Have you ever heard that dogs are unable to see what is happening on the television because it is only two dimensional? As I looked to see if this is true, I found that there really isn't a consensus about this. Many sites claim that the lights and colors on the screen are appealing to some dogs, but they are unable to make out shapes very well. Other sources say they can see about as well as they do in nature.
Another of life's mysteries that will remain mysterious to me.
But I do know that television is not only two dimensional in a literal way, it is also two dimensional in a figurative way. I think that leads us to a lot of frustration and unhappiness.
When we see people on television, when we follow their stories and their lives, we see super compelling things happening. Recently the show Game of Thrones ended with a lot of hype and conversation, and it reminded me just how deeply we can get into fantasy stories about people who have never really existed. We want the good to win, and usually in television, that happens. We want to see people struggle and then reach a moment of clarity or victory, so we can celebrate with them. And we dream that we, too, could win such a victory and live out our days happily ever after.
The almost unimaginable plot twists aren't only in our fantasy shows, however. They are in our realistic shows and even in what we call reality television. For the sake of the excitement of the story there must be a win against odds, or a fall from grace for the "bad people," or something else compelling enough to make us watch. Even on shows that are supposed to be about people in every day life, people are playing characters meant to compel us to watch.
Television can only show a two dimensional version of reality. For many of us, that two dimensional version is something we imagine happening in our own lives. Our conflicts will be perfectly resolved with just the right words. The problem we have been having will be solved within a thirty minute timeframe, and that problem will not arise again. Good will win, because it must, and bad will fail, because that is simply the way the world works.
But it isn't the way the world works. Things are messy. They don't work out the way we hope or expect. Conflicts don't magically resolve. We can't just put past issues behind and move on.
But we still expect these things, because, let's face it, television is the only time we feel like we are really able to look in at other families and see how they work. We only know our own lives and our own families. We may be very close to a few other families, but seeing the inner workings of how families really work... What's better for that than a show like "Modern Family?"
Since these are the only windows we have to other families, we imagine that's normal. That's how it's supposed to work. The reality is, there is no way it is supposed to work, except that we support one another through thick and thin with love. That will look different in every family. Even though we don't do this consciously, using television or other means to try to define what is normal for a family is harmful to us, because then we always feel weird, broken, unable to measure up. Maybe even a little boring.
Try to notice how you might expect things to be because of the vision of reality given to us through television. And try to remember that vision is two dimensional. Real life is three dimensions and involves conflict and lack of clarity and people doing things that seem out of character and all kinds of other things that don't fit into the box of a "good narrative." That's real life. And none of it is normal.
Anyway, that's the view today from where I stand.
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Divisiveness
I made the mistake last week of watching some of the Judiciary Committee meeting of the House of Representatives as they contemplated whether or not to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of the House. I was curious how each side would frame their arguments, and I wanted to see what a reasonable argument would be for either case.
Likely because I don't spend much time watching actual proceedings in government, I was surprised by the level of derision displayed by each of the lawmakers as they made a point or refuted the previous point. The old saying "If looks could kill..." came to mind, and could have been altered to say, "If words could kill..."
One moment stood out when a lawmaker (I honestly do not remember which one or from which party) called out another representative for name calling and lack of decorum. It was such a moment of theatre. Each of these representatives, as they spoke to and about one another, were as spiteful and dismissive as they could be, even as they called one another "gentleman" and "gentlelady" and used terms like the honorable representative from such and such. Using names, profanity, whatever language one chose could hardly have sounded more derisive.
My thought is this: Is this what we have come to? Is this the best we can do? Is it necessary that in order to make a point we have to treat one another as if they are moronic, stupid beyond our ability to describe?
When we disagree with one another, can we do so in a respectful way, recognizing that the person who is disagreeing with us is likely not a complete imbecile? People are worthy of respect, whether we vehemently disagree with them or not.
