Contemplify NonRequired Reading List for June 30, 2020
June NonRequired Reading List
Contemplative Friend,
I am not the man to turn to for explaining, unpacking, or vivifying this season of uprising. For that I turn to Baratunde Thurston, rev. angel Kyodo williams, Rev. Dr. William Barber II, Trevor Noah, Killer Mike, and others. And there are significant tomes that offer historical background on structural racism; its roots and proliferation in structures, laws, and communities that built the social architecture of today. The intersection of my vocational call to be a contemplative in the world and being a white man, I recognized the need to also search within the modern contemplative lineage that formed me for a trail of discourse, self-analysis, and models to emulate from a white contemplative experience. So I looked for a white contemplative lineage bearer who sought to embody solidarity with those being oppressed, one who spoke to the reality of structural racism and said that Black lives matter. But who?
Thomas Merton is the appointed and unruly patron contemplative of Contemplify since it whispered its way onto the scene back in 2016. Turns out my spiritual grandfather has a word of salvation for white Christians. In his book Seeds of Destruction Merton writes, “We must dare to pay the dolorous price of change, to grow into a new society. Nothing else will suffice!” (p.9). These words arise during the Civil Rights Movement and set the stage for a section of the book titled, “Letters to a White Liberal.” Merton goes on to say that ‘including’ Black people into a system that was created by and for white people, sustained by white people, and privileges white people will not work in creating equality across racial differences. Merton says we need an overhaul of our systems that “permit and breed” injustices and that this seismic shift towards something different should not be led by white folks (p.67 - 70).
How might growing "into a new society" translate to today?
As I see it, Merton is imploring white Christians to look squarely in the eyes of unjust systems and join the civic renewal lead by Black, Indigenous, People of Color as ardent allies in the call for imagining something different. To say that Black live matters in word, action, and economics. White Christians are invited to be learned and conscious supporters rather than throwing their backs out by fortifying a defensive wall of obfuscation or clamoring for leadership in this ongoing movement of liberation.
This requires a posture of humility from white Christians.
Humility is not inherent, it is a daily practice in the wake of Reality. With practice, humility becomes a perception that recognizes that the trajectories of objective reality in linear time and growth in consciousness are not parallel or even unified. Humility is minding that gap while lessening the divide by sinking into an ever deepening embodiment of truth, mercy, and love. Tilling the contemplative grounds of practice prepares the way. Jesus called this the Kingdom of God.
You will be exposed to the elements on this narrow way. No vehicle or even sneakers are required. This footpath leads you down into waters of an undisclosed depth, with nothing but the bathing suit of love to shield your naked vulnerability. Do not be mistaken, this is a daring walk in incarnational truth and communal mercy. It is the Divine exchange in the innermost sanctuary of the heart of God. Jesus called this the Kingdom of God.
The call to be co-laborers with God and exemplify the Divine likeness in being (1 Cor 3:9) is the clarion call into something different, something not yet fully formed, something here and yet not here. It is a participation in the life of God. Jesus embodied this and called it the Kingdom of God.
I am not saying anything new, I am underlining in red what Merton said and what Jesus lived back in the day. There are not a whole lot of white public contemplatives who have said it as boldly or clearly as Thomas Merton. For me, this is the living tradition that formed me speaking into the present.
And so I will say it again, I am not the man to turn to for explaining, unpacking, or vivifying this season of uprising. I turn to the gifted leadership of those mentioned prior. When it comes to how a white contemplative like myself might draw from the lineage that animates me as a blueprint for furthering this contemplative tradition in a white body today, Thomas Merton offers some humble guidance.
*Hat tip to Lee the Librarian for turning me onto Seeds of Destruction. Hug your librarian today. Actually don’t, but post-Covid, consider a quiet embrace of your favorite bibliophile.
NOTE: As an experiment, I am casting my recommendation for a book in as few words as possible. My hope is to cut down on the arm wringing in elevating the worthiness of a book. If I can’t accomplish that in a few sentences, the book is not for you. In truth, I know you read vastly and cling to the tail feathers of curiosity already in flight. So I hold the door open in a gentlemanly fashion that I am going about this all wrong. With that in mind, please enjoy this month’s NonRequired Reading List and if this changed format mars the experience, let me know.
