Wow, this has been an incredible conversation, with echoes that reach back to my First Great Awakening, when three questions were posed: Who am I? What do I? How be I? followed by intensive, continuous bottom-dropping-out experiences that made what I thought was my concrete life question at the time (conscientious objection or ministerial vocation) seem, if not trivial, then a little beside the point of a deeper issue. And somehow I ended up in the Order during that odd, in-between moment when the Quest for the Historical Jesus, Luke and Psalm conversations, scrubbing grave plots, The Way of the Pilgrim, The Journey to the East (dang, I knew I shouldn't have given up on playing the violin!), fasting and canonical hours (I was Methodist, for god's sake!), somehow made perfect sense alongside Global Research Assemblies (social process triangles to the ninth level) and Councils with people rising up to be accountable for Yellow Knife, among other far corners I never expected to see (but ultimately came pretty close). And of course, the fine wind, a wedgeblade inserted into time, with preschool children living in the Universe and Dancing to Life (or Bending History, which seemed somehow logically and satisfyingly interchangeable with Dancing to Life). And "we are the music makers, we are the builders of dreams; we are the earthbuilders and movers it seems" With our own somewhat stilted mythologies around the Bureaucratic Cog (FIRE the one who fails), the Underground Revolutionary (SHOOT the one who fails), and the Trans-establishment Self (RECONSTRUCT THE CONTEXT around the one who fails). And strangely, the answer that now comes to my mind in response to why I'm here, what I'm doing, and how I'm being is all "for the greater glory of G-O-D," and this from someone who long ago left behind Sunday services and any formal religious practice, and with full consciousness of all the political, economic, and cultural baggage this phrase entails. At the same time, I've witnessed how this language still animates and inspires profound community service in the most impossible situations (think: African American churches in, for example, Rainier Beach). The Journey is the context, with its quest for an ever-widening consciousness and participation in Wholeness. The Kingdom has always arrived and is always coming in power (honest, this unnerves me to throw around this language willy nilly, but I somehow blame RS-I for the fact that it makes any sense to me at any level). So whatever the question or calling that quickens the current action of my soul, lies a deeper affiliation with a Wholeness (beyond my imagining) that is being birthed and against an illusory fragmentation (around ego, tribe, or ideology) which may come clothed in a reasonable justification or accommodation for "what's possible." More about the flow than prematurely measured outcomes, more about the dance than bending history. Oops, now this is feeling more like the Earthrise witness that I've been meaning to offer, although still far short of what I feel I want to say. I am so profoundly grateful to have stood at the side of a people whose very presence, for a moment in time (that continues to this day), interrupts historical forces at the most personal level and invites "no one special" to an unexpected calling (preschool teacher, healthcare worker, fund raiser, Town Meeting orchestrator, business facilitator, yes, even mayor of the city of Indiahoma) as a pivot point for an emerging Wholeness, already present and coming in power. Ok, I kind of got wound up there; what was the question again? Thanks to all of you for all you have been and done, for all you continue to be and do, until "the end of Time." Ken Gillgren Milwaukee Metro, Amarillo, Indiahoma, Minto, Selawik Spud, Anchorage, Medan, Seoul, Cheong Ju, Tokyo, Seattle. On 7/2/2012 11:32 AM, John Cock wrote:
I appreciate what you've said, Wayne.
My take: If it does not have something like "on behalf of a transformed Earth community" in the statement, it is the WRONG right question, moral issue, or vocation.
John
-----Original Message----- From: dialogue-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net [mailto:dialogue-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Wayne Nelson Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 12:19 PM To: Colleague Dialogue Subject: [Dialogue] What is the right question these days?
I am wondering what are the pivotal moral issues of our moment?
I think there are likely to be several. Of course there are many, many but there are probably some major ones.
To reduce it to a single one makes it too abstract and denies the obvious complexity.
We all have to name 'the moral issue of our time.' There's not likely to be one for everyone. It's a job we all have to do.
\\/ - - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca O - 416-691-2316 M - 647-229-6910
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