Tag: words as labels

To Retire is to Re-draw

My friends and I often talk about our retirement. So I am tickled to play with the French origin and root meaning of the word “retire,” which is to “re-draw.” Give it to the French to speak the language of love and art.

 

For the past two weeks, I’ve been recalling all the names, labels, and role-titles I’ve been called throughout my life. Here’s the good, the bad, the ugly:

boy, child, father, son, husband, devil, leader, follower, teacher, student, scientist, engineer, deacon, sailor, veteran, schitzo, answer-man, guyeaux, guybeau, honey, hubby, friend, holy-man, satan, bull, rock, abuser, Anthony, philosopher, musician, artist, power-user, gentleman, too-religious, arrogant, good-man, neighbor, stranger, impotent, grandfather, professional, homosexual, democrat, republican, independent, Popsie, Popee’, babe, daddio, pops, war-criminal, mr. bingo, even called an extroverted-introvert, or maybe it was an introverted-extravert.

Some built me up, others tore me down. Yet, they are only words and thoughts in the minds of men – occupying the same house of cards.

And so, who do you say I am?

If 50 people know guy, they will think of 50 different guys.
If 50 people see guy, each a different reflected light on the retina.

If 50 people hear guy, each receives different vibrations on the ear.

Even my own thoughts cannot express the totality and truth of Guy.
So what is real and true in the mental constructs of the brain?

Who can deny that they are not more than the function of their own mind, emotions, and bodily sensing? And much more so in what others think.

Sit for a minute, attempting to clear your mind’s activity of its ongoing chatter, and you will discover its difficulty to Silence and for which it cannot enter in the “Cloud of Unknowing” or the “Dark Night of the Soul.” Nor can it hold absolute Truth and Reality, for it can only be self-referential.

Who can I trust to say who I am, or called to be, but the Love of the Divine Creator who brought me into existence?

We are created by love, to live in love, for the sake of love. It is not easy to own and claim love as our true identity and deepest dignity. The only way is to value our yearning, treasure our wanting, embrace our incompleteness, and be overwhelmed by the beauty of our need. Love invites our response. Love needs our response.– Gerald May

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“Make Way!”

Continue reading “To Retire is to Re-draw”

The Color of Skin

Does one tree in the forest think it is better than another?

The following is a poem I wrote at a recent poetry workshop at the Thensted Center in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. I was prompted by the beautiful tree motifs of its window curtains.

The Color of Skin

Surrounded by trees

Some blue, some black

Shines the Light for us to see

Some blue, some black

Side by side – neither do they lack

Ever wonder why we label persons, places, and things then place a judgment of value upon it? It becomes either more or less.

Trees only know how to be a tree. It does not know what color it is. Nor does it think it is more or less than its neighbor tree. In God’s creation, it is us humans who place a value on one tree over another; ie. a good tree versus a “trash” tree.

We humans also put labels on ourselves (and others) as a form of self-identification and comparison. I am either good or bad. You are either a member of my “group/tribe/label,” or not.

If you are black, white, red, yellow, or somewhere inbetween; You are either “in or out, …more or less than.”

Even in our religious traditions we label, divide, then accept or downcast. Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheist all believe they have the “Truth,” and others less so (if at all). We find the same within the numerous Christian traditions, ie. you either have the “right thinking” or not.

Maybe its man’s first and core sin: Pride, followed by shame and fear. We are all susceptible and it ends up being our first step into division and personal prejudice. And somehow “acting” as though we are more or less than who our Beloved has created us to be.

Maybe we cannot avoid attaching labels to things and people. It is hardwired in the way our minds function and the limitations of words we use to communicate. A greater consciousness that words only point and are not the thing itself – opens us to a “greater” love.

“The mystic forgets the given name or hangs little on it, can carry his names in a coin purse. Loss of names is not the loss of everything. The sun names nothing …”

Darrell Bourque, The Yellow Covenant

Regardless of what I think (or judge) to be of more or less value: It is God’s Wisdom that matters and will always trump our own perceived reality.

Which by the way, teaches me to pray by listening while remaining hopeful that my Beloved truly has a sense of humor.

For this, I am grateful.

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