№ 634. Robert Fulghum

Searching for Laugh

Fulghum, a voracious reader, is the first to admit that ''Kindergarten'' is not great literature. Some of it, he freely admits, is the ''worst kind of heart-rending daddy drivel imaginable,'' the literary equivalent of happy-face buttons - cheery conversational revelries on such diverse subjects as hide-and-seek, spider webs, Crayola crayons, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Ty Cobb's batting average. Not without charm, the essays seem to appeal to the same instinct that makes the proprietor of a 24-hour grille in Moab decorate the walls of her restaurant with perky sayings like ''Square meals make round people'' and ''Is there life before coffee?''

Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, whose own book of reflective essays, ''When Bad Things Happen to Good People,'' was also a phenomenal best seller, believes that Fulghum's popularity can be explained thus: ''In a world of complex ethical decisions, he cuts through the details and says 'at the heart are a few simple rules. You can be a moral person; it's not as complicated as it seems.' ''

FULGHUM'S ESSAYS REAFFIRM THE SANCTITY OF THE ordinary. He does not preach, and rarely mentions God, but his book has a strong spiritual component. He focuses on the transcendental stuff of everyday life - shoe repair men, raking leaves and emptying the sink strainer. Not quite preacher, not quite regional humorist, he is a hybrid folk fabulist - a sort of Norman Vincent Bombeck.

 

The Ohio State University

 

OUTSIDE THE Edmonds Unitarian Church, in Seattle, where Fulghum served as part-time minister from 1966 until 1985, is a stretch of lawn littered with hundreds of dandelions. The congregation dedicated this patch of ground in Fulghum's honor upon his retirement in 1985, at 48. ''I was speechless beyond belief,'' he said one afternoon at the church. ''It said they heard me. I take this ground very seriously.''

More than anything else, it is Robert Fulghum's years as a minister and teacher that give his stories resonance. ''Being human and alive is a pretty lonely deal,'' he said, ''no matter how intimate or lovely your relationships are.''

His perspectives on the commonality of human experience have been gleaned from hundreds of weddings, funerals, hospital rooms and mortuaries. All that birth, death, and renewal makes for prime storytelling fodder. Distributing someone's remains from 2,000 feet over Bellingham Bay, Wash., in a Cessna, Fulghum had the ashes fly back in his face. ''How do you brush off those ashes?'' he asks with mock seriousness. ''Do you go like this?'' (polite dusting gestures) ''Or like this?'' (frantic pawing).

 

Cartoonist Group

 

№ 612. The Serenity Prayer (and Its Variants)

Senility Prayer

A New Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity
to accept the people I cannot change,
which is pretty much everyone,
since I’m clearly not you, God.
At least not the last time I checked.

And while you’re at it, God,
please give me the courage
to change what I need to change about myself,
which is frankly a lot, since, once again,
I’m not you, which means I’m not perfect.
It’s better for me to focus on changing myself
than to worry about changing other people,
who, as you’ll no doubt remember me saying,
I can’t change anyway.

Finally, give me the wisdom to just shut up
whenever I think that I’m clearly smarter
than everyone else in the room,
that no one knows what they’re talking about except me,
or that I alone have all the answers.

Basically, God,
grant me the wisdom
to remember that I’m
not you.

Amen.

№ 512. Grace

 

 FORWARDED MESSAGE: 

One of my earliest contemplative prayers was about Jesus walking on water. I'm Peter and I see Jesus walking on water. I call out to him and he invites me to walk to him. Seeing the rough seas, I jump out of the boat and swim effortfully to Jesus. In between breaths, I could hear Jesus laughing. 

 It took me some time to figure out that prayer. When I did years later, I realized that, in the end, it is often not effort that matters but grace. We are sometimes not called to swim to Jesus by our effort but we are called to walk on water by his grace. 

Seems apt nowadays when seas are rough and times are uncertain. We're being called to walk on water.

№ 419. Caring for the Soul

"All of this is therapy the way Socrates used the word: it keeps your soul healthy and vital, and that is the best way to prevent soul sicknesses like depression and frustration. Every day you have choices. You can do things that wound your soul, like being dominated by the work ethic or compulsively seeking more money and possessions, or you can be around people who give you pleasure and do things that satisfy a desire deep inside you. Make this soul care a way of life, and you may discover what the Greeks called eudaimonia—a good spirit, or, in the deepest sense, happiness."

"When people observe the ways in which the soul is manifesting itself, they are enriched rather than impoverished. They receive back what is theirs, the very thing they have assumed to be so horrible that it should be cut out and tossed away. When you regard the soul with an open mind, you begin to find the messages that lie within the illness, the corrections that can be found in remorse and other uncomfortable feelings, and the necessary changes requested by depression and anxiety."---Thomas Moore

№ 407. Disturbance in the Universe

Disturb us, O Lord

when we are too well-pleased with ourselves
when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little,
because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, O Lord

when with the abundance of things we possess,
we have lost our thirst for the water of life
when, having fallen in love with time,
we have ceased to dream of eternity
and in our efforts to build a new earth,
we have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim.

Stir us, O Lord

№ 360. Ecclesiastes 3

This Sunday, I read once more, a reminder letter. A cousin just died. Last year, it was another cousin. Before that, my aunts. It's been a succession of passing.

Ecclesiastes 3 King James Version (KJV)

1  To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?

10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.

13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.

14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

16 And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.

17 I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.

18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.

20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

22 Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?

№ 293. A Prayer for the Odd and Even Days

From Finding God in All Things: A Marquette Prayer Book
by Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ (1907-1991)

Sunday Mantra

№ 237. Dark Night of the Soul 2

Ramen House intallation

"Many people think that the point in life is to solve their problems and be happy. But happiness is usually a fleeting sensation, and you never get rid of problems. Your purpose in life may be to become more who you are and more engaged with the people and the life around you, to really live your life. That may sound obvious, yet many people spend their time avoiding life. They are afraid to let it flow through them, and so their vitality gets channeled into ambitions, addictions, and preoccupations that don’t give them anything worth having. A dark night may appear, paradoxically, as a way to return to living. It pares life down to its essentials and helps you get a new start.

№ 166. Into the Wilderness

Lent is nigh.

The dessert sings its call.

I must head towards

Its sacred spaces. 

The soul will find its thirst.

Thirst must seek its water.