Be For Something
Moral outrage or moral compass: a challenge
The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better. He’s showing us “we’re just going to do it better. Let’s not be anti-anything. Let’s be for something: for life, and for universal love.”
-Richard Rohr (October 18, 2021)
(Note: He in the full context of this quote is Jesus)
My process for writing this essay each week is to look back at what I’ve highlighted, noted over the past few weeks, and see what stands out. I look for what shimmers, what challenges, what invites deeper reflection. This week it was this quote from a Center for Action and Contemplation Daily Meditation.
Let’s be for something.
Let’s not be anti-anything.
Yes, of course, I’m for being for. I’m anti, anti. The more I think about these words, I have to ask myself some hard questions. Questions like:
What am I for?
Is my for just a thinly disgust “against” that makes me feel better, but fools precisely no one?
Just how transformative would true “for” energy be in the world?
Is love enough?
These words are asking me to be intentional and inventive rather than reactive and responsive.
Against energy is reactive energy; it’s responsive in the opposite way. But if the animating energy is a reaction against something...is that the kind of energy to bring to the challenges we face as a culture, as human beings?
This week I’ve been reading Shoutin’ In The Fire: An American Epistle by Dante Stewart every morning and The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness by Gregory Boyle every evening. They are making beautiful, thoughtful, challenging bookends to my days. Shoutin’ In the Fire is a collection of essays by a young Black theologian and writer. He shares his stories, reflections, reckonings, and realities of being a Black man in America. The Whole Language is stories and reflections from working with gang members in Los Angeles at Homeboy Industries. Both books illustrate the power of being fully for and the terrible, costly price of being against. It’s a price that we are all paying.
“We’ve mistaken moral outrage for moral compass. Moral compass helps you see with clarity how complex and damaged people are. It’s the whole language. Moral outrage just increases the volume and the distance that separates us. I suppose if I thought moral outrage worked, I’d be out raging. But rage just means we don’t understand yet.”
-Gregory Boyle
Father Boyle (or G-dawg as they refer to him at Homeboys) is talking about for and against energy in his reflection on moral outrage and moral compass.
Deeper is the invitation to ask hard questions. It’s complicated and challenging to wrestle with these questions. To pull back the protective layers to try and discern am I for or am I against, is this moral compass or moral outrage?
I’m still asking myself the same questions.
What am I for?
Is my for just a thinly disgust “against” that makes me feel better, but fools precisely no one?
Just how transformative would true “for” energy be in the world?
Is love enough?
I found Dante Stewart several months ago on Instagram. If you are on the gram, he is worth following. I think he is on Twitter too, he is so thoughtful and challenging.
I have zero chill when it comes to songs I like. I’ve been listening to this song non-stop the past few days. It’s so hopeful.
In addition to Shoutin’ In The Fire: An American Epistle by Dante Stewart and The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness by Gregory Boyle
I listened to State of Terror by Louise Penny and Hillary Clinton this week. I love Louise Penny and was curious to read something by her that wasn’t with my favorite fictional character Inspector Gamache. Penny and Clinton deliver in this book. I found it fast-paced, smart, and loved the few subtle nods to Three Pines she managed to weave into the book. (I LOVE it when fictional writers give subtle nods to their other works!)
Dancing leaves, estuary roots, everlasting way…I LOVE these conversations. It’s kind of fun that we record seriously my favorite conversation of the month and let others listen in, I hope you’ll take a peek.
(We dropped a hint about an exciting project we are working on…can you catch it?! Let me know in the comments if you caught it!)
Read and see our Haiku’s here:
I try and pay attention to words or phrases that stand out to me in my reading and listening. There is a spiritual practice called Florliledgium that collects short, interesting pieces {words that “sparkle” up} and put them together. This is kind of like that. Watching for things that sparkle. Gathering them and seeing how they work together and what message, mantra, or new idea might arise.)
A Practice:
Read slowly.
Notice if a word or phrase stands out to you.
How do the words make you feel?
Is there an invitation?
(I’m sharing in italics the lines that stand out to me in these passages. Maybe it’s the same, or maybe it’s different, there is much food for thought in each of these passages)
THEME: Father Gregory Boyle (So.Much.Wisdom) If you haven’t read any of his books, they will make you cry and laugh out loud. Some of the best books out there!
“Jesus was not a man for others. He was one with others. There is a world of difference in that. Jesus didn't seek the rights of lepers. He touched the leper even before he got around to curing him. He didn't champion the cause of the outcast. He was the outcast. He didn't fight for improved conditions for the prisoner. He simply said, 'I was in prison.'
The strategy of Jesus is not centered in taking the right stand on issues, but rather in standing in the right place—with the outcast and those relegated to the margins.”
― Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion
“The poet Rumi writes, 'Find the real world, give it endlessly away, grow rich flinging gold to all who ask. Live at the empty heart of paradox. I’ll dance there with you—cheek to cheek.”
― Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion
“Moral outrage is the opposite of God; it only divides and separates what God wants for us, which is to be united in kinship. Moral outrage doesn't lead us to solutions - it keeps us from them. It keeps us from moving forward toward a fuller, more compassionate response to members of our community who belong to us, no matter what they've done.”
― Gregory Boyle, Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship
“Out of the wreck of our disfigured, misshapen selves, so darkened by shame and disgrace, indeed the Lord comes to us disguised as ourselves. And we don't grow into this—we just learn to pay better attention. The 'no matter whatness' of God dissolves the toxicity of shame and fills us with tender mercy. Favorable, finally, and called by name—by the one your mom uses when she's not pissed off.”
― Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion
(And… Thank you to everyone who shared Smaller & Deeper. Two friends from ELIC days (Martha and Sandy) were drawn and I’ll be sending them a Smaller & Deeper Journaling care package later this week!)