This one episode that I witnessed on television seems to be part of a larger trend that has been exacerbated by the ability to snipe one another's comments on social media. Meaningful dialogue has been replaced by one liners meant to injure or discredit one another. I don't claim that this tendency is new in our world, one need only look at past political debate to prove that it isn't, but it seems to have increased so much so that there is no possibility of middle ground.
This plays out in so many different places in our daily lives. The church is not immune from this type of behavior. In some ways, because the stakes are high in religion, the church is even more contentious. But I don't believe that is the way God intended the church to be.
The overall ethos of the world is division, but the overall ethos of God is love and grace. Can we treat one another as if we really believe we are all children of God? Can we lower the level of animosity and see the places of fear that so many are reacting from? And can we see the fear within ourselves that causes us to react the way we do?
I am not advocating setting aside the importance of struggles for equality, for access to services like health care and housing for all, for an end to racism and sexism and other forms of injustice. As a Christian, I believe it is my duty to stand against all those forms of inequality. It is my hope that as a people we can speak about these issues in ways that do not dehumanize those who disagree. That is something I don't see happening in our government or in the rest of the world. To make a point, many choose to make anyone holding the opposing view less than human. But it is possible to disagree while still being genuinely respectful to one another. In fact, I believe it is necessary so all people everywhere can receive the respect we deserve as creations of God.
My takeaway is simple. Hopefully we can all try to lower the level of vitriol on social media and other platforms and use reasoned arguments instead of heated insults to make a point. It may not be reciprocated. But in the long run, I think it will improve the possibility of progress.
At least that's the view from where I stand today...
Likely because I don't spend much time watching actual proceedings in government, I was surprised by the level of derision displayed by each of the lawmakers as they made a point or refuted the previous point. The old saying "If looks could kill..." came to mind, and could have been altered to say, "If words could kill..."
One moment stood out when a lawmaker (I honestly do not remember which one or from which party) called out another representative for name calling and lack of decorum. It was such a moment of theatre. Each of these representatives, as they spoke to and about one another, were as spiteful and dismissive as they could be, even as they called one another "gentleman" and "gentlelady" and used terms like the honorable representative from such and such. Using names, profanity, whatever language one chose could hardly have sounded more derisive.
My thought is this: Is this what we have come to? Is this the best we can do? Is it necessary that in order to make a point we have to treat one another as if they are moronic, stupid beyond our ability to describe?
When we disagree with one another, can we do so in a respectful way, recognizing that the person who is disagreeing with us is likely not a complete imbecile? People are worthy of respect, whether we vehemently disagree with them or not.
This one episode that I witnessed on television seems to be part of a larger trend that has been exacerbated by the ability to snipe one another's comments on social media. Meaningful dialogue has been replaced by one liners meant to injure or discredit one another. I don't claim that this tendency is new in our world, one need only look at past political debate to prove that it isn't, but it seems to have increased so much so that there is no possibility of middle ground.
This plays out in so many different places in our daily lives. The church is not immune from this type of behavior. In some ways, because the stakes are high in religion, the church is even more contentious. But I don't believe that is the way God intended the church to be.
The overall ethos of the world is division, but the overall ethos of God is love and grace. Can we treat one another as if we really believe we are all children of God? Can we lower the level of animosity and see the places of fear that so many are reacting from? And can we see the fear within ourselves that causes us to react the way we do?
I am not advocating setting aside the importance of struggles for equality, for access to services like health care and housing for all, for an end to racism and sexism and other forms of injustice. As a Christian, I believe it is my duty to stand against all those forms of inequality. It is my hope that as a people we can speak about these issues in ways that do not dehumanize those who disagree. That is something I don't see happening in our government or in the rest of the world. To make a point, many choose to make anyone holding the opposing view less than human. But it is possible to disagree while still being genuinely respectful to one another. In fact, I believe it is necessary so all people everywhere can receive the respect we deserve as creations of God.
My takeaway is simple. Hopefully we can all try to lower the level of vitriol on social media and other platforms and use reasoned arguments instead of heated insults to make a point. It may not be reciprocated. But in the long run, I think it will improve the possibility of progress.
At least that's the view from where I stand today...
