Category Archives: Words

Mirror pandiculation

14 Wednesday Jan 2015

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Some experts were talking on the radio about “mirror pandiculation.” I see a lot of that. In fact most public speakers in warm spaces in the middle of winter do, and at other times of year also. I had a lot of questions to ask, but the experts agreed that not much is known about why people do it, just that they do. Other creatures also pandiculate, but mirror pandiculation seems to be limited to higher primates, and is often observed in people, while other primates may just do it coincidentally. Could this be the meaning of the “image of God,” that theological trait that no one seems to be able to define, except that human beings have it, and other animals don’t?

Mirror pandiculation occurs when you yawn, and then I feel the need to yawn also, although I had not felt that need until your yawn triggered mine. It’s hard to stifle a yawn, so usually we just go ahead and do it. Even in church. When it comes to spontaneity in church, apart from occasional applause and even rarer “Amens,” yawns are the single most frequent spontaneous behavior.

Does God yawn? If our sympathetic yawning reaction to one another is in the image of God, then we must believe that God does yawn, at least in some figurative, transcendent way. When human beings could not care less about some turn of events, and we practice apathy, then perhaps it is a signal to God that patience is in order and this particular matter must wait, at least until someone else is willing to pay attention. On the other hand, when we take up some matter with urgency and intensity, we draw from God’s power and surely do try God’s patience and “wear God out” in another way. Either way, a divine yawn might be in order, and if we are sensitive to fluctuations in God’s power, our yawns may again be triggered in response, leading to the usual chain reaction.

I wish that there were other behaviors that called for such a ready mirrored response. Sympathy and empathy remain in short enough supply that we need to call attention to the need for them to extend farther than they do.  They occur naturally in people but not in sufficient quantities. We never seem to run out of yawns, and as noted before, they are hard to stifle, unlike human caring for people who are outside a defined realm of family or group. But let anyone yawn, anyone from any group, and you feel the need to respond.

So I appreciate the need for mirror pandiculation, and I want to encourage it (as if I didn’t do that enough already). Let it be a symbol, when it occurs, of all the other things that could lead to improvements if we just did them with the same responsiveness to one another.

The End to the War on Christmas

12 Friday Dec 2014

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A long time ago there was a “War on Christmas.”  I am thankful that the war ended and people arrived at a compromise. People used to complain about how the Christmas season began in the stores in September, and everyone had capitulated to the commercialization of Christmas and lost the spirit of Christmas.  Then the Great Compromise was reached and the last five weeks of the year were devoted entirely to Thanksgiving. People agreed that, whether one celebrated Christmas, Winter Solstice, Hanukkah,  Kwanzaa, The Holiday Season, New Year’s, or Epiphany, whether one gave gifts or enjoyed special food or fasted from both, we all had reasons to be thankful, and that one day a year for Thanksgiving was much too little. So the Season of Thanksgiving was born. What better way to end one year and begin another than to give thanks?

To whom? Most people give thanks to God, but the spill-over into giving thanks to one another and the ability to be gracious even to those we disagree with, when we are truly grateful, are reasons enough to be tolerant of those who can’t agree about how to give thanks to God.

Some people continued to give thanks for the birth of Jesus as part of the general thanksgiving, and sang carols in the same ways and words they always had sung. A minority moved Christmas into springtime, and connected it with Easter, since the story of Jesus’ birth belonged in the springtime, when the shepherds were actually in the fields taking care of their sheep, and Easter and Christmas did logically belong together, they said, with “new birth” and incarnation themes. That meant a lot of familiar carols were sung to new words. “In the Bleak Midwinter” became “In the Blessed Springtime” and  “Greensleeves” came to be called “Greengrasses,” which made more sense anyway, since no one knew what green sleeves was about. Other people gave thanks with the Santa Claus custom and continued the gift-giving traditions that came with it. Lots of things gradually changed.

“Seasons Greetings” was always too generic, while “Merry Christmas” was too specific, so “Be Grateful” came to dominate. Partly a happy wish and partly a serious recommendation, there was no room for a Grinch to be a grouch anymore. People agreed that everyone surely had something to be grateful for, and, if they didn’t, there was even more reason to spread good cheer by sharing in the spirit of Thanksgiving by giving to those who had little.

