Faith & Life Inspirational Message

Who am I?   That is a question almost everyone entertains and, perhaps, spends a good deal of time in life figuring out the answer.   It is not unusual for us to come up with a few different answers in the process of living our lives.   I am confident I would have answered that question differently when I was ten years old than I would today as a relatively mature, older guy.             I know there are some religious traditions that scoff at the idea there is even a real me.   For example, Buddhists question whether there can ever be a self or a real me.   Of course, we can pretend there is one; we can act as if there is one.   In my world of illusion I can have a self-illusion.   I am sure there are some psychologists who do not believe there is such a thing as a real me.   I am hoping they are not correct.             As a Christ...

I have the pleasure throughout my day of engaging some very interesting people.   Many of those people are students.   And others are adults of various ages and stages.   I don’t do too much with the younger children, so I can’t speak to that level of human development.   I have read about the earlier developmental stages, but I don’t have a great deal of practical experience.   I have watched my two daughters grow through the various stages, but that probably is not sufficient evidence for stating truths about life. As I have paid attention to the range of conversations over the years, I conclude there may be two fundamental human questions.   I am sure others could argue there are many other fundamental human questions.   Of course, many might agree with my two questions.   Right now I posit these two. The first fundamental human question asks, “who am I?”   Essentially, this is the human question of identity.   I can’t tell you ...

Occasionally I have reason to go back over some things that I have written.   That can be a fun, rewarding experience.   Certainly not everything I have written is worth preserving.   Sometimes what we write is for the moment.   Clearly this would be the case with many papers we write when we took classes in school.   Many of us have jobs in which we have to write stuff for a specific moment.                Computers make saving stuff much easier.   With computers we can create folders, organize all sorts of things and now store things “in the cloud,” whatever that means!   I think it means whatever I write and store in the cloud will live longer than I do.   Maybe that is a new version of life after death!             Obviously I have lived long enough to remember the days before computers.   I recall the time when ha...

In the process of writing for another project, I had the occasion to return to one of my favorite authors, Thomas Moore.   I recalled he had commented on some ideas that I was trying to develop in my project.   In brief I am thinking about the issue of identity.   On one hand, that is fairly easy to determine.   Most of us would claim that we know who we are.   On the superficial level, it is easy to describe our identity.   We have a name.   Most of us stick with the names our parents gave us.   As kids we may gain a nickname, but we all know that is not our ‘real name.”   And often women change their names when they get married.   But even if this happens, there are times when they will refer to their maiden name as if that is actually more basic to their identities.   And in this country we all get social security numbers.   Of course, we don’t like to think about ourselves as a number, but the fact is, that number poi...

It may seem odd to be talking about interviewing in a spiritual reflection.   I never thought about it until recently when I was asked to interview some students for a special program.   It is funny that I never thought about this before, since I have interviewed students for many things over decades now.   But it hit me and I realized interviewing can be a spiritual experience. When I say it could be a spiritual experience, I don’t mean I was interviewing the student for some kind of religious job.   We never talked about God nor religion.   On the surface no one would get any kind of clue that it was about spirituality.   Perhaps it was only in my mind.   But let me unfold my understanding.            I was set to interview a young man and the appointment was made.   From his name, I assumed he was Asian or, at least, Asian-American.   As far as I was aware, I have never met him nor ha...

Recently I have been leading a group that is using the classic book, Gift from the Sea , by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.   Originally published in the mid-1950s, this book has stood well the test of time.   It is dated in some ways.   Reading it again makes me aware of how our American culture has changed.   The role of women, of marriage and other things have undergone significant change since the mid-20 th century.   And yet so much of the book is timely and, even, timeless.   There are still nuggets of wisdom and profundity that make me delighted to read it again.             At one point, the group focused on chapter IV, “Double-Sunrise.”   I really don’t know much about shells, except to know that I like them and like to pick up shells when I am at the beach.   But I have never been an “ocean person,” so am very much the novice.   Lindbergh describes the double-sunrise shell in this fa...