Hypocrisy? Or Hugely Bad Judgment?

It seems to happen all the time, doesn't it?

We have elected officials who campaign on family values and are cheating on their wives behind everyone's backs. We have elected officials who campaign on an anti-corruption platform and it turns out they accept as many favors as the people they have prosecuted.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer is only the most recent example. He made a name for himself as a crusader against corruption in business and government. It sounds like he was a hard-nosed, blunt, and ruthless crusader for What Is Right.

Now look at him.

What is it about public officials? Why do they make such an issue out of family values or corruption when they fail to live up to their own standards for others? Is it blatant hypocrisy? Is it arrogance? Is it simply bad judgment? Don't they realize what will happen to their families and career if they are caught? Or do they make so many enemies that someone sets out to trap them in their own weaknesses? How are we to know what really happens in these cases?

There is a great hue and cry calling for Gov. Spitzer to resign. If his effectiveness as governor is destroyed, then probably he might as well resign and rebuild his life as best he can.

Then on the other hand, is this worth the destruction of a man's career? In this age of kiss-and-tell, probably not. This is basically a personal mistake, not something that should impair his ability to function as governor of his state. It surely isn't worth impeaching him; the talk of impeachment shows how cynical and bloodthirsty this nation is today. We're like sharks circling a wounded person or animal in the sea. Anyone who ever makes any kind of mistake is fair game, and if he doesn't like being It he shouldn't be alive because anyone who is alive is vulnerable.

I note that the people who are nastiest toward Gov. Spitzer are the people who he was nasty to when he himself had the upper hand. Someone said once, "The person who hasn't committed any wrongs may cast the first stone."

Maybe we should all remember that.

That same someone also said, on another occasion, "Judge not, lest you be judged. For you will be judged the same way you judge others."

That is what is happening now to Gov. Spitzer. Next it will happen to some of the people who are calling for his impeachment. The shoe will be on the other foot again, the game will continue, and the band will keep on playing.

I want to be nasty too. The nerve of this man! He made such an issue out of corruption and then he turned out to be a human being like everyone else.

If he had used a less brutal style, he might have more friends today when he needs friends.

But what the heck. I don't have the right to cast the first stone either. I doubt that anyone does. We have the right to be upset, but let's keep partisan revenge out of it. That's one of the things that fractures our nation. Can we cool down and try to work for healing this time?

It Is Too Sad To Be Funny

Am I the only person who wonders about the goings-on in the Middle East? Am I the only person who thinks that everyone over there, Islamic or Jewish, is literally in love with hatred?

Yesterday it was announced that the Palestinian peace talks were going to resume.

Why does it not surprise me that, almost immediately, someone shoots up a Jewish seminary and kills some people there? The attack had only one goal, it seems to me - to sabotage the planned peace talks. This appears to happen almost on schedule. Someone tries to revive a movement toward peace, and someone else immediately does something to derail it.

The rest of the world sits by, utterly befuddled and confused, with no idea of how to communicate, no idea of how to gain trust, no idea even of how to get us all on the same page.
And we achieve nothing toward peace, though we all think we desire peace. How is it that we desire peace but can do so little toward having it? Does anyone besides me wonder what isn't working in our world? Obviously something is not.

We shuttle back and forth, shooting guns with one hand and waving peace signs with the other hand. We scurry and bustle like ants whose hill has been run over with a lawnmower. It must be comical to a cosmic observer. (I'm not kidding. I once watched a documentary on the arms race in the Cold War and I could have laughed myself silly. We worked so hard to build weapons that would destroy our entire civilization, as though we had good sense.) We must be hilarious. Slapstick on Planet Earth!

But too much pain comes from it. (Of course, that is what most comedy and humor are based on.) Too many lives are lost. Too many other lives are irrevocably altered.

It is too tragic to be funny.

From No to Yes

After 18 months of upheaval - moving 800 miles, getting re-acquainted with my home town, and the continuing revision of my beliefs and spiritual priorities - I have finally reached a couple of milestones.

It is hard to keep going, to remain positive, when everywhere you turn there is a thundering NO! No, we aren't interested in the classes you want to offer us. No, we aren't going to hire you. No, the classes you wanted to take are cancelled because there aren't enough people in them. No, no, no, no!

Suddenly the sun comes up. The ghostly light gradually brightens into pink clouds and orange sun; light and shadow are now playing on the snow. The chorus is changing its text, now, and it is beginning to say Yes.

It almost amazes me that I have completed the first level of lay speaker training. I am not sure how I can use this, with my beliefs so far removed from official Christian doctrine. However, I have some ideas, and I have some things to say, and I think I can find ways to say them that get my point across without having to involve theological argument, which I have no background to do well in. I just talked with my pastor today about possibilities, and he sounded understanding and supportive. This opportunity is actually going to get tested.

