Hopeful Thinking

Is God a Who or a What? The Value of Mystery in Contemplating the Divine   Wil Darcangelo, Master of Divinity Program Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Centre, Massachu setts December 17, 2014 Index Ask and It Will Be Given to You The Plurality of God: a Gap in Understanding Santa Clause, Adam and Eve: The Dangers of Collapsing Wavefunction Entanglement, Dark Matter and Dark Energy: the Quantum Trinity? Wait.  What is God Again?  Father, Mother, Other? The Old God and the New God Duke It Out To Categorize or Not to Categorize Ask and It Will Be Given to You Among my preparations to begin this essay, I decided to do what many people do these days when they have a question.  I asked my smartphone.  When I asked the question: Who is God? I was offered an online article explaining that God is the Supreme Being and the principal object of faith in monotheism and henotheism. 1  Not a big surprise.  When I ask my s...

Make an earthquake of your presence.  It's a phrase the devil shared with Jōb.  Not the mythological devil, nor the literary Jōb.  I was in a rock musical in Toronto playing the role of Jōb in J ō b and the Snake.  My buddy Kevin played the Snake.  He told me the it was a Quaker aphorism.  But I couldn’t find it anywhere.  It is a phrase not of my own making, but it is an important philosophy I hold closely and quote as 'author and origin unknown' until such time as I am no longer ignorant of them. But ponder it for a moment…   make an earthquake of your presence It makes me think of walking into a room and causing a shockwave of good energy; physically imperceptible, but deeply healing and inspirational on the cellular level.  I picture choosing brighter colors, taking deeper breaths, climbing higher hills, taking bigger leaps of faith. make an earthquake of your presence Shaking hands more warmly, loving more d...

I always tell my Tribe kids, “Life comes at us in waves.  You can be either driftwood, or you can be surfboard.  Be the surfboard.”  Since there’s always a steady stream of new kids and adults participating in Tribe, this gets quoted fairly frequently to the newcomers.  But even the veterans need reminding.   Being the surfboard is a lifestyle choice.  It’s not a concept that is readily digestible in its full form.  Superficially, it’s fairly self-explanatory.   Don’t be driftwood.  Be something better.  It’s inspiring in a pithy way.  But there’s something much more profound upon which to deeply meditate here for there are many layers of nuance in the choice to BE the surfboard.  It’s an intention.  And not just any intention.  It’s a covenant with yourself and the Universe to take the situations of your life—good, bad and ugly—and find a way to not only survive them, but thrive because of them.   Being...