Power of Love vs. Love of Power

"...The church faces a choice between the love of power and the power of love. Inevitably when the warfare image is deployed we begin to speak about power. The church must beware that in the struggle for society we are not struggling to maintain the powerful position that we have traditionally occupied. Part of what has called forth a more militant Christianity in recent years is not concern for the kingdom of God but the fear that we are losing control and not getting our own way. But when we play the world at its own game of being hungry for power, for cultural dominance, have we not already lost the battle? Power corrupts. A symptom of its corruption is when we find ourselves using the world's weapons. When Christians, or their organizations, bend the truth, massage statistics, use sensational headlines, deal in rumors, despise their enemies, behave aggressively, use the levers of power to their own advantage, they are behaving no differently from the rest."
~From A Theology of the Dark Side: Putting the Power of Evil in Its Place by Nigel Goring Wright

Love and the Restraint of Power

The Christian mantra to "love your neighbor as yourself" is an interesting one.  In my opinion it is also completely and totally misunderstood and practiced less in church settings than anywhere I know.  That is because so much of church "politics" is power mongering, and the church is just a xerox copy of the world with pious-sounding accompaniment.  It is mongering with a mantra; crawling over people to stand big and tall on platitudes.

Love is not only about what one does; it may be about what one can do but does not do.  Working in the justice system, I have known this for a long time.  I finally found a Christian writing that recognizes the value of some things left undone:    

"While reactive victims are primarily known by their 'against' stances, proactive people do not demand rights, they live them.  Power is not something you demand or deserve, it is something you express.  The ultimate expression of power is love; it is the ability not to express power, but to restrain it.  Proactive people are able to 'love others as themselves.'"

From Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend

Mist and Fire

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

"There is a powerful kind of silence that engages my consciousness during my most centered and productive moments.  This inner space has a quality of active, very alive, utter stillness.  It is where I hear the voice of my creative muse most clearly."

~Leslie Montana

There are not enough days of stillness, but when they come, my insides hum with clarity and ideas.  The dogs sleep, the TV sleeps, no music floats on the air.  Only the gurgling noise of coffee brewing and a train whistle in the background can be heard.  I wear my robe all day; I forego makeup; I have never been more beautiful.  I cannot say that I am at peace, but I am at something somehow better...a joy of clarity.  I know things I have not known and am grateful for the insight.  I am a crucible of creativity, and there is mist and fire in the crucible. 

Our Finest Moments

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." ~M. Scott Peck

Golden Fleece

I have been away gathering fleece, but now I am back with a quotation that says a thing I believe with all my mind and heart:

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”  ~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Sometimes I think we get it backward. 

I have often heard artists refer to the act of creation as a spiritual expression whereby the great spirit (some might say the muse) works through the artist as an instrument.  This may be wrong; it could be the other way around.  Maybe our spirit swells up and spills out our humanity in color's passion, line's seductiveness, tone's modulation and design's intelligence.     

When considered from this angle, maybe the artist is the image.  That might account for how precious a gift of art is.  To take such a gift deceitfully is more than theft.  The deceitfulness is the theft, but the actual receipt of the gift is rape.

I once knew a woman who wanted to be cremated and her ashes incorporated into a painting.  When I first heard this I thought what a neat and unusual idea.  But the more I have pondered it, I realize the profound spiritual poverty such an idea reveals.  What an artist pours onto the canvas is her own revelation of humanity, not the human debris of another.   To do so would be an invasive violation of spiritual energy and a disgusting attention seeking desire to grab attention in a physical way even in death. 

Or as Sipsy says in Fried Green Tomatoes, "A lady always knows when it's time to leave."

I think it is high time for me to recognize the precious humanity revealed in my art as an expression of the spirit I am.  It is mine, it is enough and it is wonderful.  Realizing that is golden fleece. 

Metaphora: Transference

For a Tear is an intellectual thing,
And a Sigh is the sword of an Angel King,
And the bitter groan of the Martyr's woe
Is an arrow from the Almighty's bow.

~William Blake from "The Grey Monk"

Defending Thought

I know it sounds insane, but in the last several years I have actually felt the need to defend intellect as I have witnessed a groundswell of bad will toward use of the brain, complete with the assumption that intellect contains no "heart".  I cannot separate heart and mind taking a cue from Jesus who taught that as we think with our hearts, so we are. 

Likewise, I agree with Richard Blackstone who indicates that as we think, so we create: 

"As a master creator here on the plain of manifestation you understand that all of your creations have their genesis in the thoughts you think. The beauty of thoughts is that if you are thinking a thought that doesn't serve you it can always be changed."

Now that's good thinking. 

Within

Mens regnum bona possidet

Toonces

  

                  Toonces Rodriguez

                       1990 - 2008

Rainbow Dance

  

Sometimes you need more than an arch; you need to see rainbows dance.