Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Incidents and dreams may be God whispering to us

"Incidents and Dreams" is the third story in Linda McCullough Moore's book of short stories, This Road Will Take Us Closer To The Moon." The story is about Margaret McKensie who is getting her performance appraisal done by Mr. Peterson who doesn't think her creative production is what it should be and suggests that maybe she is better fitted for sales at which point she resigns.

In the meantime Margaret McKensie has agreed to help care for the ailing Episcopalian Bishop who is dying of bone cancer and who gets her into bed with him for unclear reasons other than perhaps wanting an innocent snuggle and is discovered by his teen age daughter.

As unlikely as both these scenarios previously seemed Margaret McKensie marvels at how simple incidents can so quickly and irrevocably change the course of one's life.

Moore writes:

"These things happen to us - Peterson, my surprise retirement, my afternoon spent with a dying bishop - they are incidents. It is not reasonable to expect that they will change my life, but neither is it wise, I think, to rule out the possibility entirely. At any moment, when I least expect to, I might stop treating my life like a Wednesday matinee I got free tickets for. I might even strike up an old acquaintanceship with tenderness, the kind the bishop had in mind, tenderness that's been away so long I had forgotten that it might just be off on some vacation, one that got stretched out way too long, one that was pure and perfect foolishness from the beginning." pp. 43-44

If we are open to the whispers of the call, we can sense that the Holy Spirit, God, Jesus, the Spirit of Life, the Universe is leading us along to our destiny, our fate. We can easily ignore it and think that we know best, what is in our own best interest, but my favorite joke is "If you want to hear God laugh, tell God your plans."

Monday, September 8, 2014

From whence does my happiness come?


Solve, resolve, absolve

A guy by the name of T.V. Smith gave a lecture to the National Conference on Social Welfare back in 1955 entitled "Solve, Resolve, Absolve".

What he said was that problems occur at three levels and we, humans, get ourselves into trouble when we confuse the levels.

First, there are problems that can be solved. They are problems that follow Natural laws or logic. A water molecule is make up of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen, H2O, or 2+2=4.

Second, there are problems that are a matter of preference or taste. What flavor of ice cream do you like best, vanilla or chocolate? Who will make a better President, Obama or McCain? There is no objective answer, disagreements and contradictions have to be resolved. There has to be compromise.

Third, there are problems that can only be absolved. A person driving down a busy residential street accidentally runs over and kills a two year old child who darts into traffic between two parked cars. Nothing can bring the life of the child back or compensate the parents for their loss. There is no solution or resolution to this problem only absolution.

Using the right management strategy for the problem at is own level can make all the difference in the world in the search for truth and meaning. Looking for truth at the first level in a political discussion not only won't work but is inappropriate, right? etc.

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Study guide for First Principle






Study guides for the seven principles available.

Need books for your book discussion group, adult education, or workshop presentations this church year? Check out Dave Markham's books available at Amazon.com.

There are two books on books God Revised, revised which reviews Rev. Guengerich's book God Revised, and a Critical Reading of Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver.

There are two books so far in the series on the seven principles. Books are available on the first two principles which come with discussion questions after the reflections.

All of the these books would be great for group discussions. Check them out.

Check out Markham's Behavioral Health

Check out
Markham's Behavioral Health
A confluence of topics dealing with mental health, substance abuse, health, public health, Social Work, education, politics, the humanities, and spirituality at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels.
 In short, this blog is devoted to the improvement of the quality of life of human beings in the universe.

http://markhamsbehavioralhealth.blogspot.com

This road will take you closer to the moon

I just love Linda McCullough Moore's writing and her book of short stories, "This Road Will Take You Closer To The Moon" is a gem. The title story describes a Thanksgiving back at home with her mother 20 years after her father has died with her three siblings and nieces and nephews. She describes the typical regression to sibling dynamics of their youth and the interaction with her nieces and nephews one of which, Molly, asks the narrator, Aunt Margaret, to turn a few times returning from the Thanksgiving buffet the whole family has attended which Aunt Margaret obligingly does as little Molly explains the reason for the request as "this road will take us closer to the moon."

The story is one of nostalgia and it is told with dark humor which I love. If there is a moral to the story it is that life, with its better and worse moments, is precious. You either laugh or cry. And I, the reader, does as I benefit from the story of Aunt Margaret's family visit at Thanksgiving.

Print Friendly and PDF