Metafizzics

Some days you get the bear . . .

. . . and some days . . . the bear gets you . . .

I think about that saying often--and I've tried to find out where it came from, but no luck.  I did, however, find a variant I really like:  some days you get the bear, some days the bear gets you, and some days . . . you both walk away.

Well, since I last posted to Metafizzics, the bear and I have been fierce competitors.  Finally, though, I think we're both walking away.  So with luck, I'll be catching up on things metafizzical.   

Thanks to those of you who checked by occasionally during my absence.  I hope you'll have good reasons to return from now on.

The Zen of Peter Jennings

I am among the many people saddened deeply by the death of long-time ABC News anchor Peter Jennings.  At the time the story broke, shortly before midnight on Sunday, I happened to be talking with a friend on the phone and walking through a room where the television was tuned to CNN, with the sound muted.  I saw the headline below a clip of Charlie Gibson, who looked wearily composed.

So it was that I got to watch the first hour or so of live coverage and to see the emotional immediacy of those early responses from colleagues and friends.  By the next day, their sorrow was tempered by professionalism, but there is no doubt that Peter Jennings was loved and respected by his peers.

Even more striking is the outpouring of sadness and sympathy expressed in posts on the ABC site--numbering by this morning (Tuesday) more than 11,000.  Read some of those messages. They say a lot about the human gift for connection, and they reflect our longing to believe there are good people in the world. 

Many of the posts express surprise over the extent to which we can deeply feel the loss of someone we never really knew.  And I was wondering myself why Peter Jennings seemed to have such an enormous presence, one that captured the respect and affection of millions.  Partly, of course, it's about long familiarity.  But partly, too, I believe it is because he seemed to have that quality known in Zen as "beginner's mind"--an openness to everything, a lack of presumption, a simplicity that does not deny complexity. 

As Suzuki Roshi put it, "in the expert mind there are few possibilities; in beginner's mind, there are many."  Almost everyone in public life today seems to speak from the "expert mind" of partisan conviction or media manipulation.  Peter Jennings didn't do that. 

The Magical Forest Wedding

Wedding invitations these days often say "Please join us in celebrating" etc.  Which means, as a rule, that you go to a church or hotel or museum or park or patio somewhere and watch the bride and groom whisper their vows, kiss awkwardly, and cut cake.  Not that these occasions aren't often moving and meaningful.  But rarely are they magical.

So . . . imagine instead that you go to Berkeley Tuolumne Camp, near Yosemite National Park, and gather for three days with two hundred people from all over the continent (New York to Mexico, LA to DC).  You sing around a huge bonfire, sleep in canvas-covered cabins with the river roaring yards away, wake up with a yoga class, eat piles of fresh-flipped pancakes, help with the wedding flowers, dress in your "forest finery," and make your way to an amphiteater built into a wooded hillside.  Then watch the bride and groom walk along a petal-strewn path, to the music of a single guitar, and gently marry under an arbor of fresh-cut cedar boughs.      

And I'm not making this up!  Go now to greet their parents on a bridge across the river, and drink champagne on a tiny island.  Then dinner.  The rustic camp dining hall has been transformed with fairy lights and fine linen, each table centered by a candle ringed in fresh lavender.  Delectable salmon, delightful company.  The bride and groom dance their way gracefully through "Begin the Beguine," then everyone mobs the floor and blissful guests (from ten-year-olds to eighty-somethings) boogie on til 2 AM, pausing only for cake.

And I'm not making this up!  Next day sleepy people gather for brunch, memorialize new-found friendships, round up the T-shirts they tye-dyed at yesterday's workshop, and wend their way back down the mountain.  Bride and groom (apparently the happiest people alive) say fond farewells for hours before collapsing in a heap. 

Now that's magical.      

But not by accident does a Shakespearean fantasy take shape in the semi-wilderness!  Bride and groom worked for many months to bring this celebration to life, aided by family and friends.  I had the honor of helping a little in the aftermath, and I can't begin to tell you how hard this lovely couple labored to ensure that their dream would come true.  The remarkable thing is that their dream was not just about feeling special themselves and having lots of nice pictures.  Their dream was to create, however briefly, that fellowship we all long for . . . an honorable community built around beauty and love.

You can never tell what will happen to people--but I have to think that such a generous beginning will bring this marriage good fortune.  And perhaps their example will inspire the rest of us to larger dreams.  Not everyone can practice hospitality on this scale, of course.  Yet we can all care for our guests unselfishly, and share with them the deeper meaning of our ceremonies.

P.S.  This is my excuse for not posting much the past two weeks.  I was "on assignment," covering a truly Metafizzical event!  (Follow the links to find out more about Berkeley Tuolumne Camp and Yosemite National Park.)

The Fool and the Moon

My other weblog!  It's primarily about Tarot, but explores the topic from many different perspectives.  Even if you are not particularly interested in Tarot from the standpoint of divination or esoteric study, I hope you'll visit Fool/Moon occasionally to see some beautiful decks.  The Tarot has been a creative catalyst for many talented artists, who have explored Tarot imagery in a very wide variety of works. 

Currently, the featured deck is Gaian Tarot, by Joanna Powell Colbert.  Colbert's work is based on meticulous observation of the natural world, which she translates beautifully into the language of Tarot symbolism.  Don't miss it!   

Second Chance

"This is the most spectacular creature we could ever imagine rediscovering," John Fitzpatrick of the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology in New York told a news conference. "Nothing could be more hoped for than this Holy Grail."

The ivory-billed woodpecker--a species we thought was lost forever, since not a single one has been seen in the world for more than half a century.  But perhaps we have learned something in the meantime.  The discovery was actually confirmed last year, then kept secret so that private donors could have a chance to buy and protect the surrounding habitat.  Read about it.   Read more about it.

"This is huge. Just huge," said Frank Gill, senior ornithologist at the Audubon Society. "It is kind of like finding Elvis." 

At Last! Metafizzical Politics.

Because so much of the blogosphere is concentrated around politics and current affairs, it seems important to participate in that sphere of concern.  But I had been unable to find a political point of view that could truly be called Metafizzical.   Until now. 

I urge you to read and seriously consider The Unitarian Jihad Manifesto. 

And just so you'll know . . .

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Sister Logging Chain of Enlightenment.

Get yours.

Fizzicists, Take Note

Fresh Air's Terry Gross had a nice chat with physicist Brian Greene (The Elegant Universe, The Fabric of the Cosmos) about cosmology, time's arrow, science-and-religion, much more.  From the "much more" category: Greene's brother is a Hare Krishna, and his father played the harmonica in vaudeville.  Click to listen!   

Beep Beep

Here comes the DVD of What the Bleep Do We Know?  (About the movie)

If you didn't see it in the theater, don't miss it now.  Order at left!