Epiphany is coming!!!

I love the Feast of the Epiphany--those strange Magi from Persia, the Star they followed for two years, the confusion and conflict with Herod, their going home 'by a different way' to avoid Herod.

There is a dictionary definition of "epiphany" that I committed to memory decades ago. It goes like this: 'an epiphany is a sudden, intuitive understanding of the deep down meaning of things, usually caused by what is ordinary, simple and commonplace.'

Isn't that remarkable?

To have a sudden, intuitive understanding of anything would be good enough. But that that knowledge is 'of the deep down meaning of things' raises the bar a great deal. And that what provokes and epiphany is what is 'ordinary, simple and commonplace' seals the deal.

Keep your eyes wide open all the time--your ears and touch and smell as well. And your mind and imagination as well.

I believe there are 'epiphanies' all around us--in all the ordinary and simple and commonplace events and moments of life.

Don't miss the chance of sudden and intuitive knowledge of the deep down, deep down, deep down meaning of anything.

Epiphany isn't just a Christian Feast--it is the opportunity of every moment of life.

Epiphanies are all around us, if we are simply open to discovering them.

May this new year bring you a dozen epiphanies every day...and lots of ordinary, simple, commonplace moments.

Happy Epiphany Year!

The Feast of the Holy Innocents

It was on Dec 29 and acknowledges the passage in Matthew when Herod killed all the male children under 2 in Bethlehem to try to rid himself of the King the Magi came to find.

Tomorrow's gospel lesson leaves out all mention of the slaughter of the Holy Innocents! I hate it when the lectionary folks leave out verses, so that's what I'll talk about in my homily tomorrow. The lesson as read sends Mary and Joseph and Jesus to Egypt and back for no good reason!!!

And the slaughter of innocent folks could never be more appropriate than in today's world. The planet is awash in the blood of the innocent, perhaps larger in scope than at any time. And we don't have clean hands--our bombs dropped on Isis have killed many innocent folks.

Is it too much to wish the world would come to it's senses and realize we are 'all in it together' on this fragile earth, our island home?

Probably that is too much to wish.

But that won't stop me for longing for it....

Hoppin'John

Cheshire should be in Alabama. There were no dried bBern lack-eyed peas in any of the three grocery stores in town. And black eyed peas are a key ingredient of Hoppin'John.

You don't know about Hoppin'John? Must be be a Yankee.

On New Year's Day you eat greens--kale or something else sauted--for 'money', blackeyed peas for luck and pork for happiness. We had our Hoppin'John but the Kale, marked "Kale" in the containers, was Arugula...no doubt. I'm going to tell Stop and Shop  tomorrow.

Canned black eyed peas aren't the same as dried, but Bern dressed them up with onions and bacon. And we had ham and black rice.

Rice is for health, I think.

Happy New Year. Hope you had your Hoppin'John.....

Waking up in a new year

We stayed home and watched football instead of going to New Year's Eve party. Both of us are homebodies, but Bern is much moreso that me.

Time, as you know, is a human invention. The rhythms of darkness and light are natural, but we invented 'time'. The earliest humans simply regulated their lives to the natural rhythms. Then somewhere along the way, we decided to divide the day into 24 arbitrary and equal periods and the year into 365 (366 every three years) days.

So, 'waking up in a new year' is a thoroughly human creation.

Only humans care about 'time'. All other creatures are in tune to the rhythms of nature--both light and dark and the changing seasons. But only we are 'timing things'.

My friend Ann sometimes says, "your dog is waiting for you to come home--but she isn't waiting for 5 o'clock."

I often tell people, truthfully, I might add, that I'm 'unstuck in linear time'. I have a good memory about things, I just couldn't tell you for money what year the events happened. Best I can do is vague stuff like "before we got married" and "after Josh was born but before Mimi was born". I can tell you when both were born but I have to sit and think about it for a minute....And we were married on September 5, 1970. I've gotten good with that because we always (for the past 6 or 7 or 8 years, pick one) celebrate our anniversary on the beach in North Carolina because we go on vacation around Labor Day each year, for however many  years.

Like this: I've gone to Ireland most every year for quite a few years to help lead a workshop and to train Irish leaders. But I have no idea how many years or when it started. I'll get on a plane in April (I'm glad we invented April to give Bern and I birth dates) and go to Ireland. And I have not a clue if it is the 10th time or the 6th time.

Unstuck, that's what I am. In the time we humans invented.

But I know this and know this fair well--this morning I woke up in a new year.

Happy New Year--may 2016 be full of blessings and joy and wonder and awe and peace...and realizing there are things you 'don't know you don't know'.

