Faith & Life Inspirational Message

We live in an age of verbosity!   Put in street language, this means we live in a wordy world.   Maybe other people live in situations where there are not so many words.   But my world is a wordy world.   Just think about how the typical person goes through a day.             It would not be unusual for a person to get out of bed and turn on the tv or the radio---words.   If you have family around, there would be more words.   If we are still working, it would be normal to be somewhere surrounded by words.   Of course, in my college world, there are a million words.   People who stare at computer screens are typically dealing in words.   Often there is some kind of music in the background and the music comes with words.   Meals, social occasions and more tv or computer work at night means a mountain of more words.           ...

I am enjoying a new book given to me.   S. Brent Plate wrote A History of Religion in 5 ½ Objects .   The subtitle is intriguing: Bringing the Spiritual to Its Senses .   It has been a challenge for me as a Quaker.   My own Quaker tradition, as it often gets interpreted, suggests that objects, things, ritual, etc. are not important.   I probably would have assumed that my five senses played little role in my own spiritual tradition.   This book is challenging this assumption.            That is ok with me.   It would be pretty silly to assume things after we find out there is little basis for those assumptions.   Part of the reason for learning and experience is to gain a sense of the world and ourselves that is as close to reality as it can be.   Why would we prefer to live in illusion or delusion?   So I am open and engaged with the material.   I am reading the book very slowly;...