Can’t use it, but also, didn’t really want to just throw it away.
So…
Back when I was smarter, maybe that was last week, I liked to tell people that the real problem in religion isn’t whether we believe in a God that acts in the world or not, but whether we believe we have a separate soul or not. I, I’m embarrassed to say, am inclined from that preface to go into a rant about the problems with the ideas of soul that separate us from the world. There are, I find, many.
And, sadly, if you know me you know I can be cutting when I have my dander up. Now it is simply true that I believe the idea of a soul as something separate from the world, something that occupies our bodies like a passenger in a bus, is a mistake. And clinging to that idea of separation is the key to much human misery.
But instead of piling on the negatives, which I find only leads to fights, and this isn’t about winning or losing an argument; I want to hold up what is valuable in that word “soul,” what I find is deeply true, what can heal us, nourish our bodies, water our lives and bring forth luscious fruit.
From here I wanted to expound on “soul,” if taken as a thing we all share, is very useful.
Hopefully by Sunday’s posting that will be filled out…
But I know it is about longing and what that longing is for and what that longing is
and that it has something to do with that word soul…
“Nothing but a burning light…”
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