses.
Free means priceless.
Free Market is an oxymoron!
Free literally means free!
Market is price institution.
Price institution is pros-titution.
Prostitution is commerce.
Commerce is common market.
Common market opposes common sense.
Common sense is com-passion.
Common sense is consensus.
(In Hebrew, commerce is canaan.
All the world has become Canaan).
Mammon is delusion.
Delusion is idolatry,
mistaking illusion for reality.
Compassion is reality.
Reality is omnipresent.
Omnipre-sence is common sense.
Either love Mammon
and hate Reality
or vise versa.
It 's impossible to love both.
Can you simultaneously love
both the Prostitute of Babylon
(Queen of Commerce)
and the New Jerusalem
(Queen of Grace, of Gratis)?
If life cannot share
how can it be life?
To buy and sell life is to deny life.
Every particle in the Universe is life.
Universe means omnipresence.
To not share is to reject all the Universe,
to repress your own senses,
to not sense the senses of others,
to reject compassion,
to not make sense,
to reject common sense.
Compassion is the Spirit
breath, sense,
Spirit confessing the Word in the flesh,
beyond words.
Any spirit that does not share
denies the Word made flesh.
Because any spirit that does not share
is in a lung that does not breath,
not speaking the Word beyond words.
Common Breath
Common Sense
I said in my heart,
"Concerning the condition of the descendants of Adam,
God tests them,
that they may see that they themselves are animals."
For what happens to the descendants of Adam
also happens to animals;
one thing befalls them:
as one dies, so dies the other.
Surely, they all have One Spirit*.
Adam has no advantage over animals,
for all is emptiness.
All go to one place:
all are from the dust,
and all return to dust.
(The Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:17-20)
*Hebrew, Ruach, meaning Spirt or Breath.
