Given the upsurge of questioning and battling inside and outside the Roman Catholic Church, it occurred to me that the clergy sexual abuse and its attendant cover-ups might be depicted too simplistically by a series of words -- the hopes and realities, perhaps. Some that came to my mind included:
FAITH............................................... FAITHLESSNESS
CHASTE........................................... HORNY
TRUSTWORTHY ............................ MANIPULATIVE
HEALING ........................................ WOUNDING
HEAVEN .......................................... HELL
PROTECTOR .................................. DECEIVER
PEACE-BRINGER ........................... WAR MONGER
JESUS .............................................. CEO
TRUE ............................................... SELF
COMPASSION ................................. HEARTLESSNESS
SIMPLICITY..................................... FATUOUSNESS
HELPFUL ........................................ GREEDY
INCLUSIVE ..................................... DEFENSIVE
PRECIOUS BLOOD ........................ BLOODY REMAINS
GIVING ........................................... RECEIVING
LOVE .............................................. ANGER
GOD ................................................ OTHER
I have no doubt that others more closely involved in the current Vatican maelstrom will have their own (and better) words, their own simplicities that border on the simplistic. Still, where the heart aches and the waters churn, there is some last-gasp function of the mind that demands to nail things to the cross, to sum things up as the politically hungry might: "It's the economy, stupid!"
I don't imagine that there is a way around this function of mind. Where the waters churn, cooler heads do not prevail. The best I can think of is to let it come so that then anyone might let it go ... not today or tomorrow, perhaps, but in the passage of time and with some attentive care.
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always a voueyer....if you only considered the mountain of zen scandals, even a tenth of the time you like to bang on others your blog would be interesting (still painfully repetitive but at least readable).
ReplyDeleteI suppose you're right, "Anonymous," but I did make room for something shy of 8,000 comments on the Eido Tai Shimano threads, if you consider that a Zen scandal.
ReplyDeleteSorry I can't live up to your standards, but blogspot does provide free space in which to exercise your less-dulling approaches.
I remember a blue suited Baptist preacher type standing on a soap box on a corner in Berkeley. A local character, a street urchin with a long beard and wearing a dress set up a soap box next to him and gave a chorus response. The moment i remember in passing, the preacher read "thou shalt have no masters before me". The chorus response was "I don't want no masters". Like most folks, i kept walking, content that the public espousing of a view was being given an equal time response from the other view.
ReplyDeleteOn a public corner one might tune it out and keep walking, stop and listen, or shout back at them if it offends you. Even throwing rotten vegetables and eggs is a historically noted response to such things. But it is a public corner on the way from here to there and folks are likely to pass it. I imagine that's why such corners are chosen for such moments.
The internet however, isn't like that, one doesn't pass one site on the way to another. One looks for a subject and finds a site because a search engine or a link suggested it. So one must go out of their way to find something they would ignore in the real world. Hence the appellation of the term troll is applied to those who seek out things of little or contrary interest to pick a fight.
I remember an old cartoon of a fellow who couldn't go to bed because someone on the internet was wrong, and he assumed the task of educating them. Perhaps he thought it a kindness to the mistaken or anyone who might stumble onto them. But going to such lengths to correct folks suggests an agenda relating to what ol'buddha man called an attachment to views. But the term troll seems sufficient. Certainly hiding behind anonymity suggests it, or at least an extraordinary laziness that belies an investigation of things rather than shouting a pat, learned response.
It seems to me, if we don't get off our duffs and use them, the big brain will be an evolutionary failure. But that's a different soap box, way over here, well labeled, seek me if you must. Just remember that if you do, it's not about me.
Charlie -- I am flattered by the length of your observations. Thanks for taking the time.
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