Today was the very last day for me to go out with the students on their retreat, which typically goes from 9am to 1:30pm. I have always gotten a lot of enjoyment from these: the pre-teens are eager for knowledge and ask interesting questions, like "why can't Jesuits get married? If everyone became a Jesuit, that would mean the human race would go extinct?" I get to talk about my experience of being pulled by God in the direction that gives me life, freedom, and joy; and I teach basic skills for examining one's life - saying 'yes' to movements that lead to life and joy and moving towards it.
At the end of the day, I was telling a group how I would be going back to Canada and might never see them again. They were cutely distressed and were very eager to invite me back to Jamaica to teach them next year. In an amazingly short time we all connected. I'll miss them and they'll miss me. And they each gave me a hug before heading off back to school on their bus. Sometimes, life is really beautiful.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
The Rapture
"Are you worried about the rapture?"
"Only if they learn to open doors"
"That's raptors."
I spent the last week hearing from students asking if judgment day was coming on Saturday. I told them I would be disappointed if the world ended before the anime series "Naruto" reached its conclusion.
They constantly discuss this on the Jamaican news like it's news. Droves of people are panicking and getting baptized with the charismatics... who cough politely and remark that even more merit comes from making donations. It's taking advantage of people's fear and its kinda sad.
In seriousness, I let the students know that scripture is very clear, "we know neither the minute nor the hour". So everytime some jerk comes on TV asking for your money and giving you dates, you know at least it won't be then.
Oh well, it would be pretty hilarious if the rapture did happen on Saturday... then I'd look a right fool :>
"Only if they learn to open doors"
"That's raptors."
I spent the last week hearing from students asking if judgment day was coming on Saturday. I told them I would be disappointed if the world ended before the anime series "Naruto" reached its conclusion.
They constantly discuss this on the Jamaican news like it's news. Droves of people are panicking and getting baptized with the charismatics... who cough politely and remark that even more merit comes from making donations. It's taking advantage of people's fear and its kinda sad.
In seriousness, I let the students know that scripture is very clear, "we know neither the minute nor the hour". So everytime some jerk comes on TV asking for your money and giving you dates, you know at least it won't be then.
Oh well, it would be pretty hilarious if the rapture did happen on Saturday... then I'd look a right fool :>
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Zebra enlightenment
Friends. Sorry for not posting in awhile. Honestly, there has not been much going on. I am happy and blessed to be out here in Jamaica: although with summer coming there's an incredible temptation to sleep in the afternoons.
I'm teaching a class on World Religions and dialogue with Christianity. We had a lot of fun studying Buddhist poetry. After we identified some of the main themes and motifs, I had the students take a look at a few sample poems. They love paradoxes.
The next assignment was for them to compose their own poem with the same Buddhist themes and style. I know not everyone is a poet, so I didn't mark based on quality. Rather, it was about whether they could show me they knew what the themes meant.
There was a terrific response. They were so proud of their creative work: and very creative most of the poems were. They all wanted me to read theirs and see what they'd done. It was really nice as a teacher to get that kind of reaction.
My favourite was as follows:
"The many paths to enlightenment
Are like zebras
All different
Yet all the same"
The student made a black and white stripey border and did the poem in calligraphy. I am reluctant to give it back: it would be fun to keep.
Things are winding down as I look forward to returning to Canada on the 31st of this month. I'm gonna miss this place.
I hope, wherever you are, that you are well :>
I'm teaching a class on World Religions and dialogue with Christianity. We had a lot of fun studying Buddhist poetry. After we identified some of the main themes and motifs, I had the students take a look at a few sample poems. They love paradoxes.
The next assignment was for them to compose their own poem with the same Buddhist themes and style. I know not everyone is a poet, so I didn't mark based on quality. Rather, it was about whether they could show me they knew what the themes meant.
There was a terrific response. They were so proud of their creative work: and very creative most of the poems were. They all wanted me to read theirs and see what they'd done. It was really nice as a teacher to get that kind of reaction.
My favourite was as follows:
"The many paths to enlightenment
Are like zebras
All different
Yet all the same"
The student made a black and white stripey border and did the poem in calligraphy. I am reluctant to give it back: it would be fun to keep.
Things are winding down as I look forward to returning to Canada on the 31st of this month. I'm gonna miss this place.
I hope, wherever you are, that you are well :>
Friday, May 6, 2011
Tremor
This morning, at about 4:20 am, I had a dream. In this dream I was interrupted because giant hands took the room I was in and shook it like a doll-house. I woke up to hear my door rattling and in a panicked moment thought someone was trying to break into my room. Which was silly, because the door is not locked. But really my whole bed rumbled like a big semi was going by ten feet away.
In fact, it was an earth-tremor, quite common in Jamaica. Nothing fell off the shelves except my water bottle which I knocked over myself while reaching for my glasses :> However, all the car-alarms in the city activated, all the dogs began barking, and after they had all settled down, all the birds were chattering to eachother.
It was, for someone from the bedrock of the Canadian shield, quite interesting!
In fact, it was an earth-tremor, quite common in Jamaica. Nothing fell off the shelves except my water bottle which I knocked over myself while reaching for my glasses :> However, all the car-alarms in the city activated, all the dogs began barking, and after they had all settled down, all the birds were chattering to eachother.
It was, for someone from the bedrock of the Canadian shield, quite interesting!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Sprite
The Sprite around here is labeled "Proudly Produced in Jamaica". They have a bottling plant here. And it does not say so on the ingredients - but I will testify in any court you like that it has the faintest hint of ginger about it. Not bad at all.
Also, mixing a small quantity of sprite into orange juice and then mixing it with a large quantity of vanilla ice cream is absolutely delicious! Try it at home, kids!