New Year's Eve

I am very good at New Year's Resolutions. I only resolve things that I am absolutely sure I will or will not do in the next year.

Here are 2016's resolutions.

*I will not vote for Donald Trump or any Republican running for President.

*I will not buy a hover board or a new car.

*I will vote for Bernie Sanders in the CT primary and for whoever is the Democratic nominee in November.

*I will not join the NRA.

*Also, I will not buy a gun in 2016.

*I will not lose 25 pounds or shave my beard.

*I will eat an egg every other day.

*I will not drink Scotch.

*I will walk the dog every morning and night.

*I will drink Pinto Grigio a lot.

*I will not travel to Syria or join Isis.

*I will smoke as many cigarettes as I will.

*I will not swim the English Channel.

*I will sleep as late as I want every day but Sunday and Tuesday.

*I will shower when I think I should.

*I will love Bern absolutely--and my children and granddaughters as well.

*I will write on my blog a lot.

*I will not eat raw liver.

*I will not eat cooked liver either. Or quail eggs. Or calf brains. Or the intestines of pigs. Or duck (I just can't eat a duck.)

*I will grill on the deck as much as is possible.

*I will not ever drive 100 miles an hour.

*I will not apply to graduate school in psychology.

So why is it so hard to keep New Year's resolutions....?

The sixth day of Christmas (really, this time)

Yesterday's post was a day off--me and linear time again. So, this is the sixth day of Christmas.

My daughter, Mimi, is pregnant--two months so, she already heard a heart beat at a doctor in Chinatown whose English wasn't good. She has an appointment for Jan 4 with the gynecologist that will be with her all the way.

What a shock! I'd already decided Tim and Mimi wouldn't have children. But now they just might.

What a wonder and a joy.

It's early yet, so I'm not making plans for a 4th grandchild--but I would be joyful if it happens.

Tim and Mimi would be great parents.

Keep them in your hearts and pray (if you do that) for them.

Any child from that union would be wondrous.

The 6th day of Christmas

Black lives matter.

I was following a 'string' (I think that's what they call them) of comments on an article from the Huffington Post about the unseemly events of police violence toward Black folks.

I grew up in the southernmost county of West Virginia that was, at that time 50% Black. Many of the older Black people called me "Mr. Jimmy"--something I didn't realize was wrong until I was in my late teens. It's just the way it was. And that's the problem--'just the way it was' is wrong, wrong, wrong.

I only went to school with 5 Black students. In 1964-65 Gary District High School (the Black School) sent over three male athletes and two brilliant girl students because the next year (65-66) would be the year all the schools in the county would be merged. They wanted to break down the walls. The two basketball players were the two top scorers on the Gary Team. The football player would have made All-State as a Tackle if he hadn't used his helmet to hit an referee after a bad call and gotten thrown off the team. The two girls finished 4 and 5 in our class, I think. (I was # 1 of course!!!)

I had a friend in college who was Black and went to Gary District while I want to Gary High. His name was Ron Wilkerson. He used to tell his friends, when he introduced me, "Jim and I went to different high schools together."

So, my formative years were in as segregated a world as the deep South.

Then the first parish I served--St. James in Charleston, WV--was a Black congregation. Upper middle class folks, for the most part--highly educated and many of them associated with the historically Black college, West Virginia State. St. Paul's in New Haven was fully integrated with both upper middle class and not so upper middle class Blacks. St. John's in Waterbury had many Blacks and a lot of West Indian folks--Blacks with an accent. Plus a huge Hispanic congregation.

When I first started working in the Cluster, very part time, my bishop asked me what was different for me. And I said, truthfully, "Ian, I'm not used to being around so many white people."

I'm certainly around a lot of white people in Cheshire, CT. And one thing I know is this: when I see someone pulled over by the police on the road in Cheshire, they are more often than not, Black or Brown.

Institutional and Societal Racism is real and here and among us.

To be white in this society is a foot up. To be white and male is to be able to be 'on the top'.

It has to stop.

I wrote a long response to the responses on the article about 'Black Lives Matter' and then realized I had to be on Facebook (God forbid!) to post it.

So, I've written it here.

Until America has an honest and meaningful and transformative conversation that makes a difference about race, we will be hobbling along, not aware of what is wrong with our culture.

The conversation in the political space is horrifying. Nevermind that Black and White isn't center stage, the hostility to immigrants is astonishing.

Land of the Free and Home of the Brave??? I think not.

"Send me your huddled masses hoping to be free???" I think not.

We have lots of work to do to even begin to live up to who we think we are as Americans.

The Season of Light is the time to do that work. The light is coming--little by little--let us make the most of it.