Hopeful Thinking

Today is Leap Day. This quadrennial occasion is neither a holiday nor a commemoration. It is a reckoning. Leap Day is referred to as an intercalary day, and restores the balance of a calendar which has slipped off course by approximately one minute per day over the previous four years. We add on a whole day to every fourth year not divisible by 400 to make up for the time we have incrementally lost. Or is it that we are giving ourselves a day in advance? Like buying it on credit? The calendar is, of course, a human-made construct used to delineate time across our solar year. The sun is always in balance with Itself. It is our structuring and understanding of Its light and the way we attempt to describe it on paper that humans can’t get quite right. Perhaps that’s the intention. Maybe this is a useful allegory of something else. There is a balance to all things. Even a glass of water levels itself. But that comes easiest to water. We should strive to be more like it. If only ou...

What is the rule against judgment all about? Why are we encouraged not to judge others? We are told we should leave it up to God to do it. But why?  It’s true, we judge others all the time. Every minute of the day, in fact. We judge others for the way they look, the way they are dressed, the things they say, the way they spend their money, the way they keep their house, the kind of car they have, especially for the mistakes they make. We judge them for all of it. Some of us are better at keeping our mouths shut about it, but the inner monologue lives. We do it to make ourselves feel better. It’s been observed that some need to (mostly figuratively, sometimes literally) cut off the heads of others in order to make themselves feel taller. But they are no taller.  I would think that’s what happens when our natural ability to evaluate becomes burdened by the effects of depression, abuse, or other emotional harms. Fortunately, that’s not the limit of our evaluative capa...

I spoke with someone recently who informed me that it was considered inappropriate, by their racial justice group, for white people to sing the social justice anthem “We Shall Overcome.” As a sensitive person, who makes a conscious effort to empathize with people's viewpoints, especially as pertains to race, at first I felt that I must somehow be wrong in my view. I was very disappointed. I have sung this song many times over the years. I have sung it in choirs, I have sung it with my afterschool kids in the mall on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I even wrote a countermelody to it for church. I have a relationship with this song. Very quickly after concluding I must be wrong, I started to question that. I also started to question the right of people to exclude others from art.  But there is something to the point she was making. Our job as white people is to listen. Regarding the issue of racism and bigotry, a majority needs to comprehend the value of listening to the mino...

I don’t remember learning much about the Christian season of Lent as a child. I know it was mentioned. I remember the word Lent being spoken. Not by my immediate family. None of them are churchgoers by nature. I remember that you were supposed to give up chocolate from around Valentine’s Day until Easter when you could get it all back. Seemed like an odd procedure to just break even in the end. I revisited the concept again recently. I’ve never had a problem with the idea of observing Lent. It just never was a priority. But this year I’ve been thinking about my own personal relationship with Christianity. I’ve been thinking about what parts of the tradition resonate with me and which ones don’t. It’s actually quite difficult not to throw out the baby with the bathwater sometimes. There are parts of Christian tradition that I have simply ignored, rejected, or were confused by. A lot of that quasi-resentment comes from the bad name that some Christians manage to give the practic...

First it was a bear, in Europe, before they became scarce. Then it was a badger. Although even before the bear, it was people. Once arriving in the United States, it became a groundhog. This is the genealogy of the harbingers of spring. Groundhog Day here in the US, occurring annually on February 2, is a tradition which began, according to legend, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania in the late 19th century by the Pennsylvania Dutch following their emigration from the German-speaking regions of Europe. Its purpose is as much meteorological as it is divinitory. We want to know how much longer the winter will last. We want the groundhog to tell us by the shadow it does, or does not, cast as it ritually emerges from its “hibernation.” A shadow means six more weeks of winter. No shadow means an early spring. I've always thought it ironic, under the circumstances, that a sunny day portends a longer winter. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Nonetheless... Groundhog Day, thou...