Kirkepiscatoid

9 comments:

Anonymous said... January 21, 2009 at 5:16:00 PM CST  

Thank you for posting this. I have not seen it anywhere else.

I have viewed several interviews of Bishop Robinson - e.g. with John Stewart, with Rachel Maddow, etc - interviews in which he seemed to be a pleasant, sweet man, one perhaps "deep in humanity", but not obviously "deep in faith". Perhaps this impression was the result of the interviewers regarding him solely, being interested in him solely, as "the gay bishop".

But now having read his prayer of invocation, I know the reason why he is a bishop. His prayer expresses so well the many hopes and longings and fears of this time that it deserves to be preserved, and remembered, and reprayed - the blessings need to be requested over and over.

Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Thank you also for giving me permission to continue reading your blog. It is a treasure - it encourages me to consider things I do not usually think about.

It goes without saying that I miss the "lake walkers", the "Shadow" crowd. Miss Dr. "M".

Anyway, I thought about pasting one of my favorite Wyeth paintings here - just to remove any doubt about my identity if such doubt exists - but the comment window will not permit it - will not permit even a "live link" - so I can only offer a line of gobblygook, one that can be copied and pasted in the address bar:

http://www.pafa.org/Museum/The-Collection/View-All-Works/Large-image/91/artistId__2787/gclid__CP7UkcXaoJgCFRBbagodAzaamA/colId__6995/

Kirkepiscatoid said... January 21, 2009 at 6:47:00 PM CST  

Ash, I have it all figured out now. Now we will have something to talk about when you zoom by at the lake! As soon as it warms up, your favorite short pudgy psychiatrist and I will be out walking the lake road again.

I talk to Shadow's mom once a week. She is doing well.

Which reminds me, have you become one of the Facebook crowd yet?

Anonymous said... January 23, 2009 at 5:09:00 PM CST  

Good Grief.

I do not know whether to rejoice or cry.

The knowledge that you looked at a painting entitled "Young America" and immediately thought of me has made me as vain as a peacock.

On the other hand, your comment about talking to me out at the lake fills me with dread. I dread the image of me tagging along behind you and A., trying to keep up with your fast gait and with your even faster conversation. I would be at a severe disadvantage. I am uncomfortable talking about "deep" things. And you two are smarter and much more articulate than I am, I having only enough brainpower to know that I would be interrupting a dialogue between old friends, that my presence was turning the current of the conversation into swallower and probably stagnant waters. I would be miserable. And I would have lost something I value highly - our schoolyard banter. You are one of the few people I know with a deep sense of humor - who can laugh at anything -and are the only, the absolutely only person who teases me. I grew up in a close family where we showed our affection by gentle, and sometimes not so gentle, teasing. And it is how males interact with their friends. So I regarded your mockery of me, as perverse as this may seem, as a sign of friendship. Shouting "Hello, pretty woman" at you, and hearing your mocking response was often the highlight of my ride, of my day. I enjoyed it - and appreciated it even more when I learned that you were religious and read the Bible and hence were willingly risking your life in providing me that pleasure (the Biblical story of Elisha and the two she-bears so clearly demonstrating the mortal danger of mocking an old man as he goes about his business on the public highways). And yet you did it. Thank you.

Thank you again for allowing me to continue reading your blog. I will regard this permission as conditional - based on my good behavior and subject to withdrawal without reason or notice.

Thank you also for the news of the shadowy group. Had I not occasionally seen Father W., I would have been assuming that all of you were "raptured" and had left me to face the time of tribulations alone.

Kirkepiscatoid said... January 23, 2009 at 5:17:00 PM CST  

Don't worry, Kirkcyclandrous, I have plenty more mocking comments where the others came from. No danger there.

I like the story of Elisha and the she-bears so much I have a shirt that says, "Be nice to your elders, or be eaten by bears."

As far as the rapture goes, I need a bumper sticker that says, "In case of the rapture, I'm takin' all your stuff!"

Anonymous said... January 26, 2009 at 4:24:00 PM CST  

I was certain that the Elisha story would be high in your esteem; however, what I would never have guessed is that you are the "Sex and the City" type, never in a million years, and yet, here you are, once again, bragging about your wardrobe.

Course, now that I see you as "womanly", I feel freer to contradict you (it being a truism that "women need instruction"). And so, will risk suggesting that you are wrong - that the moral of the story is not "Respect your Elders". I do not think the chronological age of the mockers is significant. Believe the final result would have been the same even if they had been contemporaries of Elisha - had been, let us say, a group of middle-aged folks out walking their dogs. The bears would have still come. Elisha was just that kind of guy. Believe the moral is really: "Fear those who think they are holy. Flee from them. They have no love, no compassion. They think nothing of humans beings." This lesson is more general, is something I can use, and unfortunately has been confirmed by the sorry history of manking.

Kirkepiscatoid said... January 26, 2009 at 4:34:00 PM CST  

You may be on to something there!

Anonymous said... January 27, 2009 at 5:05:00 PM CST  

Sorry. I know you are searching for understanding, not humor. Sometimes I get too pleased with myself, try too hard to be clever. Sorry.

I am trying to understand you. I think you have been blessed with great spiritual sensitivity. You might have the introspection of a monk, and the desire for a contemplative life, but your gift, your talent, is as a mystic. In a rational, materialistic culture, that may be a curse. But I believe the essence of your religion, its strength, is an intense desire for a direct, personal, emotional relationship with God, to feel yourself in his presence, surrounded by his love, to lose yourself in him. Think it likely that you have had that experience and that it overwhelmed you - that it was and still is more real to you, truer, than anything else in your experience, truer than the physical world. I am out on a limb here, I do not really know you, but I have the strong impression that underneath the surface, you are constantly searching for God, your senses constantly alert for signs of his presence and that you are finding him. You tell me this in your blog, that you find traces of him, feel his presence, in the liturgy, in your relationships with your friends, in "odd things" that happen to you, in nature, in the animals that suddenly appear as if they were angels, were messengers sent by god, and, of course, you understand the message they bring. You are a mystic. Now, one cannot just announce "I am a mystic. I feel the presence of God" - just cannot do it today - folks would think you were crazy - and it never was safe - in the past, most were burnt. But that is how I see you, as a reluctant mystic.

Sorry again - sorry for wasting your time. I gather these blog comments are supposed to be short and concise, limited to a presidential "You are doing a hell of job, Kirkie!". Well, you are.

Kirkepiscatoid said... January 27, 2009 at 5:12:00 PM CST  

You are definitely not wasting my time! Reluctant mystic might fit...I am usually a "reluctant" anything. You'll just have to start joining in on the comment threads on different posts, b/c this one is getting whiskers, ha ha.

Anonymous said... January 27, 2009 at 5:27:00 PM CST  

The reason for my writing comments only on ancient postings is the foolish hope that my comments will be overlooked, not discovered, or read by anyone - not even by you. It helps overcome the inhibitions of writing. However,I have recently been told by someone more computer savvy than me that this is a vain hope.

By the way, there is an easy solution to the problem of friends who eventually make "fashion suggestions". Think outside the box. Limited your dating to nudists. This might mean no more concerts and movies, and limited the dinner dates to a quick stop at a take-out window, but you would know he was being honest with you, that he had nothing to hide, and that he saw you, and liked you, just as you are.

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