Thursday, May 9, 2019
Anyone Feel Rich?
I listened to an episode of Hidden Brain on the NPR website this week while I cleaned my office. Many of you who are reading these words are wondering if I ever clean my office. I do, often on Mondays, and when I do, I often listen to some interesting and hopefully motivating music. By Wednesday, my office is a mess again.
This week I decided almost on a whim to listen to Hidden Brain.
I picked an episode entitled "Why No One Feels Rich: The Psychology of Inequality," also largely on a whim. It was a bit shorter than several of the other episodes, it was near the top of the menu, and the subject sounded interesting.
It had to do with the way that we judge ourselves. The subject matter was wealth, and whether we think we are wealthy or not. But the take-away for me was how we think of ourselves in almost all aspects of our lives. Are we successful in whatever way we choose to define success? Maybe it is about wealth, but maybe it is status. Maybe it is our looks. It could be anything we think of as defining us as successful or not.
Think of what you use to judge yourself. Is it your intrinsic worth? Is there some way to measure what you as a human are worth? Or is it your relative worth in comparison to others? The show made the point that no one feels rich because whomever we are, we are comparing ourselves with others. That type of comparison seems like many people would feel rich. After all, including myself, most Americans are within the upper few percentage points of the richest people in the world. According to the Global Rich List, an income of just over 32,000 American Dollars per year ranks one in the top 1% of earners in the world. Let that sink in for a minute.
http://www.globalrichlist.com/
That shows in a flash the economic disparity worldwide.
But most of us don't feel like we are rich. In fact, most of us feel, well, kind of the opposite. That's because, psychologically, we are pre-disposed to compare ourselves to people who are above us in our self-constructed ladders of success.
I recommend the podcast of Hidden Brain for details and statistics.
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/19/715145723/why-no-one-feels-rich-the-psychology-of-inequality
For reasons we don't understand, we compare ourselves to those we think are higher than ourselves and for that reason we always come up short. (Of course we come up short, because we choose to compare ourselves to people we think are higher up!) Maybe it is a good motivating factor for greater success. Or maybe it is part of the sinful condition of greed. Whatever it is, it causes us great stress, whether we are a high wage earner or not.
The stresses of this type of comparison rise greatly in societies where there is great disparity in income.
Is there a better measure? Of course there is. We know we are beautiful creatures. Those of us with the eyes of Christian faith believe that we are created in the image of the very God of the universe. Can't get better than that! And still we measure ourselves by standards we cannot reach. Even if we do reach them, we replace that standard with the next rung of the ladder, and see ourselves as lacking.
Of course, ambition to achieve higher goals can be good and motivating for success. But do we really have to beat ourselves up by constantly reminding ourselves that, in comparison to whomever, we are a failure?
To me, this is a byproduct of the myth of the American Dream. The myth is if you work hard enough, you can achieve anything. It is similar to the myth of the modern Prosperity Gospel, if you believe hard enough and pray to God hard enough, God will give you whatever you want.
The flip side to those beliefs is, if you don't achieve whatever you want, that means you didn't work hard enough, or if you don't receive the wealth or healing or whatever you have been praying for, you haven't believed hard enough or prayed hard enough.
How damaging that type of belief system is. It demeans us. It causes us to doubt our self-worth, and maybe even slip into self loathing.
Can we find a new measure, one that affirms our worth no matter our number of dollars? Is it possible to see the value of the small in comparison to the huge?
I believe it is. Our worth is in God, the creator and redeemer of the universe. God has made us, loved us, sustained us. God is our source of worth. It is sometimes hard to even catch a glimpse in today's world, but it is there through the eyes of faith. Hopefully, that vision is daily forming more fully. And that's the view from where I stand.
This week I decided almost on a whim to listen to Hidden Brain.
I picked an episode entitled "Why No One Feels Rich: The Psychology of Inequality," also largely on a whim. It was a bit shorter than several of the other episodes, it was near the top of the menu, and the subject sounded interesting.
