tmitchellmusic

Today I turn to words that are familiar to me – words that speak deeply to me – from Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives by Wayne Muller (New York: Bantam Books, 1999).

I had always assumed that people I loved gave energy to me, and people I disliked took it away from me. Now I see that every act, no matter how pleasant or nourishing, requires effort, consumes oxygen. Every gesture, every thought or touch, uses some life.

This is a useful discovery for how our days go. We meet dozens of people, have so many conversations. We do not feel how much energy we spend on each activity, because we imagine we will always have more energy at our disposal. This one little conversation, this one extra phone call, this one quick meeting, what can it cost? But it does cost, it drains yet another drop of our life. Then, at the end of days, weeks, months, years, we collapse, we burn out, and cannot see where it happened. It happened in a thousand unconscious events, tasks, and responsibilities that seemed easy and harmless on the surface but that each, one after the other, used a small portion of our precious life.

And so we are given a commandment: Remember the Sabbath. Rest is an essential enzyme of life, as necessary as air. Without rest, we cannot sustain the energy needed to have life. We refuse to rest at our peril – and yet in a world were overwork is seen as a professional virtue, many of us feel we can legitimately be stopped only by physical illness or collapse.

If we do not allow for a rhythm of rest in our overly busy lives, illness becomes our Sabbath – our pneumonia, our cancer, our heart attack, our accidents create Sabbath for us. In my relationships with people suffering with cancer, AIDS, and other life-threatening illness, I am always struck by the mixture of sadness and relief they experience when illness interrupts their overly busy lives. While each shares their particular fears and sorrows, almost every one confesses some secret gratefulness. “Finally,” they say, “at last. I can rest.”

Through a good friend and doctor who literally threw me into his pickup truck and raced me to the hospital, through the wise and swift administration of good medicine, through numberless prayers and great kindnesses, I was granted the blessing of being healed of my infection. Now, I take more walks. I play with my children, I work mostly with the poor, and have stopped seeing patients. I write when I am able, and I pray more. I try to be kind. And without fail, at the close of the day, I stop, say a prayer, and give thanks. The greatest lesson I have learned is about surrender. There are larger forces, strong and wise, at work here. I am willing to be stopped. I owe my life to the simple act of rest (18-20).

This post is based on an article that I was requested to write a few years ago . . .

I believe that it is time to restore the three “R”s back into the arts.

For so many of us – especially musicians – we have tried to make our music by only using our Ability and our Training – many of us have burned ourselves out in the process letting the creative process become a distant memory of things we used to be able to accomplish with ease.

So what are the three “R”s that need to be restored in ArrrT?

The first is REST – Yesterday I was doing a meditation for a worship service utilizing the passage from Deuteronomy about God’s command to keep Sabbath. It seems like our world continues to move at a faster and faster pace. It reminds me of a time when one of my friends wrote a book about time management. He said that he studied all of the books on the subject and realized that basically they all had one thing in common – how to do more and more in less time and feel guilty about what does not get completed – so – he decided to write a book that suggested a way to do less in more time and not feel guilty about what did not get completed. It was a wonderful book – The Gospel for the Clockaholic by Thomas Are – also the author of Faithsong. We need rest!

The second “R” is RETREAT. Often a simple change of scenery is very beneficial. For people who are constantly on the road working their retreat may be at home. A change of pace, a change of routine, a change.

The final “R” is RENEWAL. Everyone needs to have their batteries recharged from time to time. Different people do this in different ways. I need time alone or time with a very limited number of loved and trusted people – people that I know love me enough to know when I need space and time either alone or with just a few people.

I thought I might be able to say all I needed to say about this in one post but that is not the case. I imagine that each of the following three posts will be devoted to one of these three “R” words. I am reminded again of words by Robert Shaw (what a surprise!): In a time and a society whose values are geared to the biggest, the fastest and mostest, whose gaze is fixed desperately upon the future – as far at least as the next election or life after death or prosperity, whichever should happed to come first – the Arts offer an historical perspective. For their concern is with originality – meaning, that which has origins. (The Robert Shaw Reader. Robert Blocker, editor. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004, p. 364).

In the meantime, remember, REST, RETREAT, and RENEWAL are not luxuries to be included only when time permits – they are all three necessities for daily living – you cannot properly spell the word ARRRT without all three of them!

In this concluding post in this series we give consideration to Robert Shaw’s thoughts on where does Religion meet the Arts?

I suspect that in the long run – if there is a long run – the arts will be seen to be the lode-star of [human] humanity – even more than religious or political structures – for some of the reasons I listed earlier, and for three more which lean upon me now.

