I spent a couple of hours Tuesday morning with two of my favorite people: Lefty and Joanie Clark. I think I’d like for Diane and me to be them when we grow up.

Lefty just celebrated his 90^th birthday and I’m not sure of Joanie’s age, perhaps just a few years younger. Joanie has a very quick wit that is paired with a twinkle in her eye and one is never sure what you’ll get in response to a question.

They are simply a delightful pair and we have come to love them very much.

We met them through their two equally delightful daughters, Patty and Kiki, with whom we regularly gather and pray ever Friday morning at Susan’s house. Lefty and Joanie have five children and I think Diane and I may start lobbying to make it seven.

We have certainly become fast friends these past three years and they are a blessing in so many ways.

You can’t not smile and laugh when with them. Conversations about challenges they face given age and circumstance don’t last all that long and I always part company with them thinking the time was too brief.

Recently, I was invited into their apartment home in Escondido on a weekly basis. First, for Lefty to have another man to talk to (their senior complex houses far more women than men as is the norm) and, second, to chat about matters of faith that have recently tugged at Lefty’s heart. So, Lefty and I spend about a half hour alone before being joined by Joanie and we proceed together.

I can’t help but contrast this with the situation of my uncle who lives about a half hour away, is 96 and failing rapidly. He’s lived in the same house for over 50 years, a house I spent many summers in as a teenager and where I lived for several years in my early 20s. A brilliant man and former extremely popular college English professor and department chair, he has been reclusive for at least the last 30 years, widowed twice. We used to be very close and I’ll always appreciate how he looked out for me (well, we sort of looked out for one another) when I was living there after the death of my aunt, with whom I was very close. But he was never an affectionate man, living deeply within his remarkable and elaborate mind as he did. Even when he acted kindly, I was always being judged in some manner and I had it easy compared with some others. As the years went by, we actually found very little to talk about, other than reminiscing. He always wanted me to read his poetry (he was, after all, an apparently very accomplished poet) but try as I might, it was almost impossible to really understand the darn things. Now, some found him endearing and he was genuinely affectionate with his two stepdaughters and a couple of other women. On the other hand, he had an incredibly tumultuous relationship with his two sons, my cousins. After decades of dysfunction, they’ve fortunately made peace near the end. But many others found him distant. His circle is quite small and closed in.

In a conversation we had several weeks ago, he said what he’s miss the most (upon dying) would be his books and he fretted over what would happen to them. He has thousands of them and he said that they were his life. I know for a fact he has read them all, some of them numerous times. He was always naturally obtuse when it came to talk about what follows this life on earth. I know he enjoyed being that way. He said in that recent conversation that he is the most spiritual person he knows. Of course, I don’t believe he knows that many people any longer and I would hardly call him spiritual in any true meaning of the word.

I saw him last night, probably for the last time, as I’m currently up in the mountains and I doubt he’ll survive more than a couple of days. He requested no memorial. He leaves very little legacy and will be missed by only a small handful of people.

And herein lies the contrast and the point I’m led to make.

I suspect Lefty and Joanie would miss their children and grandchildren. And, when it’s their time (hopefully not soon!!), they will leave behind quite a legacy.

It is the contrast of head and heart, a struggle far too close to home for me but one that must be engaged.

Now, I know that my 96 year old uncle has a heart because I’ve seen it and experienced it, as have others. But, it a far inferior organ to his mind. And, without question, Lefty and Joanie are two very bright people, extremely knowledgeable and sharp as tacks late in life. But, it is their hearts that leap out.

I grew up with a strong heart that (in hindsight) was somehow always coming in second place to the life of the mind. I grew up in the shadow of people like my uncle, rather than with the warmth of people like Lefty and Joanie. Fortunately, my father mellowed a great deal with age and we became incredibly close in his latter several decades. But, my interior battle raged and it’s only been in the last ten years or so that its essence has been clear.

And, that essence is contained in the reality that one of my favorite people, Tim Keller (writing in a book about the Gospel of Mark), describes as The Dance.