It had to do with the way that we judge ourselves. The subject matter was wealth, and whether we think we are wealthy or not. But the take-away for me was how we think of ourselves in almost all aspects of our lives. Are we successful in whatever way we choose to define success? Maybe it is about wealth, but maybe it is status. Maybe it is our looks. It could be anything we think of as defining us as successful or not.
Think of what you use to judge yourself. Is it your intrinsic worth? Is there some way to measure what you as a human are worth? Or is it your relative worth in comparison to others? The show made the point that no one feels rich because whomever we are, we are comparing ourselves with others. That type of comparison seems like many people would feel rich. After all, including myself, most Americans are within the upper few percentage points of the richest people in the world. According to the Global Rich List, an income of just over 32,000 American Dollars per year ranks one in the top 1% of earners in the world. Let that sink in for a minute.
http://www.globalrichlist.com/
That shows in a flash the economic disparity worldwide.
But most of us don't feel like we are rich. In fact, most of us feel, well, kind of the opposite. That's because, psychologically, we are pre-disposed to compare ourselves to people who are above us in our self-constructed ladders of success.
I recommend the podcast of Hidden Brain for details and statistics.
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/19/715145723/why-no-one-feels-rich-the-psychology-of-inequality
For reasons we don't understand, we compare ourselves to those we think are higher than ourselves and for that reason we always come up short. (Of course we come up short, because we choose to compare ourselves to people we think are higher up!) Maybe it is a good motivating factor for greater success. Or maybe it is part of the sinful condition of greed. Whatever it is, it causes us great stress, whether we are a high wage earner or not.
The stresses of this type of comparison rise greatly in societies where there is great disparity in income.
Is there a better measure? Of course there is. We know we are beautiful creatures. Those of us with the eyes of Christian faith believe that we are created in the image of the very God of the universe. Can't get better than that! And still we measure ourselves by standards we cannot reach. Even if we do reach them, we replace that standard with the next rung of the ladder, and see ourselves as lacking.
Of course, ambition to achieve higher goals can be good and motivating for success. But do we really have to beat ourselves up by constantly reminding ourselves that, in comparison to whomever, we are a failure?
To me, this is a byproduct of the myth of the American Dream. The myth is if you work hard enough, you can achieve anything. It is similar to the myth of the modern Prosperity Gospel, if you believe hard enough and pray to God hard enough, God will give you whatever you want.
The flip side to those beliefs is, if you don't achieve whatever you want, that means you didn't work hard enough, or if you don't receive the wealth or healing or whatever you have been praying for, you haven't believed hard enough or prayed hard enough.
How damaging that type of belief system is. It demeans us. It causes us to doubt our self-worth, and maybe even slip into self loathing.
Can we find a new measure, one that affirms our worth no matter our number of dollars? Is it possible to see the value of the small in comparison to the huge?
I believe it is. Our worth is in God, the creator and redeemer of the universe. God has made us, loved us, sustained us. God is our source of worth. It is sometimes hard to even catch a glimpse in today's world, but it is there through the eyes of faith. Hopefully, that vision is daily forming more fully. And that's the view from where I stand.
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Judge Not...
There's a whole lot of judging going on in the world. It seems that humans have a built in sorting mechanism, and that mechanism is best at categorizing things and people into good or bad, beautiful or ugly, worthy or unworthy, pious or sinful, or any of a number of other categories. The world is not organized into these well-defined categories. It comes in multiple shades of every color, with sounds of different timbres, touch of every type of texture. Our judgement of what is good, of what is beautiful, of so many other things is personal, but it is also cultural. Our judgments are affected by our location, our experience, our personalities, our DNA, and countless other things.
We aren't even able to properly understand our own biases, although we do get better understanding when we try to examine those biases and how they affect our judgment of things, others, and ourselves. Those biases and our own judgements change so much over time that we should probably avoid hard and fast, unyielding views on most any topic. It's kind of like the saying about the weather in Tennessee, if you don't like it, just wait until tomorrow. It will be totally different.