In the first place, it is clear that a commitment to the creative process starts the human animal on an endless, thorny and lonesome road of self-discovery, away from the comforts, blurred objectives and compromises of institutions. “Forty days and forty nights” is a Biblical metaphor for what is really a lifetime of wilderness and solitude.

In the second place, the Arts are concerned not with the consumption, sale or other exploitation of earth’s material wonders – not even with their recycling – but with their reincarnation. They propose not a mounting monopoly of a medium of exchange, but the sweet, quiet exchange of truth and beauty themselves.

And in the third place, in a time and a society whose values are geared to the biggest, the fastest and mostest, whose gaze is fixed desperately upon the future – as far at least as the next election or life after death or prosperity, whichever should happen to come first – the Arts offer an historical perspective. For their concern is with originality – mean, that which has origins.

For, finally, the simple truth is that every [human] is an artist – whether [they want] it or not.

The only question is whether [they are] enough of an artist to fulfill [their] humanity – and to fill full [their] short mortality.

The understandings of the spirit are not easily come by. It takes a creative mind to respond to a creator’s mind. It takes a holy spirit to receive the Holy Spirit – and “just as I am” is not nearly good enough.

There’s no freeway to Truth. There’s no easy on, easy-off approach to Beauty (Blocker, 361-364).

The Robert Shaw Reader. Robert Blocker, editor. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.

In this post we consider the answers to the following questions posed by Robert Shaw: What are the meanings of art? What is it trying to tell us of [humanity]? What is [humanity] trying to tell us of [humanity itself]? . . . What may be the function or influence of art in a world gone schizophrenic, paranoid, masochistic? What does art show itself to be? Why is it important? How can it help us? (Blocker, 357-359)

Shaw’s answers:

First: Art on this scale is the most pervasive, persistent, powerful affirmation of the life-force in the [human]-thing. Than sex it is stronger and longer – by centuries and oceans. It is a true transubstantiation . . . it is finally the Flesh become Word.

Second, facing the bewildering profusions of matter and sensation, the Arts testify to [the human] ability to isolate and identify, then to relate and to order . . . art is the achievement of order.

[Third], Science has been able to provide knowledge of matter, but not of essence . . . the Arts exist to convey that which cannot otherwise be conveyed.

The Fourth mark of Art’s meaning I find in the simple fact that it is unremittingly an attempt to communicate, to establish contact, to find kinship across even centuries and oceans . . . the arts may indeed be not the luxury of the few but the last best hope of humanity – to inhabit with joy this planet (Blocker, 359-360).*

* – The Robert Shaw Reader. Robert Blocker, editor. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.

The next post will consider how Mr. Shaw answers his question, And where does Religion meet the Arts? (Blocker, 361)

Until then . . .

This is the second in a series of posts titled The Conservative Arts taken from an address by Robert Shaw at Harvard University in 1981. If you have not read the previous post I hope you will take the time to do so prior to continuing with this post.

Shaw asks a series of questions: What are the meanings of art? What is it trying to tell us of [humanity]? What is [humanity] trying to tell us of [humanity itself]? . . . What may be the function or influence of art in a world gone schizophrenic, paranoid, masochistic? What does art show itself to be? Why is it important? How can it help us? (Blocker, 357-359)

In the next post we will consider the four answers that Mr. Shaw offers to these questions. In the meantime I would suggest that each of you answer these questions for yourself.

Shaw then follows this discussion with the question: And where does Religion meet the Arts? He then continues: Its very own task forces would prescribe that the gospel crusade with anything less than a choir of 4,000 “Just-as-I-yammers” is not merely underserving of prime time, but has only one foot in the stadium. Organized religion has learned well the lesson that from a T.V. studio or on the road a lot more apples are merchandised by serpents than by penitents (Blocker, 361).

Shaw then poses the question: Are the arts, then, simply tools of communication available to thief and fraud no less than saint? (Blocker, 362)

To be continued in the next post. I hope that you will join the conversation by leaving a comment on this blog website – http://humanbeingsanon.com.

Many of you are already aware that one of my primary mentors – both in arts and in life (after all the two cannot be separated) – has been Robert Shaw (1916-1999). The following words, by Robert Blocker, open the Preface that opens the magnificent volume from which at least this post and likely several more to follow are from:

Most people who knew Robert Shaw first met him through his music. Some were acquainted with him only in this way, while others had the experience of knowing him as a friend, or conductor, or cultural leader, or educator, or raconteur – or more than one, or even all of those roles he embodied. As a musician, however, he belonged to the world. His musical signature was – and still is – an extraordinary sound that touches one’s deepest emotions . . . this is Robert Shaw’s book. Each word is his – wisdom, wit, and immediacy from a treasury of writings and musings. It is a volume that reflects the unique perspective he brought to the podium (Blocker, vii).

