Kathe Kollwitz

About a year ago I wrote about Zed, Carmac and me visiting one of our senator's offices and sharing with the gathered people a story about Zed doing an social studies assignment in which he had to learn about the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial. In the worksheet there was a question about what kind of memorial he would create. He wrote that he would make a statue of a crying mother. When I told the story, the people in the room with us listened silently but when Zed went to leave, they lauded him.

Hammy brought me a new Prestel book called "50 Women Artists You Should Know" a couple of days ago. In it I discovered an artist who's work exemplifies what Zed described. Her younger son, Peter, was killed at 18 in World War I and she became a pacifist. Her work is full of love, grief and sorrow. The statue to the left is called "Pieta" and depicts a mother holding her dead son. The ones on the right is of grieving parents and adorn the burial place of her son. Her work is powerful, full of a mother's love. Her work does not shy away from the torment a mother must feel at the loss of her child nor the realities of human suffering in any form or from any cause.

Prophets R Us

The word "prophet" has been messing with me for a while; I couldn't wrap my mind around what it meant. I've taken several spiritual gifts assessments and read about what the gifts are or mean but I just couldn't understand prophet.

I'm reading Neil Douglas-Klotz' book Blessings of the Cosmos: Wisdom of the Heart From the Aramaic Words of Jesus. In each chapter, the author begins with a passage from the Bible spoken by Jesus then writes it in Aramaic and then translates it into English including all the nuances and layers of meanings that are found in Aramaic.

This is from the Beatitudes in Luke (KJV):
"Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets."

Like, what does prophets mean there?

Here's how Douglas-Klotz says it can be translated:

"So feel life's sharp point, the jab of circumstance
at this one moment in time's harsh spotlight.
Whatever is extremely bad, take the extreme part
and use it to feel abundant, to make an inner leap,
to be transported by the free energy it provides.
These are your wages on the level of divine vibration,
the world in which light, sound, and name
mingle in the heart of the Holy One
before it gave birth to everything we see.
This fee, your reward, is in payment for
the job of living your true image and purpose,
the only work worth doing.
The prophets before you,
those who also listened to the
voice always coming from within,
received the same fee from their ancestors,
who often confused their own
confused reflection of the divine knowing
with what they think they see in you."

Douglas-Klotz goes on to give textual notes which include this:
"The word for prophet in Aramaic (nabiya) does not mean one who foretells the future, but rather a person who listens to the divine voice within and acts upon it."

Cool, huh? Now it makes sense to me. I'm a prophet and I didn't even know it. Quakerism is a religion made up of mystics and prophets. How very Old Testament sounding.

And, as a note on the above text...I really love the idea of taking whatever is extremely bad and using the energy to make a leap to abundance. Free energy which transport you so you can live your true image and purpose. Waay cool.

Mary Magdalene

While searching for depictions of Mary Magdalene for this post, I came across this beautiful painting of Mary and Jesus. I don't know who the artist is because it was not credited, but it's from the website by the

Nasarean Religion of the Essene Way.

I've been interested in Mary Magdalene for a long time but you know, there's not a lot of facts out there about her. The Bible is not a good source. She's mentioned more in the Gnostic Gospels particularly, of course, in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene but also in The Gospel of Thomas, Pistis Sophia and The Gospel of the Egyptians (the latter of which I have not read).

I bought myself a small icon pendent of St. Mary Magdalene for my birthday along with one of Jesus. I've been thinking on them quite a lot. If you've read the Gnostic Gospels, you learn that Mary claimed to have been given certain spiritual knowledge by Jesus and, when she tried to share it with the other disciples, they started dissing on her, asking why Jesus would have told things to her-a woman!-he didn't tell them. Basically, they discounted her because she was a woman.

The more I think about this story, the more I know that the reason she, of all the people in Jesus' circle, was chosen is because-not in spite of-she was a woman. When a person is outside of what is the cultural norm, that person often has fewer "boxes" to break out of (boxes/illusion/assumptions/egotraps). Mary was a woman in a culture in which to be a women was to be less than to be a man. The male disciples came from several different backgrounds, some wealthier, some working class, some not-so-nice, but they all had the "benefit" of being men; they were insiders by nature of their gender. Mary was obviously intelligent, compassionate, curious, a good listener and a quick student and she had the gender perspective of being outside the norm so she could hear Jesus' lessons and truths with fresh ears ("those who have ears, let them hear"). She was open, literally, to his teachings.

Something I was listening to a couple of weeks ago got me thinking about Logos=Word and Sophia=Wisdom. I was thinking about how Jesus was the Word made incarnate, the Breath of Life. I am a word person; I always score incredibly high on tests of verbal ability. I know, though, that words, logic, are only half of it. Wisdom, intuitive right knowing, is the other half. I'm finding it interesting to think about Jesus and Mary balancing the two things. That whole male/female logic/intuition thing. In the Gospel of Philip, it is written, "As for the Wisdom...she is the mother of the angels. And the companion of the [...] Mary Magdalene".

I've got Joni Mitchell's song, "Passion Play (When All the Slaves Are Free)" in my head today:

Magdalene is trembling

Like a washing on a line

Trembling and gleaming

Never before was a man so kind

Never so redeeming

Enter the multitudes

In Exxon blue

In radiation rose

Ecstasy

Now you tell me

Who you gonna get to do the dirty work

When all the slaves are free?