And as I stand trembling on the brink of financial disaster, someone finally says to me, "We definitely want you to be part of our team." This job, at the moment, is a bird in the bush, not a bird in the hand, because lawyers have to finish the fine print in a contract between employer and customer before I am officially offered the job. I am hopeful that in the next week or two I will be getting ready to start working. So although the bird is still in the bush, my hand is poised over him ready to grab.

And as I continue to explore my new spirituality, I suppose that there will be more to come. There are still choices about lifestyle that are working out. But I should at least avoid the need to set up housekeeping in a box under the local bridge.

Yes. A short word. One syllable, three letters. But certainly, as the dark season of the year begins to wane and we begin to think of new life in spring, it is a welcome one.

Calendar: January 14 and February 1

After several weeks in which I became immersed in some Conversations With God books, I am finally back. As I work through some reflections on Walsch's writings, I will probably make some comments here. Today, though, I am going through calendar pages to start cleaning them off my computer desk.

The Dalai Lama quote for January 14 contains the statement that followers of the Buddha should take his life (the Buddha's, not the Dalai Lama's) as a model.

How I wish the Christian church would say that! I believe that one major tenet of Christianity is that Jesus shows God to us. There are a number of Christianity's tenets that give me problems; this one, however, is spot on. Jesus does show God to us.

What, then, does Jesus show us about God? He shows us that God accepts everyone who honestly seeks Him; we don't see stories where Jesus turned people away because they were the wrong color, had the wrong lifestyle, or believed the wrong things. He shows us that God cares about the marginalized; Jesus was normally found among tax collectors and sinners, not in the company of respectable people. He shows us that God would heal us, teach us, help us to live better lives.

Why doesn't the church teach us these things about God? And about how Jesus shows us these things about God? Why do we keep hearing about sin and salvation, about how Jesus is the only way to God, about the threat of hell if we fail to believe that Jesus was the biological son of God?

Those aren't the things Jesus told us about. Those aren't the things Jesus showed in his life.

If we can follow Jesus' teachings and example, loving and helping others, maintaining an intimate relationship with God as he did, we are truly Christians, aren't we? Isn't that what a follower of Jesus would do?

Moving on to another month, the page for February 1 says this: "When I consider the lack of cooperation in human society, I can only conclude that it stems from ignorance of our interdependent nature."

I would add to that, "Nor do we understand the natural world and our relationship to it."

The reason I want to say that is to spell it out: We are part of the natural world. This planet is part of the natural universe, and every living thing on it is part of the natural world. That includes us human beings.

And we had better learn, quickly, that we are interdependent with the rest of the natural world. We are not separate from nature; we cannot dominate it as though it were something external from us. We have dominated it for so long that we are now destroying our environment. Let's be up front about that. Our soil is disappearing, our soil (such as we have left) and air and water are all polluted, our food supply is polluted with chemicals, and every time we turn around there is another warning or news story about something that threatens us. We also have overpopulated the earth; the only reason we aren't standing elbow-to-elbow throughout all the continents is that we, in the absence of natural predators, prey on each other through war (which with today's technology offers more sources of pollution).

There is a theory held by some that the planet has decided we are vermin and must be gotten rid of. That is scary! Is it true? There isn't any way to really know. But we sure have found some awfully weird diseases in the past several years.

Gloom and doom? I hope not. But we need to wake up, stop arguing about non-issues and roll up our shirtsleeves.

A good beginning would be to heed the Dalai Lama's words. We are interdependent. What happens in Iraq affects something that happens in Alaska. What happens in Chicago can affect people in Chile. Let's understand that and become serious about healing our environment.

Book Review: Come Be My Light

Ever since I heard about this collection of Mother Teresa's letters, I have been eager to read it. While she lived, I found her fascinating and more than a little intimidating. I admired her devotion to the poor of India even as I knew that I was nowhere near that level of living myself. We all admired her. We all saw the humor and strength and dedication in the woman. One way we can judge her impact on us is the many different places in which she is mentioned; I just finished a book on leadership which gave her as an example in a couple of places.

Now we know just how tough she really was.

The letters and other writings were edited and commented upon by Brian Kolodiejchuk, a Roman Catholic priest who is working to persuade the church to name Mother Teresa a saint. The book is published by Doubleday. Incidentally, I found the commentary extremely helpful because the letters refer to things a Catholic might know (or might not) but a Protestant would not, and these things were explained and clarified for the reader.

The letters are presented in a fairly consistent chronological order, which gives the reader a brief view of the events of Mother Teresa's life. The book begins as she left her home to become a nun, follows her to India, shows her life there as a nun, and then follows the events that took her out of her original order (Sisters of Loreto) to found the Missionaries of Charity. We read about the beginning of her work with India's poor, its growth, Mother Teresa's own growing fame, and eventually of the decline of her health.

But the treasure of this book, to me, is that we can also follow her spiritual development. She had a period of mystical contact with Jesus, and during this period she received the call to take Jesus and his love to the poor of India. After that period, she lived the rest of her life with no mystical contact whatsoever.