The Robert Shaw Reader. Robert Blocker, editor. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.

For me he was also a theological mentor – establishing a personal basis for theology that has steadily grown from a strong foundation rooted in intelligence, passion, and love.

I will never forget the time I saw him and said, “Good morning Mr. Shaw.” He responded, “Tom, my name is Robert” to which I responded, “Yes sir, Mr. Shaw!” My respect for him did not allow me to address him by his first name even though I knew and understood that he was genuine when he reminded me that his name was Robert.

I will close this post with a quotation from the early part of Mr. Shaw’s address entitled The Conservative Arts which was delivered on November 9, 1981 at Memorial Church, Harvard University:

The argument, then, behind the title is that the arts, and probably in direct ratio as to how liberal and creative they are, are the preservers and the purveyors of those values which define humanity (and for some divine Divinity) and finally, in fact, may prove to be the only workable Program of Conservation for the human race on this planet (Blocker, 357).

I promise that you will not want to miss the extraordinary words offered by this giant of humanity that will provide the central focus for coming posts.

And, as usual, I hope that you will be willing to join the conversation by leaving your comments at http://humanbeingsanon.com. It is not possible to have a discussion community unless people are willing to join in the discussion.

Grace and peace!

The theme of our worship yesterday at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas was “Communion of Saints” – the next to last service in a series that started in Lent considering The Apostle’s Creed from the point of view of the modern mind. The series will conclude next Sunday with a focus on “Life Everlasting.”

Yesterday’s post utilized the Centering Time from the service by Ilene Dunn. This post today is borrowed from Jim Rigby’s blog (http://www.jimrigby.org ) – a wonderful blog with frequent postings on a wide variety of subjects), which Jim also utilized in his sermon helping us all understand that the “saints” are not just a group of spiritual all-stars. In reads as follows:

Some time ago, in an attempt to discredit one of the Zapatista leaders in southern Mexico, Sub-comandante Marcos, government officials there tried to put forth the idea that Marcos was gay. In a region where machismo still runs strong, it was hoped this would tarnish the leader’s credibility.

He responded by writing a poem:

“Yes, Marcos is gay. Marcos is gay in San Francisco Black in South Africa an Asian in Europe, a Chicano in San Ysidro, an anarchist in Spain, a Palestinian in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal, a Jew in Germany, a Gypsy in Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist in Bosnia, a single woman on the Metro at 10pm a peasant without land, a gang member in the slums, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains.

Marcos is all the exploited, marginalised, oppressed minorities resisting and saying ‘Enough’. He is every minority who is now beginning to speak and every majority that must shut up and listen. He is every untolerated group searching for a way to speak. Everything that makes power and the good consciences of those in power uncomfortable — this is Marcos.”

[From Social Justice E-Zine #27.]
Greenleft.org

I conclude today with some of the lyrics from the final stanza of the hymn text that closed our worship:

They lived not only in ages past, there are hundreds of thousands still. The world is filled with living saints who choose to do God’s will. You can meet them in school, on the road, or at sea, in a church, in a train, in a shop, or at tea: for the saints are folk like you and like me . . .

Let us all commit to strive to always do God’s will! Amen and Amen!

Part of our Sunday worship at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas is a Centering Time. These are prepared – and usually presented by Ilene Dunn. They are always wonderful but sometimes they are even better than wonderful – such was the case today. With gratitude to Ilene Dunn – a superb colleague and wonderful friend – with special thanks for these words:

There’s a quiet place that breathes peace, and the peace breathes love, and the love breathes memories heart-cherished forever of people
whose life paths embraced yours,
whose living made yours better
with smiles that warmed away the cold of bitterness,
with soft touches that smoothed away the rawest ragged edges,
with listening into which you could pour the deepest aches and longings
of your heart,
with understanding that soothed still tender wounds,
with courage that inspired you to new hope and new daring,
with wisdom that guided you through wilderness, toward new horizons,
with love that whispered, “I’m here with you.”

Lovely memories of people
      whose life paths entwined with yours,
      whose living made yours brighter
           with smiles that beamed the light of sun and moon and shining stars,
           with laughter that led your heart to dance,
           with an exuberant life-melody that lifted your heart to sing along,
           with playfulness that re-introduced you to your own light-hearted delight,
           with creativity that re-opened the way of your own art.

