Today in our morning meditation group, my friend
Curtis Wood referenced a Richard Rohr quote:
"Without a
mythological context, sacred text, or some symbolic universe to reveal the
greater meaning and significance of our life, we can become trapped in our own
very small story.”
Yesterday my friend Jeanne Finan referenced this Curtis
Almquist quote on Facebook:
“To look at the Bible as some kind of fixed and final Word
of God is a canon firing in the wrong direction. The Bible is part of the
movement of God’s revelation, which is continuous.”
Both these get at the pilgrimage and sanctuary thread I’ve
been following for awhile. We’re losing our religion in the West. Often because
it’s been too much like a canon pointing in the wrong direction—blasting us
with ‘infallibility,’ ‘law,’ ‘certainty,’ and ‘judgment.’
It’s very wise to turn and walk (or run) out of range of destructive
religious practices.
On the other hand, "Without a mythological context,
sacred text, or some symbolic universe to reveal the greater meaning and
significance of our life, we can become trapped in our own very small story.”
It’s the saddest thing, being trapped in a very small story.
I grew up with the Wizard of Oz. My earliest memories of
television are sitting in the living room once a year transported into this magical,
mythical, very BIG story.
When I got to the part where the flying monkeys were
dispatched to capture Dorothy and friends, it scared the crap out of me. Gave
me bad dreams.
But over the years I began to see how trapped the flying
monkeys were themselves in the service of the Wicked Witch. And I clapped my hands when they were set free!
And then I worried about them. How were they going to live
in the wild? Who would feed the freed flying monkeys? Wouldn’t they be cold
without their little red jackets?
Over the years I’ve seen so many people set themselves free from
harmful or sterile religion. A good many of those people seem never to have
found meaning and significance in anything else.
There are big stories and sacred texts out there that feed and engage us in wise and essential ways. Sometimes we need to go looking for our own freed flying
monkeys—make sure they're healthy, happy, suitably challenged and supported in
their new lives.