You see, a Christian buys into a startling picture of things that has a very unique God at the center. A lot of people have God, or a god or some form of spirit, at the center. But only Christians have this thing called a Trinity. It was certainly a difficult thing for me to swallow for so many years. There’s one God but he or it is in three persons? Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three in one. Not polytheism or many gods. Only one God but in three persons. Yes, persons.

What a challenge to wrap our heads around that!! One of the great obstacles to my search for truth. Like the problem with evil. But, then the blinders fell off and it all made sense. Yes, I’ve looked at it time again from many different angles but it always holds up.

Keller says the very essence of God is a loving relationship. Many Christians (and some others) tend to think of God as equivalent to Love. But we view it as God loves us. We don’t view it as God loves “themselves.” Think about that!

Keller, Lewis and so many other Christians have reflected on the nature of the love that exists between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is a dynamic, exciting, infinitely rich and joyful love. Keller calls it a Dance and he says it is the very essence of reality.

If he is right and I believe he is, then we are made to live in that reality. That Dance. It is said that we are created in God’s image. I’ve struggled a lot with that, trying to figure out what that means (if indeed it is true, which I believe it is). Is this a physical thing? Over the past dozen years, I have come to realize a deeper understanding of what it means to be created in the image of God. It means to live in loving relationship with him and others, among other things.

We can build all sorts of castles in our minds or in our lives. We can achieve all sorts of objectives. Learn all sorts of things. Chase who knows what? Material advantage? Fame?

If the Christian story is true, then love is the purest of things. Love in its most vivid and dynamic sense. It is Joy. It is Grace. A Dance that does not let go but invites and never ends.

I gaze in they eyes of Joanie and Lefty and they glitter. They glitter with both remembrance and future possibilities. They warm my heart and make me smile and laugh. Joanie looks at Lefty and, as we talked about all of this, she raises her hands and snaps her fingers as in rhythm. She wants to dance.

I gaze in the eyes of my uncle and there is largely emptiness. No promise. What was left unaccomplished?

Two competing realities. Which is true? I’ve made my choice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is a good thing to get away. Getting away is good for perspective. Diane and I have been blessed these last four years to journey to places that were out of reach while working. Of course, our jobs gave us remarkable perspective into human nature and the many arrays of joys and challenges all sorts of people commonly face. We still have that, fortunately, in the life we choose to lead. But getting away is definitely good.

Costa Rica seems to be a place held in high regard for North Americans. Latin America can be an iffy thing in some locations but Costa Rica apparently sits apart. It is one of seven countries in Central America, that narrow corridor separating the massive continents of North and South America and the two massive oceans of the Atlantic and Pacific. The region is not known for stability. Costa Rica’s six Central American neighbors are Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and Belize. Some of these other countries are historically very unstable and the homes of brutal dictators and terrible civil wars. Costa Rica has managed to stay above the fray and has known tremendous peace. In fact, they have no military. At all. They are like an unarmed neutrual Switzerland which, you may know, is extremely armed. It is also a beautiful country with very pleasant people. While traveling a bit, we did see poverty like we’d see in Mexico but we saw no guns, only one or two police cars, almost no graffiti, and friendly people everywhere. In fact, as we were told, the country continues to rank in the top three happiest countries in the world.

Their slogan is Pura Vida. Pure Life. It is like a universal greeting. You hear it constantly. It is cheerful and uplifting. One cannot say it with a frown. It does not ring hollow like that constant exchange we hear: “How are you?” “Fine.” To exclaim, “Pura Vida,” is to speak a celebration, actually. It’s a recognition of what is important and fundamental. It calls into the moment the fact that we are connected and it is good.

While there, we seemed to be surrounded by happy and very pleasant people. Of course, we were tourists and could only see a protected side of things but we have talked with enough people and have read enough to know that that what we experienced was not just a show. We always try to learn a bit about the people who serve us in our travels, be they waiters or taxi drivers or tour guides: Their history and families. You can’t not like Costa Ricans.

One of my great joys was to hear Diane speak with so many people in Spanish. While I can’t understand 99% of what they said … and they spoke at light speed, of course … I just sat back and marveled. They invariably looked over at me and asked if I spoke any Spanish (and I could tell when they asked that!) and then commiserated with her about how and why I could be married to such as she and be so deprived. They also marveled at the quality of her Spanish and asked her how she learned it so well. In English they told me she speaks as a Latina, a very high compliment. I’m a very proud husband.

