I have begun a new blog which will be a bit of an experiment for me. One of my dreams that I want to fulfill is to write fiction. So this blog will be completely fictional including the author of the pieces, a character by the name of Avery Van Dien. There will be short stories and hopefully a continuing storyline or two that will be developed as well as the story of Avery Van Dien as well. It is my intention that this blog will be a form of spiritual practice for me. And we will see where it takes me. You may see this blog if interested at averyvandien.wordpress.com
I will continue to post here my 6-9 times a month on various issues affecting Unitarian Universalism. Blessings,
This quote is from Arthur C. Clark’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Last night as I walked back to my room, I looked up at the night sky and the stars I saw were amazing. I am at the Mountain Retreat andLearning Center in Highlands, NC for a SouthEast Unitarian Universalist Minister’s Association meeting.
Where I live in Alabama, the light pollution is so great that I do not have the vista of the heavens that I remember as a child in rural New York State.
As a child, I could see very distinctively the milky way wave across the night sky but even from The Mountain where light pollution is less, the milky way was not as bright as I remember. There is a sense of wonder at all of the universe that has always captured the human spirit since the dawn of human history. That sense of wonder is being diminished by the light pollution and the dullness of our senses to the natural world around us.
We are made up of the dust of stars. Every part of our being has its origins in the stars above us. It is a testament to the evolving wonder of life. The expanse of it does not diminish the significance of life on this planet… on the contrary it calls forth the awe and majesty of life and creation expressing itself. It is wonderous!
In preparing for the upcoming sermon, I have found my thoughts swinging towards notions of magical thinking. Is Magical Thinking something that we can avoid or is it something that is hardwired into our species?
I have come to believe that it is something that is hardwired into our species. In our development, magical thinking may have served as a means to survival. The ancient Druids who burned yule logs to summon the return of the sun god during the winter solstice is an example of magical thinking as a tool for survival. Having hope that warmer days are coming soon is a strong tool towards survival. The notion that they had some part of the sun’s returning gave them a sense of control over their lives. Having a sense of control seems to be important to our basic ability to thrive as a species. So while we can reduce magical thinkings prevalence in our lives, we are not going to be able to eliminate it entirely.
I found two definitions online that I thought were good definitions with one being better than the other.
The first definition was one posited by Tim Boucher with his nod to Psychologist James Alcock, Magical thinking is “the interpreting of two closely occurring events as though one caused the other.” It is as Mr. Boucher points out the same definition we use for Cause and Effect. The difference seems to be that the latter is provable through scientific method, the former is not.
The second definition that I found was also located in a blog by a Buddhist: The conviction of the individual that his or her thoughts, words, and actions, may in some manner cause or prevent outcomes in a way that defies the normal laws of cause and effect.
He was stating that in the 1980’s he was with the Nichiren Shoshu and was taught to chant of Nam-myo-renge-kyo. He was taught that chanting this phrase would not only bring him to enlightenment but it would also change his Karma in this lifetime so that he could receive material things. He came to see in time that there were other benefits to this chanting and that they were the ultimate goal of the chanting not the receiving of material gains.
Many religions of all configurations have some form of magical thinking embedded into their make up. And some folk have explanations as to why their faith construct is not magical thinking but everyone else’s is. Todd Strandberg has a whole page devoted to what is and isn’t magical thinking and then states The Bible is the final authority and if it is in the Bible then it is trustworthy and true. Moses raising the staff to part the Red Sea, not magical thinking nor coincidental hurricane force winds blowing across a shallow part of the sea to create momentary dry land. Jesus commanding the demons to come out of a person. Not magical thinking. These he says are matters of faith.
Matters of faith are not magical thinking? If it is magical thinking for the voodoo priestess to cast out demons, why wouldn’t the same action by the pentecostal minister not be magical thinking? Add that to the mysteries of faith, I suppose.
I am presenting a sermon on Sunday based on the book by Jinny Ditzler entitled, “Your Best Year Yet!” In it she discusses changing our dominant paradigm of thought about ourselves.
I write in the sermon regarding changing ones paradigm and magical thinking, “So the person who crosses their fingers to protect them from an unwanted outcome is practicing magical thinking.A person who repeats a chant over and over again because that would result in their receiving a Porsche is practicing magical thinking.
A person who states they are undeserving of money because that is their lot in life is also practicing magical thinking. Their thought that having money will never be their lot in life defies the normal laws of cause and effect. What is not magical thinking is someone who states “Money is abundant and flows spontaneously in my life” andthen begins to look for opportunities, those next logical steps that would allow money to flow towards them. I am not talking about her re-arranging the furniture according to energy flow patterns or burning sage that will supposedly attract money. Those actions are magical thinking actions. I am talking about actions that he or she takes as those next logical steps that do not defy the normal laws of cause and effect. Maybe she begins sending out resumes. Maybe she takes some courses to improve her marketable skills. Maybe she remembers that she has a talent that she could turn into a profitable business and begins taking steps towards that endeavor. Each of these steps could result in money being more abundant.
A person who truly believes that he is not worth earning more money will not be a person who will be looking for new opportunities to earn more money. He will have shut those windows and doors of opportunities to himself long before they could even appear on his radar.
