ABC News' "What Would You Do? "

How do I love thee, oh, ABC news show, "What Would You Do?" Let me count the ways:

1) John Quinones as Host. Clearly, a nice human being. Warm. Concerned. Dignified. Latino!

2) Voyeurism for a Good Cause. This show combines audiences' love of reality t.v. with hidden camera fascination. Does the end justify the means? Yes, because its implicit message to viewers is:

3) You too could Make the World a Better Place for Someone. Most of us probably watch with disgust as real people ignore the plight of others in these moments caught on tape. We cheer for those rare human beings who do the right thing even when it means risking their own safety. As a professor of Social Psychology, my educated guess is that while watching these televised incidents, most of us not only cheer for the hero, but actually identify with him or her. In other words, we'd all like to believe, "*I* would have done the right thing too." Whether this is an accurate belief or not is irrelevant. What is important, is that this show has the potential power to change our actions by making us more conscientious as we each increasingly learn to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Variations on a Theme

Most conflicts-- from sibling spats to the Israel-Palestine clash--

are variations on the Cain and Abel story. Whenever we raise our hands or voices in anger, we do so against our very own brother.

mantra of the day

Everything is for us to enjoy
Just not to keep or cling to

What Mother Teresa Wrote to Me

I just wanted a record of this somewhere in case my actual letter is lost or destroyed. In 1993, I wrote to Mother Teresa saying that I had little power of influence to create a world peace minute of silence, but that perhaps she could make this happen.

Her letter came on a small note card in which one side has a black and white photo of her holding a baby and a quote from Isaiah 43: 2-7. On the other side, her writing is written by manual type writer with errors and whiteout marks, a stamped return address, and a hand written signature. Here was her response:

+LDM
23rd Oct. 1993 Missionaries of Charity
54/A, A [illegible] Bose Road
Calcutta 700016 India

Dear Christina

Thank you very much for your letter.

To spread peace, begin by working for true peace - the freedom of being the children of God, ofbelong to Him. This freedom enables one to love as He loves andto forgive as He forgives.- for true obstacles to peace are within us. when we sincerely try to remove fromour hearts and minds all anger and thoughts of revenge we make way for true peace. Through your Christian life, work for it and make way for it in your own life by desiring true peace and wanting it at any cost. May God's blessing be abide with you and all your loved ones.

God Bless you

M Teresa MC

Anti "Survival of the Fittest"

The point of life is not to survive,

But to keep God's grace and love alive.

Reality Bites (Or Does It?)

Since I love what my momma calls "deep thinky thoughts," I've pondered the nature of reality since I can remember. It wasn't until I went to seminary over a decade ago that I learned that some of my personal theories were considered heresies. Imagine my surprise!



Apparently, I had entertained thoughts of pantheism. A pantheist supposes that everything is spiritual-- you know, everything --as in "the rock is spirit," "the tree is spirit" etc. Seminary education shored up in me a more traditional theistic belief that only God ["up there"] is spiritual, while all that is "down here" on Earth is not. Today, however, I find myself dissatisfied with both the "heresies" and with the traditional Judeo-Christian views on the nature of created reality.



What appeals to me most now is "reality" according to the mystic. Yes, there are critical differences in the mysticism of the Sufi, the Kabbalist, the Native, and so forth. However, it seems that none of the mystical traditions naively sprinkle glittery spiritual magic dust on top of the cruel reality of life on Earth. The mystic also does not conceive of a sharp divide between the Divine and the finite. Instead, the mystical claim is that after having experienced (however briefly or imperfectly) the Oneness of All That Is, reality isn't bad (the view of another heresy, the Gnostics), but that reality isn't quite spiritual either. According to the mystic, to understand the nature of Reality, one must look through the appearance of suffering, impermanence ,and death --- not with physical eyesight, but with spiritual vision.



My momma would roll her eyes and say, "Oh yeah, that's easy!" Of course, we all worry that acquiring spiritual vision is not easy. However, I don't believe obtaining true, mystical, spiritual vision is ultimately about hard work with furrowed brow nor is it about decades of intellectual pursuit. Spiritual vision cannot be earned by either of these means because its achievement must be accessible to all ---if it is the gift and will of a loving Spirit.



How then is the spiritual vision of Reality experienced? We must pray for spiritual vision that is aligned with the will of the Divine, and pray for it only. After our prayerful petition, we then are asked to meditate in inner stillness (Ex. 3:14). Spiritual vision comes some day, I hope, when we are open to it and when Grace has chosen us to receive it (not because we have earned it in any way).



And so, I am trying to stop getting God so I can focus solely on letting God flow through me. If I am inwardly still and empty, spiritual vision may one day fill me too.