One of my other great joys was realizing early on that no one asked about or seemingly cared about American politics. While I followed some of the news via the internet, the world of anger and strife and personal attacks and overall toxicity that is the norm these days in the First World, might as well have been on Mars. We made friends with a lot of people. A couple from Chicago, he has worked the past 30 years as a conductor on the CTA trains. A couple from Brighton in southern England. A young woman and her best friend from South Carolina. Couples from D.C. and Mississippi. White people. Black people. Brown people. Young people and old people. No one talked politics. No one expressed anger. No one threatened to defriend someone on Facebook.

Pura Vida.

Of course, it can be argued that the political life is a necessary life. We cannot stick our heads in the sand and ignore how forces are arrayed in the landscape. Power is. And the political life is a natural response, whether for good or evil. It is so woven into my DNA that I suspect it will always have a hold on me and that is not a completely bad thing. But, I resist its seductive draw … its pull to a place that can turn a soft heart hard and to drive a wedge between the thing easily seen and the thing not so easily seen.

And, so, I’m grateful for this past week. For the reminder that life can be so much more than that contained in the western modern mindset. For the reminder that life in a pure state is a place for joy and celebration. To our new friends to the far south: We will miss you and thank you for the time we spent together.

Pura Vida!

Now, this is certainly not a cheery topic. Nevertheless, I believe it’s an essential topic and something I’ve definitely touched on before. Basically, what’s the deal with evil?

For starters, Evil (I will capitalize it when using it as a noun as opposed to an adjective) increasingly has a bad name. And, not a bad name because it’s a bad thing but because it’s seemingly so passé in modern sentimentalities. Much more so than, say, God or even Christianity. Many people who believe in God or Christianity are dismissive of Evil for all sorts of reasons. I don’t intend here to dig too deep into all of this, although I might at a later date. However, I do think it’s worthwhile for us not to ignore the thing, whatever that thing might or might not be.

I’ll start with a paraphrase of I think it was C.S. Lewis (couldn’t find it in a quick search and don’t want to be distracted by looking through all of my books) who said, “It would be a mistake to think either too much or too little of evil.” Feel free to enlighten me if one of you find the source and exact quote. I’ve always liked this in the last eight or ten years since I first heard it. In other words, the thing exists. We can either be consumed in focusing on it which would distract us from so many other worthy things or we can ignore it, which will only cloud our vision of what is real. So, we must confront the thing but not allow it to dominate our thoughts.

Yes.

In the modern mindset that says science is God and nature is Supreme, there can be no evil. Is a lion evil for slaughtering an antelope? Is a great white shark evil for attacking a surfer? Of course not. In the post-modern mindset that says truth is what each of us feels and no one truth is greater than another, evil is in the eye of the beholder. A terrible act committed by a vicious group or person can be justified if we only work backwards to socially construct the reality they’ve lived under that brought them to commit that act. It’s all explainable by conditions. There is no transcendent Evil in either the modern scientific/naturist view nor in the post modern relativist view.

They both have good arguments which is why so many people believe them and why the concept of Evil is not in vogue, at least in western societies. We’ve moved beyond that. Let’s talk, instead, about yoga and it’s cleansing properties. Now that’s worthy of normal conversation in social circles. But, a “What do y’all think about Evil?” as a conversation starter is tantamount to dropping you know what in the punch bowl.

Allow me to backtrack a bit. When I think of the grand questions that face or should face every person when it comes to trying to figure out reality, here are a few of the biggies:

1. Is there a supernatural that is beyond all bounds of what we can describe as natural?
2. If there is, is there such a thing as an all powerful, all knowing being that has some form of consciousness to know who I am?
3. Can I have a personal relationship with such a being?
4. What happens to me when I die?
5. If I’m not just particles and chemistry that merely cease to exist upon death, does my life here have any impact on my existence after I die? And, if so, what’s the deal with that?
6. Is there any sort of absolute truth that underlies what is good and just, as well as what is bad and unjust?
7. If the answer to 6 is either yes or I’m not sure, is it ok to consider the source of those two things? And, if so, is it possible that there is supernatural Evil?
8. If it’s possible that there is supernatural Evil, what do we make of it?

