Scribbles from...
To the man in 29A:
I can only guess and am left to wonder at your generosity and what motivated you to send a flight attendant back and offer to trade your first-class seat with me so I could sit with my husband. I assume you saw me pause at his seat as I went by, to chat and kiss his forehead. I noted your warm smile and the twinkle in your eye as I came forward. I gave you a hug to thank you and you said, “Just enjoy the time you have together.”
You could not know that this trip was to celebrate a significant birthday for my husband, a benchmark that makes one aware of just such things. You could not know that in that moment, I truly needed such a reminder. What prompted you to speak those words? Had your days with your own loved one ended too soon and you were speaking from experience? Certainly such a loss would prompt you to speak your hard-earned wisdom to me. If not, how did you learn to prize your days so much that you would give this gift to me?
Air travel seems always to me a time of heightened awareness. I never cease to marvel at the freedom. Just reading all the gate destinations—oh the possibilities! I never cease to marvel at the confluence of peoples, the rich variety and wonder. I never cease to marvel at the view from 30,000 feet plus, my preferred form of in-flight entertainment, a privileged overview of which I never tire.
But this gift or yours, this gift of awareness, stuns me. Stuns me even as I awoke this day on the cusp of excitement, rather expecting to be surprised. A random act of kindness? Perhaps, but I think it is so much more. Our lives have intersected in ways I will never know and can only guess at. From my side, your words ring true and seem to hold portent such that I will continue to call them to mind and ponder.
You could not know the growing awareness within me these last several years, that all our days are blessing we’ve done nothing to earn. It has become habit to drop to my knees and pray, “Thank you, dear God, for another day on this earth together. Help us to live today with gratitude, generosity, and good will.” You could not know that I prayed dutifully as a kind of responsibility. Truthfully, I do not remember the word "enjoy" as I prayed my prayer.
And yet you said, “enjoy!” I hope you said what you said because there has been someone you truly enjoyed for all the time you have had together. I hope in the best of worlds you still have that person and the time. There was nothing sad about your face in the giving, so I am encouraged in that belief.
This is the scenario I choose to write for you and maybe write for me as well. That there could be such a bond between two people that it enlivens all that you do, that it gives you joy such that your abundance of that joy prompts you to bequeath it to others. Amen, amen, amen, my friend in 29A. May it be so for you, for the one you love, and for my husband and me as well.
About Eve...
Over the years, I have been asked as one who writes about women in Scripture, what about Eve? While it may seem a grievous omission that she is not among those covered, it would be fair to say, she is not your usual woman. She stands as archetype and has been interpreted in a variety of ways through the years that are often problematic.
What I can recommend to you is the recent issue of WITH ONE ACCORD from Magdala, an issue devoted to Adam and Eve and the ways in which their story has been understood and misunderstood down the ages and influences us still. I am pleased to also say that a review of my recent book, ROYAL WIVES, is also included in this issue. I am in good company.
I particularly recommend John Dalla Costa's "Original Wound," about the transgression in the garden. He offers thought-provoking questions and insights that reframe this familiar story such that you will no longer read it as you have before. Similarly, Lucinda M. Vardey offers a creationist approach to the story that is refreshing and profoundly meaningful for such a time as ours in her article, "Returning to the Garden" Eve's counterpart captures our attention in "Adam Remembered," as Scott Lewis, S. J., uses Midrash, among other means, to give explore the nuances of Adam.
Here's a link that will take you to this issue: WITH ONE ACCORD
Summer Enrichment...
One of summer's great joys is the leisure to explore new ideas. This summer let's do that together with TWO Zoom events structured around podcasts we will listen to and discuss.
Our first offering is a reprisal of one done earlier,Foundations for Being Alive Now, from Krista Tippett's On Being Project, an NPR program. Together we will listen to and discuss four 10-minute podcasts:
Four short offerings, more wisdom practice than podcast: life-giving, hope-generating words, ideas and practices that can literally shape your experience of reality — and shape what can become possible.
At this juncture in the life of the world, we are all stretching. We are finding the ground shifting beneath our feet, whoever we are. Think of these as tethering foundations towards walking our way into our callings in this world of so much pain — and so much promise.
Our second offering is,The Deep Time Walk, a podcast with ecologist and author Stephan Harding, that was first offered as a TED talk, "Outrage and Optimism: The Deep Time Walk." It's an immersive sound journey through the history of earth. Together we will listen and imagine ourselves on a 4.6 kilometer walk with each meter representing 1 million years, as Dr. Harding reconstructs the events that happened to bring us to this point today.
Such topics have in the past, seemed overwhelming to me, creating a sense of insignificance. In this overarching and brilliant narrative, my takeaway is much different, one of purpose and agency. I will be curious to see if you feel the same.
In the next two weeks, we will send out additional details along with a survey asking your preferred times for participating. Please watch for that invitation and survey, and consider participating in our summer enrichment.
Ascension Poem...
While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.
—Acts 1.10
It was not what we had hoped for,
that this moment of uplifting victory—
Jesus ascending to the throne of heaven—
would drip with grief. But we'd lost him.
In the wake of the swirling glory
we stood on the windswept hill
looking up vacantly into the air
as at a graveside, in silent discomfort,
hollowed out by sorrow at his departure,
heaven's theft, the cloud's cruel erasure.
It took angels to nudge us awake,
to begin to think not of what used to be
but what was possible.
-Stephen Garnaas-Holmes
To my dear readers...
Thank you for the many kind condolences that you sent in response to my Scribbles about the loss of Rev. Karen Fowler-Lindemulder, pastor of United Lutheran, Bella Vista. Your kindness reminds me how grief shared is grief lifted.
And here are a few of the responses to the Scribbles "Passover, Orthodox Easter, and Tikkun Olam,"
I’m sitting here finishing up my morning cup of coffee pondering whether I’ve gained more wisdom this morning in caring for and repairing our earth or the interesting facts about Easter and Passover dating. ( I tend the flower beds at my church so in one small way, I’m caring for the earth. I get a lot of praying done while I work there, too, scrounging around in the dirt to encourage new growth and trimming away the unproductive ugly) So, where was I enriched this morning— heart or head? I’m smiling now because I really can’t decide. That makes it a “win-win” for me!!! Thanks for sharing. - Cindy
The facts are wonderfully fascinating and I'm grateful to learn them but I am more intrigued and inspired by the wisdom for your heart. I echo the sentiments in your last paragraph...it is so beautiful and this wisdom can be life changing and I aspire to make it part of my thinking and my life. Thank you Kathleen! - Nan
Love the scribbles and the information regarding Easter - lots to absorb here and will require more than one reading! Repair the world - hopefully, we can all do our part. - Alice
Thanks for all the info but there is one mistake at the end. Passover is in the month of Nissan not Adar. Libby (she's right; a typo)
Bravo for getting out ll the good information on Passover - Teresa Pirola, Light of Torah
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