(Who're you gonna get)

I am up a sycamore

Looking through the leaves

A sinner of some position

Who in the world can this heart healer be

This magical physician

Enter the multitudes

In Exxon blue

In radiation rose

Misery

Now you tell me

Who you gonna get to do the dirty work

When all the slaves are free?

(Who're you gonna get)

Enter the multitudes

The walking wounded

They come to this diver of the heart

Of the multitudes

Thy kingdom come

Thy will be done

Oh, climb down, climb down he says to me

From the middle of unrest

They think is light is squandered

But he sees a stray in the wilderness

And I see how far I've wandered

Enter the multitudes

In Exxon blue

In radiation rose

Apathy

Now you tell me

Who you gonna get to do the dirty work

When all the slaves are free?

(Who're you gonna get)

Enter the multitudes

The walking wounded

They come to this diver of the heart

Of the multitudes

Thy kingdom come

Thy will be done

Oh, all around the marketplace

The buzzing of the flies

The buzzing and the stinging

Divinely barren

And wickedly wise

The killer nails are ringing

Enter the multitudes

In Exxon blue

In radiation rose

Tragedy

Now you tell me

Who you gonna get to do the dirty work

When all the slaves are free?

(Who're you gonna get)

Car Free In Tennessee: One Year

Yep. One full year of walking, busing and scooting. My kids are still hating it but, usually, at the least, I don't mind and frequently, I enjoy not owning a car.

My favorite teacher in high school was Mr. Linnemann. He taught English. People either 'got' him and loved him or they didn't and thought he was weird. It was like being in a small and very elite club to get him and appreciate him and contribute to his toe-jam collection. Besides the facts that he never married, always wore an awful green leisure suit, had a fairly long grey beard, carried a "purse" (actually a camera bad, but you know how teenagers can be) and literally barked at people when they were disrespectful toward him, the main reason for his being a town "character" was due to him not owning a car. Mr. Linnemann rode an old bike or walked everywhere. He always said that one does not own a car, one is owned by a car and would cite examples of how much one has to work in order to continue paying for the "privilege" of car-ownership. Of course, he said this year-after-year to young people who had just been initiated into one of the only consistent rites-of-passage available to teens in our culture-that of getting our driver's licenses-so I don't think many of us paid much attention to him at the time, but now his wisdom (and humor) come back to me.

A wonderful story about Mr. Linnemann: One of his pet peeves (he had many) was drivers pulling up over the cross-walks at intersections. One day, rather than walking around a car that's driver had done so, Mr. Linnemann opened the rear door of the car, climbed in and through the car and exited on the other side, leaving both doors standing open. My children were thrilled to hear that story and we always dare one another to enact that assertion of walker's rights when downtown and confronted by an SUV driven by an oblivious and selfish autocentric (a pun I'm sure Mr. Linnemann would have enjoyed).

Anyway, I've gone a year without a car. I've learned to navigate the Nashville MTA system and to write letters to create change in various aspects to benefit riders. I've walked a bajillion miles in every kind of weather and gotten to know my neighborhood and my city better. I've met lots of kind people whom I wouldn't have otherwise done. I've saved barrels of money and fossil fuels and emissions. I've bought a really cool scooter which is the best educational tool I could have come up with for encouraging people to think about gas mileage while they're getting around town. I've improved my life while "sacrificing" to make the world a better place. I really do not want to go back to car-ownership any time soon.

Hey! Why don't you join me?!

Muriel's Show

Muriel Anderson is a long time attender (or member, I don't really know because we don't differentiate) of Nashville Friends Meeting. She's a fingerpicking style guitar player and she totally rocks. She performed at a house party in a little studio on Music Row last night that I went to. When I got there, only 12 chairs were set up in the room she would be performing in. I knew that of 10 folks from Friends Meeting who were coming and had a good idea that the studio owners had underestimated. Sure enough, by show-time it was standing room only or, more accurately, sitting room only. The concert was to kick off her tour and I reckon she'll be gone for a while.

I've been attending NFM for going on 12 years. Muriel's been going longer than me but I've never really gotten to know her. She's a musician who lives out of suitcases. The handful of Sundays that she is in town, I've never had the opportunity to get to know her in more than the most superficial way. There are several people at meeting who are like that for me; I know them but don't really know them. I think I will make a concerted effort to spend time with a few people over the next year.

Anyway, back to the show: Muriel is a petite blond woman but she plays guitar like fire. The cool think is that she's not flashy just incredibly talented. She's a guitar god to a lot of people. There were as many young musicians there as Quakers and I'm thrilled that all these studly "guns" hang on her every note.

Muriel's percussionist last night was a woman named Kathy (didn't catch her last name). I spoke with her for a moment after the show. She's one of those underachieving types; she said she used to do environmental sciences down in Florida-mainly oil spills-and moved to Nashville to play music but didn't like the competitiveness and is now at divinity school at Vandy working toward being a hospice chaplain. Whew. Slacker. She seems nice. I hope I bump into her sometime soon.

Here's a link to one of the songs she performed last night (this was recorded at another performance).