There are, of course, other questions but these are some starters.

Now, I’ve read a whole lot of books by some very bright people on this and related topics. I’ve read the scriptures of the Christians, the Hindus, the Buddhists, and the Jews. I’ve read the Romantics, the Transcendentalists, the Nihilists, the Pragmatists the Existentialists and the Atheists. I’ve read Hobbes, Rousseau, Tolstoy, Hugo, Dostoevsky, Marx and Mao. I’ve taught more than a few. I’ve studied, in part, the histories of the ancients.  Of Chinese civilization. Indian civilization. Egyptian civilization. Japanese civilization. The Fertile Crescent. African civilization. The Greeks and the Romans. The Ottomans. Indigenous peoples in North and South America. Australia. I’ve studied the period in Europe we refer to as the Dark Ages and I’ve studied the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. I have a passing knowledge of Russian history, French history, British history, Germanic history and American history. I’ve studied the economies, political systems, social systems and important military events in many of these, especially in the last two hundred years. I’ve read numerous books on theology by current and former thinkers. I’m not saying this to boast. In fact, just the opposite. I feel relatively inadequate to comment on this topic as I lack tremendous expertise in any of these areas. For that, I defer to others. However, I’m trained as an observer of things, with an eye to find out what is going on behind the curtain. To discover meaning and essence when things are not particularly obvious on the surface.

With all of that out of the way, here are my comments.

I believe Evil is real. It’s powerful and insidious and personal. Evil is the opposite of Good and it’s not just a straw man by which we can look at and try to understand Good. I have seen it from a distance and I have seen it up close. I have felt Evil. In a world with no absolute truth or meaning, Evil is impossible as it carries great meaning. In the post-modern mind that says everything is just social construction: Good, Bad, Race, Gender, Behavior, Purpose, Meaning and so forth, values rest solely in the eyes of the beholder and disappear as mist apart from that. In fact, the only absolute truth (and, ironically, there is an absolute truth in this absolute-truth-defying mindset) is the charge that we must tolerate everyone else’s values. Of course, there is the single exception of the values of those declared intolerant, whatever this new religion determines intolerance to be. It is no small leap to understand that in the religion of Tolerance, it is an absolute truth that the rejection of relativism is Evil. Now, that’s a neat little trick.

With all of this out of the way, let’s cut to the chase. If there is absolute truth, which there is and if Good and Evil are opposite forces and each have a source, which they do, and if these things are important for us to consider (see the numbered points above), then we should stop avoiding the conversation. We should pay attention. We should consider the character of Evil. We should consider the objective of Evil. Oh, you might ask, how do we know that Evil has an objective? Well, that’s a very good question.

My answer is that for Good to be Good, it has to be rational. There has to be a source that makes sense. It comes from somewhere. If it doesn’t come from somewhere, then there is no such thing as absolute good and we’re back to the nihilists, the existentialists, the atheists, the post-modernists. Good luck with all of that. Likewise for Evil to be Evil, it has to be rational and have a source that makes sense.

Pick your poison, so to speak. Some folks just don’t want to go here for good reason. It requires a leap that can be, at a minimum, uncomfortable. At a maximum, mind-blowing.

I’ll cut to the chase. Others are welcome to disagree and arrive at different conclusions but I’m testifying that everything I’ve studied and observed … everything … points me to the same conclusion. And I only arrived at this conclusion through kicking and screaming and searching for any other possible alternative because I just didn’t want or like to believe it.

The source of all Good is our loving God. The source of all Evil is his Nemesis. Now, we can quibble about how it’s possible for an all-powerful or all-loving God to have a nemesis as in, “Why the heck can’t he/it just go ‘poof’ and the Nemesis is toast?” A good question, the answers to which are complicated and beyond my ability to address here. Suffice it to say, that it makes sense to me after all that inquiry I’ve conducted.

And, just as God has a purpose and we have a purpose, the Nemesis has a purpose and it’s worthy of us to consider it. It’s worthy to not let us overly dwell on it and it’s worth for us to not neglect it.