Ms. Ditzler is challenging us to shift how we perceive our world and our opportunities. Shifting the dominant paradigm in what we believe to be true about ourselves is an important key to being able to reach for accomplishments that until now were outside our reach. The fact is what we believe about ourselves is only a perception that has been rehearsed over and over again by those around us and eventually by ourselves so many times that we feel there is no other truth about who we are.
The famous story of Pygmalion written by George Bernard Shaw based on the Greek Myth of the same name tells the tale of an English Gentlemen who seeks to transform a poor woman of the streets into a sophisticated lady of means. You might recognize the story as My Fair Lady, the musical and movie with Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. It is the story of shifting the paradigm of personal belief.
When we meet Eliza Doolittle, she is destined to remain the class and education level she was born into. She has accepted her lot and believes she not deserve any better fare. Professor Higgins takes on a bet that he can pass her off as a learned lady of stature and class. The transformation does not happen until, Eliza herself begins to see herself as this lady.
Was it magical thinking? No. It was changing the story one tells themselves and then taking actions inspired by the new story, the new paradigm. Had Eliza been born into a family of means, this story would already have been told to her since childhood; that paradigm would already have been in place. Her actions chosen by herself and her family would have matched that paradigm.”
Affirmations, another popular tool used by many, would be magical thinking if all the person ever did was repeat the affirmation and thougth by merely stating the affirmation that his life was going to change direction or receive what he wanted. If the person actually believed the words being said and began making decisions and actions that were in conjunction with those affirmations, then it no longer is magical thinking. The affirmations are then only a tool towards shifting the paradigm of belief the person was originally living and acting from.
Here is Audrey Hepburn in her own voice not the dubbed version singing “Wouldn’t it be Loverly.” Some dreaming and perhaps some magical thinking too… Blessings,
Up until recently, the only way I had to know if this blog was beneficial in meeting my objective of having a dialog about Unitarian Universalism and its values in the South was through comments made to individual posts and the statistics of how many hits to entries. The top five blog entries on this site to date are:
ICE Raid in Laurel, MS.
Another Wrongful Execution
Liberal vs Conservative Religion
The Theology of Mary Oliver
What is Truth?
Those that received the most comments are:
ICE Raid in Laurel, MS
Liberal v Conservative Religion
Covenantal Faith
Universalism- Along a string of tension
What makes US immigration Laws unjust and HIV Felony Law (tied in 5th place)
This gives me some insight into what people are most interested in. But it is still a bit of a guessing game as to how effective I am in having a dialog. So here is something that may help me that the people at wordpress, who host this blog, have developed. I look forward to reading your comments and the results of this poll. Blessings,
Wordle is a fun program that takes any text, in this case all of my blog entries, and according to word usage, enlarges the key words to comparative sizes. I tried to get a clear image here of my wordle but the code given to me only had thumb size and I was unable to figure out what the language was needed to increase its size for posting a clear image. You may see a larger image here.
I have also placed my sermon “Theology of Torture” into wordle form as well. You may see it here.
Readers may have noticed that I have changed yet again the background theme of this blog. WordPress has a series of pre-programmed theme pages for bloggers. And when I moved to begin serving the Tuscaloosa, AL congregation I thought it was time to change the backgound theme and to slightly change the title of my blog. This seemed to work until I added another page and discovered the title no longer fit on the page. So I found what I thought was a very attractive and classic theme. It was nice. It allowed for the title of the blog to be placed in full across the top of the page. Then I discovered that all of the other pages, including the sermons and the about page, were no where to be found. So I have changed it again. I am not sure I like the colors. But it seems to allow all of the pages to be included, it does not cut off any pictures I have embedded, and the title of the blog is fully displayed. So for now I will use this one until another option comes along that appeals to the more classic look I was wanting. Let me know what you think? And now back to our line of programming… Blessings,
Postscript: A little education goes a long ways… I discovered how I could get the things I wanted back on my blog page so I have once again… hopefully it does not drive everyone crazy… changed back to the design I really like on WordPress. Blessings and thanks for your patience as I go through this shedding of skins thing… I feel so reptilian… LOL
Not sure what this fun meter actually says about me… perhaps I am not angry enough at what is happening in the world. Those who know me know that I have slipped and used some cusses from time to time. If cussin’ is a concern for you, now you know this site is safe for young readers… well at least in the cussin’ department anyway. Blessings,
Wow, this blog site sure has been jumping the past few days. I have had the highest readership in the last few days and I thank you all for that readership. This site will be on hiatus for a while during my move to Tuscaloosa. I have the good fortune to have the help of members of the Jackson congregation and the Tuscaloosa congregation to help me in that move tomorrow morning. I no sooner place my belongings in my beautiful apartment in Alabama and I am off for training on interim ministry in Boston. This means that I will not be back online for at least a week, perhaps two as I need to have internet connection established in my new apartment.
So dear readers, I will be back online in August. Blessings abound,
My time in Jackson has come to a close. My time in Brighton, MI has been over for a year. My internship in San Diego is now two years ago. My time in Chicago at Meadville Lombard is also now gone. Not to mention my co-founding and running the Interfaith AIDS Ministry in Danbury, CT. I thought this song was an appropriate sentiment to times gone by. Regardless of the challenges those days may have brought me, they were all good and filled with blessings of wonderful people and angels who graced my path. May your days always be filled with blessings as well… Here is to the future days that I will soon be looking back on with joy…