As we walk through life, if our judgment is one thing today, it may be something totally different tomorrow because of experience, new information, or some other change in ourselves or our understanding.
I have found one particular judgement to be relatively consistent in my own life, unfortunately, and that is harsh judgment of myself. I know there are many who deal with the same thing. Sometimes it is overwhelming and unrelenting.
In my studies I learned about the different between guilt and shame. Guilt is the understanding that you have done something wrong. Shame happens when you think that you are wrong. We could slip into shame for any number of reasons. But living is hard when we look at mistakes or faults and think they define us.
If you look at yourself often and call yourself names, (stupid, ugly, worthless) know that this is not what God wants for you. God created you with God's own image. And you would never call God a bad name, right? Recognize in yourself that you are of God.
Yes, you are imperfect. Mistakes are made by the very best at any particular skill. No one is served by beating yourself up over a mistake. Let it go and do your best in the future, knowing that you'll make a mistake (or many) then, too.
Mistakes don't define you. God has defined you as beautiful, wonderful, worth loving and saving. Shouldn't that be enough for all of us to recognize our own worth?
Some of you may have read this post and wondered, but others like me know precisely where this is coming from. As I often tell the congregation I serve, I usually preach what I need to hear.
May the love of God surround you as you daily, moment by moment, choose to stop judging yourself. You are beautiful. You are wonderful. You are loved by a perfect and loving God. I'd say that makes you pretty awesome!
That's the view from where I stand today...
Pastor Chris
We aren't even able to properly understand our own biases, although we do get better understanding when we try to examine those biases and how they affect our judgment of things, others, and ourselves. Those biases and our own judgements change so much over time that we should probably avoid hard and fast, unyielding views on most any topic. It's kind of like the saying about the weather in Tennessee, if you don't like it, just wait until tomorrow. It will be totally different.
As we walk through life, if our judgment is one thing today, it may be something totally different tomorrow because of experience, new information, or some other change in ourselves or our understanding.
I have found one particular judgement to be relatively consistent in my own life, unfortunately, and that is harsh judgment of myself. I know there are many who deal with the same thing. Sometimes it is overwhelming and unrelenting.
In my studies I learned about the different between guilt and shame. Guilt is the understanding that you have done something wrong. Shame happens when you think that you are wrong. We could slip into shame for any number of reasons. But living is hard when we look at mistakes or faults and think they define us.
If you look at yourself often and call yourself names, (stupid, ugly, worthless) know that this is not what God wants for you. God created you with God's own image. And you would never call God a bad name, right? Recognize in yourself that you are of God.
Yes, you are imperfect. Mistakes are made by the very best at any particular skill. No one is served by beating yourself up over a mistake. Let it go and do your best in the future, knowing that you'll make a mistake (or many) then, too.
Mistakes don't define you. God has defined you as beautiful, wonderful, worth loving and saving. Shouldn't that be enough for all of us to recognize our own worth?
Some of you may have read this post and wondered, but others like me know precisely where this is coming from. As I often tell the congregation I serve, I usually preach what I need to hear.
May the love of God surround you as you daily, moment by moment, choose to stop judging yourself. You are beautiful. You are wonderful. You are loved by a perfect and loving God. I'd say that makes you pretty awesome!
That's the view from where I stand today...
Pastor Chris
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Accepting or Affirming?
A few years ago I wrote an opinion piece for a local newspaper. I was asked to do this from my perspective as a faith leader in the area. At that time, there was a recent religious controversy in the area because of a new faith center built in the city for a world religion other than Christianity. Many citizens were angry that this center was allowed to be built. Some protested. Lawsuits were filed.
In the end, the center was built here.
Having this in the recent history of the city, I wrote my piece about tolerance. One of the things I was most concerned with was the ability for people to allow those who are different to be present. So many times we overtly or covertly ask people to be different than who they are so they can fit into our society. Maybe it is the way they dress, maybe it is the way they act, maybe it is the way they talk. It could be almost anything. As we judge people into the box we prefer for them, we are denying them the truth that Christians proclaim that humans are made in the image of God. It will not be the same image of God that I or you are made in, but it is the image of God just the same. When we define the image of God as looking like me or you instead of someone else, we are limiting God through our own lack of imagination.
