Last Outlook…For Now
This will be my last Outlook article serving as your settled minister as I will retire at the end of June. And I hope this will not be the last time I’ll be writing for Windows. It likely will be for a while until a … read more.
Category: Minister’s Outlook
How to Live with Vulnerability
Vulnerability isn’t pleasant. But often the very behaviors anda thought patterns we develop to cope with it make it even more so.
A favorite strategy that is easy to recognize is denial and suppression. Just don’t think about it. It will not affect me or my family. I’ll just ignore it until I can’t anymore. The human brain seems to be wired to deny problems until they reach a crisis and then respond. In the case of climate change, that will be too late.
A better strategy is to organize in community and respond. Pick the concerns and issues that are personally motivating to work on and offer support to others on their issues and concerns. Alone we can do little to resolve the massive problems of the world. Joining together to face adversity eases the pain of being vulnerable. In solidarity with networks of other groups we can have a collective impact.
Inner Barriers
To resist is human nature. My spiritual practice when I experience inner resistance to pause and attend
to it. How does my body experience that resistance? Is it a tightness of fear
and a defensiveness? Is it hot and agitated wanting to objectify the other? Are
shame and guilt operating in a way that closes my heart? The feeling tone of the body can help me assess what is going on and that can help me more consciously and deliberately choose a response.
Cultural Content Creators
Back in 2001, sociologist Paul H. Ray and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson wrote a book titled The Cultural Creatives: how 50 Million People are Changing the World. They described a new class of people working in emerging creative fields who were also socially evolving along with their creative expression. That trend continues to grow across the world as more and more people find themselves freed from mind numbing repetitive work and are driven by the desire and opportunity to become content creators.