Centering Prayer

I just visited a Centering Prayer group in my town. I expected it to feel like going to Meeting, but it was different in very subtle ways. In Centering Prayer you repeat a word or phrase that helps you become receptive to God. It was harder than simply waiting at Meeting; maybe I let my mind drift too much during Meeting? I could also feel my body relax, which doesn't happen during Meeting for Worship.

The issue I'm dealing with personally, is how to deal with prayer and my children. Most people who pray talk to their children about it, and sharing it with their children, but in my own case I am reluctant. I was raised in a very rigid Catholic tradition and I'm wary about teaching my kids to pray. It's not something they will do on their own, though. We do talk about spiritual topics, philosophy, and God, a little bit, but beyond grace at mealtime, and Meeting, that's it.

The Cotton Patch Gospel

Our family, and many others from our Meeting, went to a wonderful production of the Cotton Patch Gospel last night, at Edenton Methodist Church in Raleigh. It's version of the Gospel of Matthew updated to take place in Georgia. I'll post more details soon... unfortunately the program did not give any details about the performers but I'll find out and post those soon. The band was the Shady Grove bluegrass band, and they were amazing. The single actor/narrator was also an astonishing and very physical actor with a good voice, who is a divinity student at Duke.

Membership (Gulp!)

I've taken the step of asking for membership in the Society of Friends. This is a big step for me; please hold me in the Light.

Crafts and First Day School

We are doing lots of crafts at First Day School - making candles in December, then decorating the Meeting house with origami.

What's next? Finger paints? My cousin, who is an art teacher, suggested to me that clay is always good.

What is the spiritual message with clay? One obvious angle is that God made us from clay, which the way I learned it is supposed to make us humble. But you can make great stuff from clay!

Not quite the New Year!

As a New Year's resolution, I will keep this blog up! My kids tell me I'm not supposed to do any of my resolutions before the actual new year, so I'm cheating a bit with this post.

Nonviolence and video games

A new Harper's magazine has a conversation about videogames. It's mostly about
teaching writing using videogames. Do games like Animal Crossing teach nonviolence? Do
videogames teach nonviolence by not *being* violent? The world of videogames that I see represented in the game magazines are mostly about war or crime. But then I wonder how the time kids spend on videogames compares to the time they spend on MySpace.

The game Go can be seen as a war game, or a game about negotiation.

What activities count as "adventures"?

After going to a kid birthday at "Adventure Landing", a local kid attraction, the answers would be:

1. Gambling (for little tickets, which you can redeem for tiny toys)

2. Shooting lasers at your friends

3. Playing miniature golf

4. Driving go-karts real fast

5. Hitting baseballs (this last activity was more popular with the dads than the kids).

A Bumper sticker I wish I could get

I would like a bumper sticker that read, "Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you..." If only my country had taken that road. Update: CafePress makes bumper stickers for $3; now I just have to figure out how to make a PNG or JPG of this text.

Shin Buddhism

I'm reading a lot of books on Shin (Pure Land) Buddhism right now. Shin Buddhism, named after its founder, Shinran, is a popular Japanese religion that holds that most of us are not able to become Buddhas on our own, and need to ask the help of Amida, the Buddha of Immeasurable Light.

First Day School - Keepin' it Simple

So we *did* discuss simple living. The kids already knew a whole lot about the Amish. We also talked about simple clothes, the Quaker Oats guy, and also how the Shakers lived more simply by inventing labor-saving devices. We got out a big roll of paper, and the kids drew pictures of their ideas for living simply. The Shakers would have been happy with most of the ideas; the Amish not so much. "Have Robots Do Everything"; "Electric Trees" that grow and harvest apples. And "Sleep All Day", which definitely would make life simple.

First Day School

I'm teaching First Day School (that's Sunday School, to you non-Quakers) and I'm having a hard time thinking of something that will keep the kids' interest. I started out thinking of teaching about "Leadings", we have a curriculum book with material on that, but I don't think our kids will be able to relate to it.

I may teach about Simple Living, instead. We can think of ideas to make life simpler. I could discuss the Amish, and why they don't use electricity or cars.

A Course in Nonviolence

Colman McCarthy has a great Course in Nonviolence.

Another Miyazaki post...

This is threatening to turn into the Miyazaki Blog, but today's
New York Times has a very interesting review of his new movie, "Howl's Moving Castle". I was especially struck by his judgement of mainstream movies:

"The concept of portraying evil and then destroying it - I know this is considered mainstream, but I think it's rotten," he said. "This idea that whenever something evil happens someone particular can be blamed and punished for it, in life and in politics, it's hopeless."

Here's the link (free registration required):
Where the Wild Things Are: The Hiyazaki Menagerie

Gene Sharp and nonviolence

Gene Sharp does research on nonviolent resistance, and recently I saw a claim that a pamphlet of his played a large role in recent civil resistance to tyranny in former Soviet states.

The Cat Returns

Lisa and I watched "The Cat Returns", the Miyazaki film, over a few days. Unlike the other Miyazaki films referred to in an earlier post, this one *did* have a villain, the King of Cats. There is some cartoonish martial arts mayhem. The King, though, just decides to go into retirement after defeat.

The best part of the movie is near the beginning, with interesting animation of Japanese urban street scenes, and a fun chase over rooftops.

War News Radio

I am always looking out for new radio on the Internet - which is the future of radio, along with Satellite radio, now that the right wing in the US has taken over the radio dial. War News Radio is a new project out of Swarthmore College that is going to have news reports about the war in Iraq.

Kurt Vonnegut on Vengeance

I came across an interview with Kurt Vonnegut in Studs Terkel's book "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?" Vonnegut says:

"The fact that forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us isn't honored more - I blame that on writers. Because the easy story to tell is the vengeance story, and it's known to satisfy. This guy shot my brother. How's the story gonna wind up? And waht does a reader think? OK, that's settled. So it's just the easiest of all stories to tell. So it in fact encourages , makes reputable vengeance."

Of course, films are an even better example, and the proportion of "vengeance" films to "forgiveness" films is nearly, well, infinite.

The Mennonite mailing list Peace Stories recently had a terrific story of a high school basketball player who was intentionally injured during a game, and his forgiveness of the player who hurt him:
Forgiveness—and a hug—on the basketball court
This story unfortunately won't be coming to the big screen.

As, well, extreme as the Extreme Makeover: Home shows are, they don't follow the "vengeance" plot line. In the episode where they build a new home for the family of a young man shot in South Central LA, I can't remember anyone on the show, including the victim himself, expressing hatred for the gunman.

Anthony Flew

Anthony Flew, a philosopher who edited a favorite book of mine in college, "New Essays in Philosophical Theology", recently cause a stir by converting from atheism to deism.

I don't much care about this part of the debate; his "deity" is pretty unattractive and seems less carefully thought out than, say, Whitehead's deity. See the wikipedia entry on Process Theology for a good article on this.

But I am distressed by Flew's bigotry against Islam in the published interviews.

No Villains

The New Yorker recently had an article about the animator Hirao Miyazaki. It pointed out that two of his movies (our favorites around the house here) "Our Neighbor Totoro" and "Kiki's Delivery Service" dont' have villains. I didn't notice this before!

"Low Key Lottery" for North Carolina

Low Key Lottery for North Carolina
Lotteries are a terrible but tempting idea for states struggling with their finances.The powers that be in NC are trying to make a lottery more palatable here by saying that they will not advertise it.