I still go to the mailbox with high expectations. Sadly, I think that is a leftover from the old days. Or maybe my mind is muddled with real memory vs. creative fabrication of what I thought was true. My memory is the mailman (as it always was in my day) sometimes did bring interesting things to the house. Going to the mailbox was always a bit like Christmas. You opened the little door to see what was in store.
Of course, there were always bills. And there were some advertisements, but not like today. But there were usually some kinds of letters and official other kind of stuff. You would get acceptances and rejections from those places, like colleges, that you hoped to get a positive response. I even kid people by telling them I actually picked up a Ph.D. from Harvard at my local post office in Indiana! It is actually true that I did get the diploma there, but only because I could not make the actual graduation.
But our electronic age has changed that. Most days I am disappointed with the mail. I still get bills, but almost never anything else resembling a first-class letter. Nearly everything important comes electronically. However, that has not changed my behavior. I still go to the mailbox full of hope and wonder. Recently, I had what looked like an important one from the Thomas Merton Center. I know this place well.
I have taught seminars on Merton, the twentieth century monk who has impacted me in both how I think and what I do. I also am active in the Merton Society. I have visited the Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville many times. It has the bulk of Merton books, photos, etc. It is a wonderful place run by two guys who manage so much Merton scholarship, correspondence, etc. It is a non-profit dear to my heart.
Non-profits have to have money. It is not unlike my university, but they don’t even get tuition dollars. And so, opening the letter, I quickly realized it was a solicitation for money. I was both disappointed and understood. No doubt, I will support them financially anyway, but I was disappointed and I am not quite sure why. Maybe I was expecting to win something (although I know they don’t give away stuff). Maybe I wanted an award or a commendation or a free book? What was I expecting? I don’t know and now that I think about it, I realize how foolish my hopes/expectations were.
I was tempted to rip up the letter and immediately recycle, which is what I normally do. But absentmindedly, I started to read it. It begins by telling me in 1960 Merton wrote to Monsignor Alred Horrigan, founding president of Bellarmine that “The one idea that seems to be germinating in my mind is the need for greater breadth and depth in the concept of Christian humanism, in order to equip men and women for a fully creative task in the modern world.” As usual, I like what Merton says here and as usual, started to think more about his words. Louisville is only a bit more than a half-hour drive from Merton’s monastery. He knew he was going to make it the center of everything he had done as a monk. Perhaps he was preparing his legacy.
Merton was a man of ideas. His fertile mind was more generative than almost anyone I read. He tells the president about a need. The need is for greater breadth and depth in Christianity. Merton was clear he was already living in the “modern world.” No doubt, we are surely in that modern world, too. Merton’s own life was a great example of this broadening and deepening. In the 1930s he was not even religious. Through an interesting process he became religious, became Catholic and in late 1941 entered the monastery in central Kentucky. Neither Merton nor the Catholic Church was modern in the 40s and 50s.
Merton grew, became engaged in dialogue with Buddhist monks and contemplatives and broadened his Christian horizons. He became more inclusive and expansive. I am sure this is why he tells the young university the work of that university (and so many other universities, colleges, churches, etc.) that broadening and deepening is still needed for the “fully creative task” in this world.
What is that task? I suggest it is various. There is need for more of us to work creatively on many fronts. We have to work on peace, on climate change, on justice for the poor and so many others. Where there is suffering, we need people creatively at work. Some of these tasks demand some urgency. Merton would tell us we don’t have time for a piety that does nothing.
We don’t need to build more walls---real walls on borders or between faith traditions. We do well to get over ourselves and get on with the work that Jesus, the Buddha and all great religious figures call us to do. Too much energy is wasted on things that don’t matter. Young people see that and either laugh or are disgusted.
Thanks to a fund-raising letter, the Merton Center will get more than it asked for. It will get a few dollars from me. And with Merton’s words, it will spur me to get with it in the spirit of Merton and in God’s Spirit.
Of course, there were always bills. And there were some advertisements, but not like today. But there were usually some kinds of letters and official other kind of stuff. You would get acceptances and rejections from those places, like colleges, that you hoped to get a positive response. I even kid people by telling them I actually picked up a Ph.D. from Harvard at my local post office in Indiana! It is actually true that I did get the diploma there, but only because I could not make the actual graduation.
But our electronic age has changed that. Most days I am disappointed with the mail. I still get bills, but almost never anything else resembling a first-class letter. Nearly everything important comes electronically. However, that has not changed my behavior. I still go to the mailbox full of hope and wonder. Recently, I had what looked like an important one from the Thomas Merton Center. I know this place well.
I have taught seminars on Merton, the twentieth century monk who has impacted me in both how I think and what I do. I also am active in the Merton Society. I have visited the Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville many times. It has the bulk of Merton books, photos, etc. It is a wonderful place run by two guys who manage so much Merton scholarship, correspondence, etc. It is a non-profit dear to my heart.
Non-profits have to have money. It is not unlike my university, but they don’t even get tuition dollars. And so, opening the letter, I quickly realized it was a solicitation for money. I was both disappointed and understood. No doubt, I will support them financially anyway, but I was disappointed and I am not quite sure why. Maybe I was expecting to win something (although I know they don’t give away stuff). Maybe I wanted an award or a commendation or a free book? What was I expecting? I don’t know and now that I think about it, I realize how foolish my hopes/expectations were.
I was tempted to rip up the letter and immediately recycle, which is what I normally do. But absentmindedly, I started to read it. It begins by telling me in 1960 Merton wrote to Monsignor Alred Horrigan, founding president of Bellarmine that “The one idea that seems to be germinating in my mind is the need for greater breadth and depth in the concept of Christian humanism, in order to equip men and women for a fully creative task in the modern world.” As usual, I like what Merton says here and as usual, started to think more about his words. Louisville is only a bit more than a half-hour drive from Merton’s monastery. He knew he was going to make it the center of everything he had done as a monk. Perhaps he was preparing his legacy.
Merton was a man of ideas. His fertile mind was more generative than almost anyone I read. He tells the president about a need. The need is for greater breadth and depth in Christianity. Merton was clear he was already living in the “modern world.” No doubt, we are surely in that modern world, too. Merton’s own life was a great example of this broadening and deepening. In the 1930s he was not even religious. Through an interesting process he became religious, became Catholic and in late 1941 entered the monastery in central Kentucky. Neither Merton nor the Catholic Church was modern in the 40s and 50s.
Merton grew, became engaged in dialogue with Buddhist monks and contemplatives and broadened his Christian horizons. He became more inclusive and expansive. I am sure this is why he tells the young university the work of that university (and so many other universities, colleges, churches, etc.) that broadening and deepening is still needed for the “fully creative task” in this world.
What is that task? I suggest it is various. There is need for more of us to work creatively on many fronts. We have to work on peace, on climate change, on justice for the poor and so many others. Where there is suffering, we need people creatively at work. Some of these tasks demand some urgency. Merton would tell us we don’t have time for a piety that does nothing.
We don’t need to build more walls---real walls on borders or between faith traditions. We do well to get over ourselves and get on with the work that Jesus, the Buddha and all great religious figures call us to do. Too much energy is wasted on things that don’t matter. Young people see that and either laugh or are disgusted.
Thanks to a fund-raising letter, the Merton Center will get more than it asked for. It will get a few dollars from me. And with Merton’s words, it will spur me to get with it in the spirit of Merton and in God’s Spirit.
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