So I wrote a piece about tolerance. I thought it was pretty good. I had written a piece for this newspaper a few times before, but this was the first time I received a response from a reader.
To be honest, I'm not certain what the writer wanted to convey. But I think it was something like, "Bless your heart, you're so young and naïve. If you just knew what I know, you'd realize we can't tolerate..." The end of that sentence was not clear, but the gist was there are some people out there we just can't allow around us.
As I have lived more of life, I hope I have become less naive. But my impulse to tolerate has grown from tolerance to acceptance and finally to affirming. Let me be clear, when I say this, I mean I am affirming of all people who live to seek the good that God created them to be. That goes for different world religions, adherents of which I do not feel it is my place to judge by the criteria of my own religion. That goes for people who are on the sexuality spectrum whose sexuality is different from mine, but who want love and desire companionship just as much as I do.
It was in a discussion group with friends on the spectrum that I learned about the difference between acceptance and affirming. Acceptance means that it's OK, but often has the implication that it isn't as good as whatever the norm is. Affirming means you are just right the way you are.
There is evil in this world. It should be called out and named. But people who are loving and working toward God, even if it is in a way different from our way, deserve more than tolerance or acceptance. They deserve to be affirmed.
How beautiful would our world be if we were able to affirm one another for the image of God within, not despite our differences, but through and because of those differences? Those differences may just be glimpses of God's image that we could never get another way.
That's the view from the limited vantage point of where I stand.
In the end, the center was built here.
Having this in the recent history of the city, I wrote my piece about tolerance. One of the things I was most concerned with was the ability for people to allow those who are different to be present. So many times we overtly or covertly ask people to be different than who they are so they can fit into our society. Maybe it is the way they dress, maybe it is the way they act, maybe it is the way they talk. It could be almost anything. As we judge people into the box we prefer for them, we are denying them the truth that Christians proclaim that humans are made in the image of God. It will not be the same image of God that I or you are made in, but it is the image of God just the same. When we define the image of God as looking like me or you instead of someone else, we are limiting God through our own lack of imagination.
So I wrote a piece about tolerance. I thought it was pretty good. I had written a piece for this newspaper a few times before, but this was the first time I received a response from a reader.
To be honest, I'm not certain what the writer wanted to convey. But I think it was something like, "Bless your heart, you're so young and naïve. If you just knew what I know, you'd realize we can't tolerate..." The end of that sentence was not clear, but the gist was there are some people out there we just can't allow around us.
As I have lived more of life, I hope I have become less naive. But my impulse to tolerate has grown from tolerance to acceptance and finally to affirming. Let me be clear, when I say this, I mean I am affirming of all people who live to seek the good that God created them to be. That goes for different world religions, adherents of which I do not feel it is my place to judge by the criteria of my own religion. That goes for people who are on the sexuality spectrum whose sexuality is different from mine, but who want love and desire companionship just as much as I do.
It was in a discussion group with friends on the spectrum that I learned about the difference between acceptance and affirming. Acceptance means that it's OK, but often has the implication that it isn't as good as whatever the norm is. Affirming means you are just right the way you are.
There is evil in this world. It should be called out and named. But people who are loving and working toward God, even if it is in a way different from our way, deserve more than tolerance or acceptance. They deserve to be affirmed.
How beautiful would our world be if we were able to affirm one another for the image of God within, not despite our differences, but through and because of those differences? Those differences may just be glimpses of God's image that we could never get another way.
That's the view from the limited vantage point of where I stand.
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Interpretation is a Choice
During a class in Divinity School, one of my professors was trying to help the class to understand how we make meaning from the bible. She used a simple illustration that was perhaps so simple that it was profound. She took a copy of the bible, placed it on a table in the center of the room and said that if we wanted to know what the bible said about a certain subject, we could ask it. Of course, the bible itself wasn't going to speak back to us. That was the point.