Come now into sacred space, where beautiful memories linger, living Love’s circle with you always . . . be centered within the encircling communion of ordinary people, who had their own faults and foibles, but whose love and willingness to bless you named them “saints” in your life . . . be centered now in the sacred light of Love.

Amen and Amen.

A few years ago I experienced the events in this story during a meeting of the Session at the congregation I was serving at the time. For those of you who are not Presbyterian – the Session is our version of the administrative body of leadership elected by the congregation.

I do not believe that this discussion was listed on the agenda for the evening, but it became the focal point of the meeting. Somehow the group got involved in a discussion of the differences in a business and a church. The expected points of view quickly surfaced – “a church is a caring organization” – “a business is driven by profit” – the usual and predictable division of the discussion. Finally, after some 30 to 40 minutes of discussion (seemed more like 3 or 4 hours) – one of the elders raised his hand for permission to speak. This particular person was known for his wisdom and clarity – and – for waiting to speak later in almost any discussion. Here is the gist of what he said:

It has been my experience that there are two kinds of people in the world – people who care about other people and people who do not. I have come to this realization from many years in both business and church. I have discovered both kinds of people in church, and I have also discovered both kinds of people in business. We should strive to be a church where members are people who care about other people.

My experience has led me to the observation that the words of this very wise and experienced elder were true. Labels – church or business – really did not distinguish between caring and non-caring. My recent experience indicates that this is also true for the labels – liberal or conservative.

Happily – at least for me – my colleague and friend Jim Rigby summed it all up in a very few words earlier today with a post of his own – so – with gratitude I conclude this post with the words of Jim Rigby:

It makes no difference whether someone is called “liberal” or “conservative.” The only question that matters is whether one is willing to share power with the masses and to redistribute wealth fairly.

My prayer is that we may all become people who truly care about other people!

Today I am going to take a step that I know is risky. I am going state some ideas that are very important to me. Some of them I have believed for many many years. Some others, I believe, have grown stronger with the passage of time – some over a matter of years and some in recent months, weeks, and days – and also with my increasing “chronological giftedness” – I am now 67 years old.

God has always been an important part of my life. From time to time in my journey of life I have felt like I understood more than I have at other times in my life – it has not been a continuum – more like a path with many twists and turns – forward, back, and forward yet again. Whether it has been a time in my life when things were going well, or a time when I thought that things likely could not be much worse – in all those times – God has always been an important part of my life.

Many times I have said, “If you understand everything that you believe you need to know about God, then you need a larger, bigger, more comprehensive God.” I am still convinced that this is true. With each passing day it seems more obvious to me that major problems were created by two events in history. The first, the “great schism” of 1054 which for all practical purposes separated the east from the west – a division that has continued to the present time. In my thinking, the primary problem with this event is that the western church allowed most of mystery to become the sole property of the eastern church. The second, the “protestant reformation” of the sixteenth century when the protestant reformers for all practical purposes handed what little mystery was left in the western church over to the Roman Catholic church. This sent the protestants on a road of logic, facts, and knowing – the properties of the mind – without the benefit of mystery as expressed in and through the arts – the properties of the heart.

During recent years some western protestants have begun to “rediscover” some of the eastern religious traditions that seem to have been missing since the “great schism” – in truth, they have not been missing – they have been ignored by the western church which has too much pride to admit that it is not able to know everything. I never cease to be amazed when I hear of a “new” idea that is hundreds and thousands of years old.

A phrase that is part of our Presbyterian heritage refers to “the peace, unity, and purity” of the church. I have heard a number of people argue that the order of these three words do not matter. i disagree. Unity cannot exist peace is present. This does not in any way imply that everyone agrees about everything or anything. Real peace – shalom – is a prerequisite for unity. Finally, I believe that peace and unity are matters of human construction, but that purity is in the sole province of God. Purity is not a list of doctrines and dogmas that are a creation of the human mind, but a product of the Creator.

Finally, at least for this day, the arts can no longer be the luxury of a few. The arts are a vital necessity for all parts of creation. The arts are part of the language of mystery – part of the vocabulary of not knowing – a way for creation to listen to the Creator.

These thoughts will continue in the following posts. It is my hope that some of you will be willing to join the conversation. I can’t imagine that we will agree on everything, but I require that our discussions be conducted in peace – with dignity and with an open mind which might allow us to hear each other which involves more than just listening.

So for now – grace and peace!