Political Sites

My Dear Faithful Reader,

We have come to the first anniversary of my blog. First of all, thank you so very much for the affirmation of reading my blog (some of you more than my own Mama!) and sharing with me the places my writing touched you and your story. I must say I am rather surprised by all of this! What started as a way to post photos of my then six week-old puppy Emma–who was still living with her Birth Mother at the time–transformed into something I never expected. I grieved the loss of a meaningful relationship. I worked through much of what it meant for me to work as a hospice chaplain. I highlighted the hilarities of my dating life. And, most importantly, I educated you on men in tank tops!

Given Top Ten Lists are so passe I say, “Nine is Fine!” Here are my favourite nine posts from this last year:

9. I Heart Atheists! This post is dedicated to my patient “Hank,” of whom I wrote. I am glad he is no longer struggling to breathe or to find love.

8. Posting My Big Secret This post received the most private email because people were worried about me. In many ways it was the hardest to write. I reveled an important secret, and in so doing found a way to tell my closest and dearest just how much despair (my definition of anti-hope) I felt following the break-up. This post continues to have meaning for me due to my continuing love of Post Secret, and because I hope by exposing my pain–even as a minister–others fearing the only way through is out might feel comforted.

7. I’m Coming Out: Jesus Know About My Vibrator The year’s most embarrassing and second funniest post. I still cringe when people ask me for my website address thinking about them reading this particular post. Of course this is exactly why it is on this list–I am a glutton for embarrassing myself on this blog with the bitter truth. For the record–and thankfully–I have had sex since I wrote this post! (Once.)

6. The Whispering God Where is God when bad things happen to good people? In part, this post contains my answer to this question and my own thinking about God’s intervention–and lack there of–in our lives.

5. 40 Reasons I Make A Great Girlfriend (and her evil twin 40 Reason I Will Drive You Crazy & Am Not Perfect) This was so much fun, and I met my friend in Austria through putting up the “Great Girlfriend” list on craigslist.

4. A Rose Garden Relationship I continue to think about what I wrote in this post. If there is such a thing as your own writing being a gift to you, it would be this post. I feel it helped me clarify what relationship values continue to remain important to me and also what I ultimately have to offer all of my relationships, including the one I have with myself.

3. You Play, You Pay This post about my prayer for my Aunt Charlyne to come to terms with her cancer and still remains at the forefront of my thinking about her. She finished her second round of chemo, and she will find out next week the results of her latest PET scan. She told us at Christmas she feels the cancer is spreading.  All my work with patients has taught me our bodies tell us the truth–even long before the tests and doctors do–so I cannot help but wonder if hers is telling her a truth now. I do not know what will happen with her body, but I know she will be surrounded by love regardless of the outcome. This is what matters most.

2. Tank Top Wearing Man Candy? The single funniest thing I have ever written! I cannot see a man in a tank top without thinking: “Baby, if you only knew how I felt about THAT!” If you love it too, please go out to Urban Dictionary and suggest “The Tribble Factor” for a word/definition.

1. The Mango Tree My homage to my father and the continuing bonds of love death cannot separate us from and how these bonds continue to inform our present and propel us into our future.

Here is to a wonderful Year Two!

Okay, let’s get the shameless bragging out of the way: Naomi Klein said I was “brilliant.” Well, what she actually said was that my question “was so brilliant, [she] could not restate it” for the crowd. That’s right! She said I asked a “brilliant” question. She spoke at my home church about her latest book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Here is a short film Alfonso Cuaron made with her about the focus of the book:

She spoke at length about whenever a large scale trauma happens to us–either as individuals or as a larger human community–we seek to try and find meaning. We look to others, specifically leaders of our faith, civic, interpersonal or political groups, to help narrate for us the meaning. A quick example would be the outpouring of trust given W following September 11, 2001. So many people looked to him to help point the way, provide assurance, and lead us through a time of great fear and loss. This is a natural and normal response to grief of any kind–and I say this as one who is an “expert” on grief. The problem comes when those we look to utilize our vulnerability to capitalize on it and push through harmful agendas. On the individual level, I see those in my bereavement support group struggling with the painful comments others make to try and help them “get over” the traumatic loss of their loved one. Naomi Klein’s point is: As a society we are taken advantage of in times of crises when our leaders push through dangerous and corrupt laws we would never agree to in times of harmony. Think: Patriot Act!