Also, mixing a small quantity of sprite into orange juice and then mixing it with a large quantity of vanilla ice cream is absolutely delicious! Try it at home, kids!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Existentialism?
Christians and existentialism always seem to be in opposition. For me, however, existentialism and its perspective has deepened and strengthened my own Christian perspective.
Let's say existentialism is the idea that nothing has an intrinsic meaning and that meaning is created by human beings.
At first blush, this seems to contradict Christianity. Everything has an intrinsic meaning: it was created by God and it is good. The world contains the notions of good and evil and God enforces them. Striving to understand the world is a search for the mysterious meaning God placed in the world.
Let's go back to existentialism. A table is just a collection of molecules and calling it a 'shape' or 'good' are human perspectives originating in human beings.
Is God really committed to the idea that a table must be a table adn could not be anything else? God gives us the freedom to assign meaning to the table with which we are confronted. We can call it good, we could even call it sacred.
When we make a table and put it in a church and say Mass around it, does the table become sacred? Was it sacred all along or did God make it sacred once we put it in the church?
A more sensible approach for a Christian might be to say that everything in nature is sacred and that God gave us the freedom to acknowledge this aspect of His reality or not in our own way.
If you look at the life of Christ, He's often assigning new meaning to things, or playing on old meaning, or asking others what a thing might mean. Would it be accurate to say that a cross has always, objectively in its nature, been a symbol of redemption? Or would it be better to say that as both Human and Divine, Christ imbued the cross with this meaning through his actions.
And this view ends up looking oddly similar to many forms of existentialism. The world is a sort of blank slate which we imbue with meaning through our choices, actions, and perspective. Rather than decry this as a human limitation, Christ elevates this capacity to one of the highest human goods.
We are still left with the idea that Christ came on earth to explain what was good and what was bad; and that the idea of good and bad is not arbitrary. However, the primal goods God displays are intersting
Creation, making something is good if the thing made is good
Love, a total and trusting giving of self to the other without thought of return is a good
These things which are goods look like they heavily involve the human capacity to create meaning in order to interact with things.
At the end of the day, we know humans encounter the world and incorporate those experiences into a story which for them has some meaning. This is not a bad thing for Christians, who can argue that this way of relating was given to us by God for the purpose of freely relating to God and His creation.
The existentialist humanist might argue that this is an act of faith, unsupported by evidence, and that we are only certain that it is our human experience. We cannot say from whence it comes.
But this doesn't stop most existentialist humanists from making a leap of faith: they assert without proof that the capacity to create meaning emerges from our natural biological properties, likely as the result of evolution.
I have no problem with this explanation. But it is an act of faith nonetheless to support it. We know with philosophical certainly only that we make meaning, not from whence the capacity to do so comes.
I would humbly submit that if there is a God then natural processes have given rise to human beings with the capacity to make meaning in order that we might know, interact with, and love God and one another. They have an intended function. There is scope and depth and awesomeness of reality and in the human potential to constantly explore and divine new and surprising meanings from a seemingly limitless cosmos
Let's say existentialism is the idea that nothing has an intrinsic meaning and that meaning is created by human beings.
At first blush, this seems to contradict Christianity. Everything has an intrinsic meaning: it was created by God and it is good. The world contains the notions of good and evil and God enforces them. Striving to understand the world is a search for the mysterious meaning God placed in the world.
Let's go back to existentialism. A table is just a collection of molecules and calling it a 'shape' or 'good' are human perspectives originating in human beings.
Is God really committed to the idea that a table must be a table adn could not be anything else? God gives us the freedom to assign meaning to the table with which we are confronted. We can call it good, we could even call it sacred.
When we make a table and put it in a church and say Mass around it, does the table become sacred? Was it sacred all along or did God make it sacred once we put it in the church?
A more sensible approach for a Christian might be to say that everything in nature is sacred and that God gave us the freedom to acknowledge this aspect of His reality or not in our own way.
If you look at the life of Christ, He's often assigning new meaning to things, or playing on old meaning, or asking others what a thing might mean. Would it be accurate to say that a cross has always, objectively in its nature, been a symbol of redemption? Or would it be better to say that as both Human and Divine, Christ imbued the cross with this meaning through his actions.
And this view ends up looking oddly similar to many forms of existentialism. The world is a sort of blank slate which we imbue with meaning through our choices, actions, and perspective. Rather than decry this as a human limitation, Christ elevates this capacity to one of the highest human goods.
We are still left with the idea that Christ came on earth to explain what was good and what was bad; and that the idea of good and bad is not arbitrary. However, the primal goods God displays are intersting
Creation, making something is good if the thing made is good
Love, a total and trusting giving of self to the other without thought of return is a good
These things which are goods look like they heavily involve the human capacity to create meaning in order to interact with things.
At the end of the day, we know humans encounter the world and incorporate those experiences into a story which for them has some meaning. This is not a bad thing for Christians, who can argue that this way of relating was given to us by God for the purpose of freely relating to God and His creation.
The existentialist humanist might argue that this is an act of faith, unsupported by evidence, and that we are only certain that it is our human experience. We cannot say from whence it comes.
But this doesn't stop most existentialist humanists from making a leap of faith: they assert without proof that the capacity to create meaning emerges from our natural biological properties, likely as the result of evolution.
I have no problem with this explanation. But it is an act of faith nonetheless to support it. We know with philosophical certainly only that we make meaning, not from whence the capacity to do so comes.
I would humbly submit that if there is a God then natural processes have given rise to human beings with the capacity to make meaning in order that we might know, interact with, and love God and one another. They have an intended function. There is scope and depth and awesomeness of reality and in the human potential to constantly explore and divine new and surprising meanings from a seemingly limitless cosmos
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