“The Twelve Days of Christmas” became the “The Six weeks of Thanksgiving,” and lots more verse were added to the song, since there were now forty-two days for “my true love’s” gifts. The single day of feasting that recalled the Pilgrims at Plymouth gave way for some folks to continuous feasting during the six weeks so that all of those end-of-the-year family eating traditions could take their rightful place as part of Thanksgiving. Of course that didn’t really change from the way the end of the year had been observed for those folks anyway.

Wars need to come to an end, and the spirit of Christmas predominated finally over those who were resentful and jealous of the many customs that encroached upon Christmas. They understood that resentment and jealousy had no part in Christmas, and so they led the way toward a truce that captured the best of all the competing factions. And nowadays when we sing “Silent night, holy night,” it really is calm and peaceful. Thank God! Be Grateful!

How do we say “thank you?”

28 Friday Nov 2014

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Todah, wado, efxaristo, danke, gracias, thank you, xie xie, salamat, grazie, mahalo, domo arigato, obrigado, spasiba, asante, cam on, medasi, gahm-sah-hahm-ni-da, dhanyavad…all ways to say the same thing among many more peoples and languages.

Usually these words call for an appropriate response. “You’re welcome” used to be the polite response in English. These days we hear an echoing “thank you” often, as if the “first giver” knows that the gift is being passed along in an endless series, popularized in the phrase “pay it forward,” in contrast to “pay it back.” The giver is not only glad to give; he or she finds reward in moving gifts along an endless sequence of giving.

Mrs. Veatch made that point to me in 1973, when she called our home in Iroquois, Illinois, from her home in Thawville and asked if she could come to visit. She had been my high school Latin teacher, but she instilled much more than Latin in all of her students. Latin was her base for sharing the love of learning and people. Her home was a library that became the start of a library for the village of Thawville and a resource for all of the area. She knew that my wife had just given birth to our second child, and with part-time work and graduate school almost finished we didn’t have much. She came bearing gifts.

“Don’t even think about repaying me,” she said. “I’ve already had my reward from seeing your accomplishments as my student. Just pass it on.” That was her consistent attitude, even as she faced the death of three sons in those years, and even as she faced her own illness and death. I have remembered her example as our opportunities to share with others became greater as the years have passed.

“Bitte” is a frequent response in German, “I beg” in English, which seems an odd idiom until we realize that the obligation to give is felt acutely in one who knows how much is owed to the others who have made giving possible.

evidence of the multiverse

17 Monday Nov 2014

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Many memorable and, I hope, equally forgettable statements filled the airwaves this past election season (2014). Among them this comment by Joni Ernst stands out, “We have lost a reliance on not only our own families, but so much of what our churches and private organizations used to do. They used to have wonderful food pantries. They used to provide clothing for those that really needed it, but we have gotten away from that.”

In my study of string theory, I have pondered what kind of evidence would provide verification that we exist, not in a universe, as traditional physics has assumed, but in a multiverse in which an infinite number of universes coexist, as string theory posits. The evidence requires some kind of incursion of an anomalous alternative reality into the regularly observable reality of this universe. Soon-to-be-Senator Ernst’s statement provides that kind of incursive evidence, although it may fit better into a theoretical construct known as shoestring theory.

Truth to be told, I have spent more time studying history, and church history particularly, than I have spent on theoretical physics. We now live in an era in which more food and more clothing comes from voluntary and nonprofit organizations than ever before in history. This, today, is the era of wonderful food pantries provided by churches and private organizations, as well as meal services, overnight lodging and shelters, clothing distributions, funding for transportation, medical care, education, rental assistance, and utility payments. Altogether, this total of private assistance to the indigent, the working poor, the elderly and disabled amounts to a fraction of what our own and other governments provide for their citizens, but it still often means survival for many people. If the food pantries do not look wonderful, it is because their shelves empty so quickly.

During seven decades of life, I have seen, assisted, and started several programs of such assistance for people who needed them. I have examined the evidence of such programs in many eras of history from the earliest church through the Great Depression. No era has seen more concerted and voluntary action to provide benefits to others than our own era.

At the same time, the accumulation of wealth has also reached a pinnacle. The odd thing in this universe is that extremes can coexist without mutual recognition. Only when people do live in a different world can they assert that we once had wonderful food pantries and clothing depots and we have gotten away from that, therefore, the government must do less, and voluntary organizations and churches must step up in doing more, like they used to do. There never was a time in which they used to do more. There never was a time in which help for the poor—working or not able to work or not ready to work—was more needed than now, nor more need for governments to step up and assist their populations to secure their livelihoods. Wealth is present, but the wealth and the power that controls it are not distributed fairly. The era of fair and equitable distribution lies ahead of us, not behind us.

the coconut cuckoo

11 Tuesday Nov 2014

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A dear friend went to an art league benefit, which is a customary event for her. She is an aficionado of the arts, unlike me, a hopeless dilettante. There she was, surrounded by other sponsors and patrons, with an array of specially prepared foods, friendly conversations, and even some donated artworks that would be distributed among the attendees as rewards for being generous.