My question was this: If I as a chaplain and Ordained Minister have to work so hard to help those facing individual crises re-narrate these losses so they can be incorporated into their lives in such a way that leads to more joy, more love, more hope, more imagination–more authentic living WITH the loss, how in the world can we help society as a whole? I do not know the answer to my own question, but I want to work on it. Do you have any ideas?

My friend Pixie gave me the single best Christmas gift: A tee shirt emblazoned with “Naomi Klein said I was brilliant.” The word “brilliant” was bedazzled!!! Ooolaalaa!

See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things

over and over and over again for the truth to sink in,

to kind of catapult the propaganda.

–George W. Bush in Greece, NY 05/24/2005

My friend Bubbie and I are the local co-hosts of Drinking Liberally Ft. Lauderdale. Each week our group gets together to talk politics over a beer, which is very funny to Bubbie and myself given neither of us drinks! (He is allergic and my body cannot handle it post-mono.) The conversations are varied, but I often find myself bringing up the same question, “Ok…what do we do now?” I feel like I spend a great deal of time upset about things, but not always knowing what the course of action that would be meaningful looks like. I figure rolling my eyes, getting hot under the collar, and saying “Fuckers!” do not qualify as rallying points! But what does?

I hear such a spirit of futility these days in those I know. They fancy themselves “Realists,” but acquiesce to the status quo does not really mean you are a realist, it just means you know better but refuse to do better. Has realism somehow become a new brand of selfishness? We sit on our ivory soap boxes, looking down at the problems around us, but we are too concerned with our own fate in the moment to spend any energy working to change the world for the long-term? Is it not a kind of propaganda of these so called “Realists” that says, “Reality is that the world is going to end given the road we are on, so screw it and enjoy today while it lasts?”

I watched “Children of Men” again this weekend. I can remember seeing the previews before it came out last year and getting chills. I read PD James’ book, which the movie is based on, while in seminary and thought it was brilliant. The movie is amazing, and if you have not seen it–do. On my DVD, I also watched Alfonso Cuaron’s (the movie director) documentary called “The Possibility of Hope.” In it, Naomi Klein (the anti-Globilization activist), John Gray (the Economist and Philosopher), James Lovelock (the Scientist and Futurologist), and Tzvetan Todorov (the Philosopher and Historian)–among others–comment on the world’s trajectory. I love this quote from Slavoj Zizek (the Philosopher and Cultral Critic) from the film:

“Hope is only where despair is. Something truly new beginning happens only when you are in such a deep shit that within the existing coordinates you can find no way out. And then, in order to survive you have to invent something new. The magic is to turn a desperate situation into a new beginning.”

I am just not sure we–including myself–feel desperate enough…yet. And isn’t “yet” the operative word? We always get there, which of course may be too late. I just do not want to look back on my life and think I sat by waiting for “yet” to materialize before I got off my keister and sacrificed to be a servant to the world in which I live. And I do not want to be a “Realist,” someone who embraces the spirit of futility and forgets the creativity of hope. I mean, come on!!! anyone can bitch about the problems. I think it takes real courage–fear and creativity–to try and sort out ways to generate change. I know I have the fear, and I know I have the creativity. I just think it is about damn time the two met and did something.

I will keep you posted on my progress! In the meantime, my latest inspiration comes from the 83 year old founder of Untours. Click here to read his story of giving away ALL of his company’s profits year-after-year.

I have added a YouTube Viewer below where you can find all three parts of “The Possiblity of Hope.” You can also watch other videos in keeping with the themes of my life and this blog. (For those who are new to this, just click the arrow to play and under the video playing are other videos to choose from. You can also right click over the player to open it in a new–much larger–window.)

Final Note To My South Florida Readers: Naomi Klein–who I think is just BRILLIANT!! and wittily calls our current economic model a “crack addict”–will be speaking Monday, December 3rd at 7:30 at my home church–Coral Gables Congregational–about her new book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. The event is sponsored by Books & Books in Coral Gables.