That’s enough for now.

I received an angry response from a friend after he read my post from yesterday. He blasted the hypocrisy of Christian legislators who would, one moment, listen to the message of Dr. Black at the National Prayer Breakfast and in the next vote to (in his analysis) take away the health care of “the lame, the poor, the elderly and those in great need.” He ascribed this hypocrisy to “hearts hardened by the Gospel of Christ,” as he lamented the “stench of Christianity.”

Tough stuff.

What is going on here? After thanking him for following my blog (we may run into one another only several times a year by chance), I replied that hypocrisy is certainly a significant element in Christian history and behavior. As it is in all faith traditions, including the faith of atheism.

Of course, he’s right. Hard hearts inoculate us against empathy and compassion. Hard hearts act out of anger and spite. Hard hearts are judgmental and self-centered.

But, respectfully, he’s wrong. The Gospel does not harden hearts. The Gospel is the “Good News” that softened hearts are available for the taking. The Gospel is about grace and love and the reality that we are not just random particles but have meaning and purpose and “here is what those things are.” The Gospel is antagonistic to legalisms and self-centeredness (pride), to contemptuousness and an over reliance on earthly power. The problem is not the Gospel. The problem is not the central Christian message. The problem is us.

The problem is stridency across the spectrum; the breast-beating that lifts the status of the shouter to that of a warrior whose aim is power and authority. Instead of holding up a mirror that can (in an opposite fashion to that of the wicked witch in Snow White) have us realize our own grave inadequacies, we see nobility of self, with our purpose organized around that view. And that is the wellspring of hypocrisy. Show me a so-called Christian on the right who hard charges against gays (not just opposing gay marriage on principle) or the so-called Tolerant on the left who spews hate in the name of love and you serve up hypocrisy on a platter.

Just as Jesus wept for his people (the Jews), he weeps for us now as many skew his life and message to a point of serious distortion. It’s not surprising of course. As I mentioned just a few days ago, Christianity (now a religion but really just a response to the Gospel) is absurd. No wonder we mess it up!

So, whose fault is that? God’s? Some would say yes.

If you’re a follower of the nihilist Friedrich Nietzsche, you’d have to say it’s our weakness in believing something so ridiculous … succumbing to the mind-numbing mythology that says we are not or cannot be superhuman beings. If only we could unleash our potential. If you’re a follower of Sartre or Camus, of the existentialist line of thinking, you’d have to say it’s our distortion of the reality that there is no meaning in life. We are merely here to exist.

The Gospel is all about truth and grace and love. It’s about a reality that includes justice as well as forgiveness and redemption. These are virtually impossible values to live out fully even if we profess them to be accurate. The Gospel and the core teachings of the faith also explain a lot about the nature of these impossibilities and what we should do about them. To say that believers of this reality are hypocrites is easy because of course we are. But to have high ideals and fall short is not to condemn the ideals but to condemn something else … perhaps the subject of another essay.

My friend is a very bright and lovely man. When our paths cross, he greets me warmly, with an engaging smile. He is now into his mid-80s but you wouldn’t know it. He is spry and full of energy. He is honest and forthright, including about his own failings and struggles over his long and fascinating life. He is not pompous but charming and I am always glad to see him.

It’s a shame that he sees my lodestar as a source of so much that is wrong in the world. For that, I take responsibility and will continue to make every effort to disavow him and others with similar beliefs from that perspective. God help me.

Speaking of prayer, I can just say, “Wow!” Our friend, Patty (nicknamed Stalker Patty Miller or SPM because she just won’t let go of people in need) told me this morning at our weekly Little Band of Believers prayer time to check out the attached YouTube.

As some of you know, every year, there is the National Prayer Breakfast, attended by many, many people in and out of government and by dignitaries from around the world. My friend Ken was one of the keynotes there a year ago.

They keynote this year was Barry Black, retired naval admiral and chaplain of the U.S. Senate. What an appropriate and powerful message, start to finish; including his own story. It’s somewhat long at 26 minutes but please try to stay until the end, if you can.

Blessings,

Brad