As we read her letters, we follow the agony of that separation and her eventual acceptance of it, a process that required many years. Through all of it, she was determined to serve with a smile, and to give Jesus whatever he required, and to give it happily and without reservation. While she felt empty and dark within her soul, she was a beacon of that love for the rest of us, and we had no idea of what she was feeling.

As a sort-of mystic myself, I can only imagine what it would be like to have that union for a few months - and then have it removed from me. I haven't had such an experience, but I am sure such a loss would be devastating. It probably compares with losing the color in your TV set and watching everything in black and white. It may compare with losing your sense of smell, so that when you eat your food is virtually tasteless.

And Mother Teresa not only endured it, she transcended it, and with a style that most of us could only aspire to.

When I began reading, I admired her. When I finished, admiration had changed to love.

Come Be My Light is a fascinating book. Anyone interested in saints, nuns, mystics of our time or any time, biography or published letters would surely find it as absorbing as I did.

Calendar: January 2 and January 7

The quotation from the Dalai Lama for January 2 says that Buddhism is "more than a religion. It is a science of the mind." (That reminded me of Ernest Holmes, but I won't go there now.) And on January 7, the Dalai Lama made a reference to "Buddhist psychology."

I have, more than once, remarked that Jesus was a master psychologist. I have even had the courage to say that if you remove religion from your reading of his teachings, they sound a lot like psychology. When I say such a daring thing, most people look at me as though I had just gotten out of my Venusian spaceship.

Why are we so reluctant to acknowledge the link between religion and psychology? Whichever way you choose - the pastor's or the counsellor's - you will find increased self-knowledge, a greater degree of inner peace, and a stronger ability to understand and cope with life.

Jesus was a master psychologist. He told us to find ourselves by giving our lives to things larger than ourselves; isn't that good psychology? He told us to forgive over and over and not to hold grudges; don't we understand that it is healthy for us to do things like that? He told us to love our neighbor as ourselves; if we could do that, we would be able to make a better world.

I see no reason to deny that religion and psychology are related to each other. And I don't understand why people are so reluctant to recognize that connection. Religion and psychology are not mutually exclusive. They approach spiritual/mental health from different directions but they both guide you to it. And if you can find such health, surely that is important in itself; you're free to choose your path to it.

Calendar: January 1 and January 3

For my 2008 desk calendar, I bought a page-a-day collection of quotations by the Dalai Lama. I did this for two reasons: As much as I love cats, I needed a change from the pictures of cats on my 2007 calendar; and I was ready for a calendar that could give me a little food for thought.

My plan is that when the sayings push my buttons, I will do my thinking about it here. I haven't exactly made any resolutions, but I am determined to practice my writing and thinking skills, and this is a good place to do so.

Andrews McNeel Publishing is the publisher of the calendar, in case they need their "plug" here.

For January 1, the calendar says: "The whole point of transforming our heart and mind is to find happiness. We all have the natural desire to be happy and the wish to overcome suffering. This is a fact, so we can make it our starting point."

What that points out to me is that every human on this rock wants the same things. We want good lives, we want good health, we want material needs and maybe a few comforts besides, and we hope our children can have more of the same when they are adults.

That being said, I will make my best effort this year to realize, whenever I disagree with somebody or really and truly dislike and disrespect someone, that the other person and I still agree about more things than we disagree about. There is someone I will see tonight, in fact, who is lacking in discipline in a way that affects the way she will run the two rehearsals I'm going to attend. My frustration has gotten to the point that I began praying for her for about a month ago. Clearly, she provides one place where I can apply my new insight.

If we could recognize our commonalities, and learn to tolerate our differences, this would be a different world - in our communities, our nation, and the whole planet. I have no influence over those folks in the Middle East who seem to thrive on intolerance and violence. But I can work on it myself. And I will.

The page for January 3 goes on about happiness. I am not going to try to quote it fully, but it says that the key to happiness is inner peace and the greatest obstacles to that are the negative emotions of anger, fear, and suspicion. Any negative emotion, I presume, would become such an obstacle; the possibilities are not limited to the ones he mentioned. The Dalai Lama goes on to say that love, compassion, and a sense of universal responsibility are the sources of peace and happiness.

I think love and compassion go together; a sense of universal responsibility could very easily be part of the package also. We are losing the idea that we live in a community; it's one for all and one for all now. All for one and one for all is disappearing. We can do whatever we desire, and we have the right to do it just because we can, and that ends the discussion. Whether it causes needless hurt, whether it destroys, whether it harms the larger community - none of that matters any more. To give up something you would like, or honestly believe you deserve, for someone else? Even for the whole community? Funky!

But then, if we all desire the same things for ourselves and our children, can we not give up some things for them? Can we change our driving habits, for instance, to try to help the environmental issues concerned with our gasoline emissions? Or do we think that's what other people need to do, but not us?

So what I conclude after pondering these two quotations from the Dalai Lama, a man whom I deeply respect, is not especially earth-shattering or brilliant, but we can't say it too often.

We are all in this together. It is time for us to understand that and act on it.