I’ve found myself thinking a tad about liminality. The term comes from the Latin, means a threshold, and points to that state of standing between. We all know that experience, for things small and large. And boy, I feel it right now, in spades. Today lots of things converge, and new directions abound, bubbling possibilities. It happens to be Jan’s and my twenty-sixth wedding anniversary. With a little luck it is also the day we sign the purchase and sale... Read more

Calling out to hungry hearts.Everywhere through endless time.You who wander you who thirst.I offer you this heart of mine.Calling all you hungry spirits.Everywhere through endless time.Calling all you hungry heartsAll the lost and left behindGather round and share this mealYour joy and sorrowI make it mine. http://media.imeem.com/m/FutNw51Nqy/aus=false/ Sri Hanuman Chaleesa/Gate Of Sweet Nectar – Krishna Das http://media.imeem.com/m/FutNw51Nqy/aus=false/ Sri Hanuman Chaleesa/Gate Of Sweet Nectar – Krishna Das http://media.imeem.com/m/FutNw51Nqy/aus=false/ The Gate of Sweet Nectar sung by Krishna Das Read more

In the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, the pirate captain Barbossa is confronted with a rule from the mythical “Pirate Code,” and replies, “The Code is more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.” Here’s a truth I’ve come to have to accept. There are no hard and fast rules for human conduct written either in stone or on our human hearts. But… And, I’m equally confident there is something within us, a draw to harmony and equity. In an... Read more

Please be warned! The Youtube video below contains lots and lots of dirty words. George Carlin May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008 George Carlin was a biting wit with a critical eye and became an important voice examining our American culture. I am saddened to learn his voice has been silenced. As an aside I find him an interesting victim of pseudography. According to snopes.com there are at least ten articles floating around the web falsely attributed to him.... Read more

First, I apologize for the fact these ruminations are not orderly. This post probably should precede the previous “universal precepts” reflection. But, this blog is for random firings of the old synapses. And this is just how it is in the Monkey Mind universe… I’m moderately confident there is something deep within the human consciousness that births as expressions of “right” behavior. I’m also certain the issue is clouded by all sorts of other needs, some noble, others base… But... Read more

Islamic scholar Timothy Winter, also known as Shaykh Abdal-Hakim Murad (and not to be confused with the political radical of the same name), delivered a fascinating lecture called The Trinity: A Muslim Perspective. It is something I think Unitarian Universalists and other low-Christology types might profit from reading. (Thank you Anamchara who also provided a pointer to an interesting, although I thought somewhat heated blogger exchange on the lecture.) Read more

Something I find myself ruminating about from time to time is the question whether there are universal precepts, a moral code applicable to all human beings at all times. (What can I say? Some people are interested in Baseball statistics, others follow train schedules. Me, I’m into spiritual questions…) Over my years of thinking about this, I’ve found two codes that I think come very close to being universal. I’ve long been fascinated by the Noahide code, a “universalist” list... Read more

As I’ve heard it, this is the anniversary of that date, some two years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, when the Union Army took control of Texas and General Gordon Granger, standing on the balcony of Galveston’s Ashton Villa and read out the Proclamation. Until that time Confederate authorities did all they could to keep slaves from knowing about the Proclamation. I gather the historical details of this story are in dispute. I’d bet most slaves knew well before this date.... Read more

You Are From Pluto You are a dark, mysterious soul, full of magic and the secrets of the universe. You can get the scoop on anything, but you keep your own secrets locked in your heart. You love change and you use it to your advantage, whether by choice or chance. You don’t like to compromise, to the point of being self-destructive with your stubborness. Live life with love, and your deep powers will open the world to you. What... Read more

My friend Grant Keener died a week or so ago. He was just shy of ninety. After a wild childhood with his bank robbing father who fled to Brazil, Grant returned to America to attend Columbia, and then spent most of his working life as a professor of English Literature at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts. Grant had a fine mind with, to me, a propensity toward just slightly off-kilter perspectives. As such he was a delight to spend time... Read more