One work of “art” caught her attention—a coconut dressed in colorful feathers and painted to resemble some exotic bird, suspended from the ceiling. She examined it, and keeping her thoughts to herself, wondered what in the world she would do with something like that? At the same moment she heard her name being called as the recipient of a prize, the prize being the very same bird that she was looking at. The next thought followed in due course—who in the world could she give it to?

You have probably heard it said, as I have, be careful what you wish for, or what you pray for, because you might get it. Vice versa, it appears it can be said just as appropriately, be careful what you do not want, or do not pray for, because that is what you just might get.

Ho’oponopono

31 Friday Oct 2014

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Ho’oponopono is a Hawaiian phrase for “making things right.” While I was serving on the Justice and Witness Board , Lynette and Richard Paglinawan led Ho’oponopono training at one of our meetings. As native Hawaiians they grew up with this practice of family peace-making and reconciliation, and they teach it to social workers and business people as well as families and other interested people from their positions on the faculty of the University of Hawaii.  

From the perspective of living together on a chain of small islands in the middle of a great ocean, the need for Ho’oponopono is obvious. Wood and fiber came from the mountains. Fish and fruit came from the sea and the shorelands. People needed to get along well enough to trade with one another within a small world. They needed to be fair to one another so that they could continue to trade products and skills and survive. They needed to listen to each other and resolve conflicts quickly so that they might thrive. For many generations the people of Hawaii lived together on those islands and their practices of peace-making showed their determination to survive and thrive.  

Even though conflicts did still grow to the point of alienation and separation, how far away could anyone go to stay apart? It was best to work things out so that people could continue to live together respectfully, even when that involved compromises and commitments to “never speak about that problem again” once people had reached a mutually agreeable resolution.  

Their methods include practices I have studied in other forms of family and group therapy, and rituals akin to baptism and communion, to cleanse people’s spirits from those mean attitudes that ruin relationships and to celebrate their roots and achievements in unity. A senior member of the family or a respected member of the community becomes the Kahuna, who serves in the position of a mature and unemotional fact-finder and the center of communication, leading the group through stating problems, one person at a time, times for quiet and reflection, apologies and expressions of forgiveness, releasing anger and resentment, and setting future tasks to accomplish before everything becomes right again.  

Hearing how this process has developed and worked for many generations, and still serves in the modern world of Hawaii, one does not have to think hard to realize that the whole world we live in is becoming the island, with people living in interdependence that require mutual efforts to resolve our differences. Where can we go to separate ourselves from the need to work together and to reconcile differences? Another planet? In the vast ocean of the cosmos this earth is our island as far as the eye can see.

Trick or Treat

22 Wednesday Oct 2014

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Soon witches, goblins, vampires, werewolves, and other personifications of darkness will be knocking on our doors. Jack-o-lanterns, skeletons, and spider web decorations have been visible for weeks, preparing us for the night. Stock-piles of candy have been secreted away, with some occasional invasions from hungry critters, like mice or…me?

Yes, it’s Halloween, occupying more and more attention as the years go by, but possibly, just possibly, a vestige of our remote pagan past, grabbing some familiar corner of our primitive consciousness. Or maybe just plain fun. Angels, fairies, and assorted friendly creatures show up at this time, too.

Perhaps this exuberant show and canvass for goodies does represent our growing distance from purity of heart and piety. If inclined to say so, we may conveniently need to forget the “tricks” that attended the event decades ago—outhouse tippings, cars on roofs, damage to assorted properties. Though they still occur, those offenses are much less celebrated than years ago.

Still the forces of darkness, attending this season of increasing darkness, have plenty of real-life surrogates. A variety of terrorists, plagues, and catastrophes are making their marks in our increasingly populated, crowded, but shrinking human world. Why not have a little fun while we’re at it? Give some things away. Enjoy our children. Love our neighbors. Dress colorfully and silly. Let those evil forces know that at the end of the day we will laugh more than we will cry, and be grateful more than greedy.