The bible doesn't say anything. It is a book. The letters on the page are meaningless to anyone who doesn't read the language in which that bible was printed. And knowing that the bible was written in ancient forms of languages that most of us aren't able to read, we have to realize that whatever we get in our English language bibles has already been interpreted for us by the folks who translated it.
Those squiggles on the page that we call letters only have meaning when we give them meaning. So, the only way there is meaning in the printed words on the page of the bible, or any other book for that matter, is when we give those words meaning. Even with the same exact words on the page, with many of the same life experiences, we may come up with vastly different ways of reading a text.
Here's a silly example: what do you think of when you hear the word "car?" Most of us would probably think of those things that we drive around, but some might think of train cars or cars on roller coasters. There may be other different types of cars. But even those of us who think of those things we drive around, what type of car do we think of? Is it new? Old? Red? Small? All of the different types of cars can come to mind just with that one word. So even though we have the same word in the same context, there is no reason to think we would all be thinking of the same thing.
That is greatly multiplied when we read an ancient text that has been translated into our modern language.
But there is one constant. Whatever meaning we make of the language, it is a meaning that we make. In other words, the words on the page don't mean anything until we create that meaning for them.
My point is this. We choose how we interpret words, paragraphs, whole books. We make meaning as we go along. That meaning isn't even fixed for us... How many times have we re-read something we read at a different time in our lives and found a completely different meaning?
The bible itself does not exclude anyone. It doesn't oppress anyone. It doesn't hurt anyone. Those things only happen because people choose that meaning from scripture. In short, the bible doesn't exclude, people do that.
We have much better tools to study scripture than were available just a few years ago. We have better understandings of culture, more examples of ancient languages, new theories of understanding. Those can all assist us in making meaning of the bible or any other writing. But ultimately we choose what those writings mean, for good for ourselves and others or for bad for ourselves and others.
I believe in a God who is good and loving to the world. I believe that the book inspired by that God would not be intended to harm people. That's how I choose to interpret the scripture.
Whatever you choose, recognize that the bible doesn't make meaning of itself, only we do that.
That's the view from where I stand...
Thursday, April 11, 2019
Our Brains
I recently read a book written by Lauren Haynes, a member of the church I serve. The title of the book is A Different Road. This book details the struggles she and her family went through as they raised and continued to care for a man with very different brain function than what most people would consider normal. He is autistic and suffers from depression and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
One frustration she and her family would often face was that her son is extremely intelligent, but the autism symptoms affect the way he expresses himself. Since he grew up in the middle of the 20th century, that often led to people thinking he was unintelligent, and treating him like a child or even a lost cause. Several doctors encouraged the family to institutionalize the young man and forget that he was their son.
The book is available on Amazon, and it is a wonderful, heart-breaking read.
Haynes makes a point several times throughout the book, and it is something I have been reflecting on quite a bit since reading it. She mentions how much effort is put into healing diseases of the body, and then suggests that we should spend as much or maybe much more researching how to heal the brain. After all, the brain is much more complex than any of those other systems of the body.
My brain works strangely. At least, I think it does, in comparison to others. I have a mental illness called Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. OCD is often presented in media as a kind of funny thing. Haha, that guy has to wash his hands all the time. Haha, that woman has to have all the cans lined up a certain way. OCD is a serious, debilitating disorder. At its heart, OCD is about uncertainty. It manifests itself in many different ways, but the result is a set of rituals, physical or mental, that are meant to eliminate the uncertainty. Sometimes they are logical, as in knowing that anti-bacterial soap kills germs, but maybe I missed one, so I ought to do it one more time. Another logical one might be checking the oven or the door, because maybe you just forgot that you really did leave it on, even though you just checked. Others are more mystical or even magical, like counting steps or making sure to balance the twitches of the face. Sometimes they are totally mental as in continually checking to make sure you aren't a bad person or going to do a bad thing.
There were times in my life when these compulsions were overwhelming. I realize to someone who doesn't suffer from OCD these things may sound ridiculous.