Hojoki: Visions of a Torn World by Kamo-no-Chomei (Get it at the Public Library or IndieBound)
This satisfying surprise came to me from an ordinary mystic (h/t Mark). The backdrop of this longform poem is that in a period of social unrest and a natural disaster in Japan, the poet Kamo-no-Chomei took refuge in becoming a hermit deep in the forest. He begins by reflecting on the calamities he had witnessed and the fragility of human enterprises at the whimsy of powers both natural and human. His perennial underlying question, how then shall I live? spurred him on. His quest for peace brought him to a liberty in shedding his attachment to the status quo. He put his faith in a different kind of life and with his own two hands built a small hermitage that afforded him the luxury of time for walking in nature to delight in the flirtatious brush from the wind and curtsies of the trees. Do read the whole poem, but this brief synopsis does captures the spirit.
Frederick Douglass: The Story of an American Slave by Frederick Douglass (Get it at the Public Library or IndieBound)
This first autobiography by Frederick Douglass is a brutal and electrifying truth. His story of enslavement, self-education by winning and surprising means, and the courage necessary for the ultimate escape from bondage. There is a scene in the book when the white mistress of enslavement in the house is reprimanded by her husband for teaching young Frederick the alphabet. Her husband responds to her kindness with a teaching in vitriol and she promptly steps in line with newfound cruelty and malice towards young Frederick. What haunts me about that moment is that Douglass makes a passing comment that his imprisonment is directly correlated to her own; a quickly acquired taste for dehumanizing dominance.
The Etiquette of Freedom: Gary Snyder, Jim Harrison, and The Practice of the Wild (Get it at the Public Library or IndieBound)
Gary Snyder and Jim Harrison have informed much of my thinking about human relationships to the more-than-human world, wilderness, and the wild. This book is a document of their roundabout perspectives and lively dialogues between two old poets, one mountain goat and the other a bird dog. Here is a bleating memento mori exchange from the The Etiquette of Freedom (p.89):
“Jim Harrison: There was a Zen master--my memory is fading--who said, “Since we’re all going to die, don’t make a big deal about rehearsing a little bit every morning.”
Gary Snyder: I know that story--the monk who got into his empty coffin every morning and laid in it for a little while. Just practicing, to see what it would feel like. And then he got out and made breakfast.”
Arts, Articles, & Practices
START SMALL. My son loves Michael Franti. He may not be two, but his taste in music is impeccable. The first time he heard Michael Franti he went bananas dancing until his feet burned into a cartoonish fever pace. I can’t wait to show him this music video that embodies so much of my own personal philosophy. Listen to "Start Small Think Big". (h/t to Cliff for tipping me off that Franti had a new album)
WHO POETS TURN TO. If you are an old hand at Contemplify you know how much poetry speaks to me. As Wallace Stegner says, poets are the “priests of the invisible”. I make it a practice to read at least a poem a day to blink away the buildup of dust blocking my vision. In this article poets of today respond to the question, which poems (and poets) do you turn to in times of strife? Lift these suggestions to your eyes and notice which of these poems your attention comes to rest on. Read here.
MAY IT CONTINUE. This is a start of right action in faith. May it be celebrated as that, and more importantly, may it continue. Check out these white folks asking for forgiveness from Black folks. (h/t Baratunde)
Contemplify Update
The three most recent episodes on Contemplify…
These episodes are available from Contemplify through these fine outlets: iTunes, Stitcher, Podbean, or Overcast
May humility be the perception, the path, and potential of something different.
We live within a multiplicity of hypocrisies; some harmful and others humorous. Dare to search the direction where each one leans.
May the ‘overripe ass of piety’* not be your own.
Stay humble,
Paul
P.S. So if a friend forwarded you this email and you think you might like to get the next one sent directly to your inbox, sign up below.
P.P.S. For the time being the daily postings to kindle the examined life in a quarantined world are still being glued to the internet at Quarantined Qontemplative.
*That phrase comes from Jim Harrison's poem, "Church" from Songs of Unreason