There are good things that come from OCD as well. Usually someone with OCD will do a project with excellence, partly because if something is short of perfection they will take it apart and do it again and again until they are satisfied. That makes some projects take a really long time for me. But the end result is that the project is done as well as I am capable of doing it.
Fortunately my OCD is under reasonable control now. I will always suffer with it to some extent, but when I have good habits and am sure to take medication that balances the chemicals in my brain, I am better.
I am writing all this because mental illness is still stigmatized. People are unwilling to seek treatment for something they want to simply think their way out of. Haynes' book reminded me that the brain is the most complex part of the body. We know so little about how it works. Why would we think it needs less medical intervention than the heart or the stomach?
For those of you who struggle with a form of mental illness, you are not alone. It's common, normal even, to have these struggles. Don't add to the struggles by shaming yourself for having an illness.
For those who do not struggle with mental illness, be grateful. Not only that, please recognize that those who do have mental illness aren't simply weak or lacking in any way. Our brains don't work the same way yours do. That doesn't keep us from being smart, helpful, inventive, or whatever other positive things you can add to that list.
Thanks, Lauren Haynes, for reminding me.
That's the view from where I stand today...
One frustration she and her family would often face was that her son is extremely intelligent, but the autism symptoms affect the way he expresses himself. Since he grew up in the middle of the 20th century, that often led to people thinking he was unintelligent, and treating him like a child or even a lost cause. Several doctors encouraged the family to institutionalize the young man and forget that he was their son.
The book is available on Amazon, and it is a wonderful, heart-breaking read.
Haynes makes a point several times throughout the book, and it is something I have been reflecting on quite a bit since reading it. She mentions how much effort is put into healing diseases of the body, and then suggests that we should spend as much or maybe much more researching how to heal the brain. After all, the brain is much more complex than any of those other systems of the body.
My brain works strangely. At least, I think it does, in comparison to others. I have a mental illness called Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. OCD is often presented in media as a kind of funny thing. Haha, that guy has to wash his hands all the time. Haha, that woman has to have all the cans lined up a certain way. OCD is a serious, debilitating disorder. At its heart, OCD is about uncertainty. It manifests itself in many different ways, but the result is a set of rituals, physical or mental, that are meant to eliminate the uncertainty. Sometimes they are logical, as in knowing that anti-bacterial soap kills germs, but maybe I missed one, so I ought to do it one more time. Another logical one might be checking the oven or the door, because maybe you just forgot that you really did leave it on, even though you just checked. Others are more mystical or even magical, like counting steps or making sure to balance the twitches of the face. Sometimes they are totally mental as in continually checking to make sure you aren't a bad person or going to do a bad thing.
There were times in my life when these compulsions were overwhelming. I realize to someone who doesn't suffer from OCD these things may sound ridiculous.
There are good things that come from OCD as well. Usually someone with OCD will do a project with excellence, partly because if something is short of perfection they will take it apart and do it again and again until they are satisfied. That makes some projects take a really long time for me. But the end result is that the project is done as well as I am capable of doing it.
Fortunately my OCD is under reasonable control now. I will always suffer with it to some extent, but when I have good habits and am sure to take medication that balances the chemicals in my brain, I am better.
I am writing all this because mental illness is still stigmatized. People are unwilling to seek treatment for something they want to simply think their way out of. Haynes' book reminded me that the brain is the most complex part of the body. We know so little about how it works. Why would we think it needs less medical intervention than the heart or the stomach?
For those of you who struggle with a form of mental illness, you are not alone. It's common, normal even, to have these struggles. Don't add to the struggles by shaming yourself for having an illness.
For those who do not struggle with mental illness, be grateful. Not only that, please recognize that those who do have mental illness aren't simply weak or lacking in any way. Our brains don't work the same way yours do. That doesn't keep us from being smart, helpful, inventive, or whatever other positive things you can add to that list.
Thanks, Lauren Haynes, for reminding me.
That's the view from where I stand today...
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