July NonRequired Reading List
Contemplify / NRR #92
“the only Commandment I ever obeyed—Consider the Lilies.”
— Emily Dickinson
July was a firecracker. Sparkled, fizzled, gone—just like that. July brought me on five separate trips. Three road trips and two via plane. I slept 12 nights in my own bed this month. Ten nights in a tent. Two at friends. Two at an airbnb. Two slumbers at a retreat center. Two more at motels. I also swam in two rivers, two lakes, and one sound. My takeaways become obvious:
airport food is expensive and bland (airport food remains a cultural mirror that is difficult for me to swallow)
planes do not excite me, but they do create the conditions for constant prayer
piney, unrushed backroads lead to the narrow gate
sleeping out of doors summons vivid dreams
the hospitality of friends is a tender, telling gift
leather clad motorcyclists bowed in prayer surprises and moves me
my wife is my favorite travel companion
everything that is green in the Pacific Northwest sparkles as if enchanted
swimming is always a good idea (especially when tired)
my kids are hilarious and trusty barometers of when to get ice cream
ceding power is how one become an esteemed ancestor
bringing my own tea solves the “why is this coffee so bad?” problem
when music pairs with a landscape, watch out1, you are in the pocket
reading alone in hotel rooms is near impossible for me
the San Luis Valley is indeed mystical
This is an unorthodox NonRequired Reading introduction. First time in years I have spent more time writing in a journal than on a computer. Typically, I meditate on any honey dripping from my heart and then peck away at the keys trying to describe the taste. When it comes to these monthly missives, it is a joy to wrassle with this sticky process, but July’s overzealous travel did not allow such forays. Instead of fighting it, I let it pass with a friendly Pale Ale.
Contemplify is a vessel for conversation, rumination, and practice. Naturally dotty but focused in kindling the examined life for contemplatives in the world. Thank you to all who support this vessel by means and presence in the Contemplify offerings (podcasts, NonRequired Readings, Lo-Fi & Hushed Contemplative Practices). For those who wish to support Contemplify through monetary means, press the button below. Becoming a paid subscriber is a kindness that humbles me and keeps this ship sailing. Some folks want to support just for the sake of supporting Contemplify (a raise of the glass to you, folks), but paid subscribers are also automatically invited to the weekly Lo-Fi & Hushed Practice Session on Wednesday mornings. Good, clean, unglamorous contemplative fun. Hope to see you there (see the footnote if you want to join the weekly practice but do not want to become a paid subscriber).2
July NonRequired Reading List
The Salt of the Universe: Praise, Songs, and Improvisation by Amy Leach (Get it at the Public Library or Bookshop)
There is a fine line between playfulness and self-serving sass. Amy Leach kicks rocks at that line in The Salt of the Universe. Leach was born and raised in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and ultimately rejects this controlling path for the wild-haired poets.
The Salt of the Universe is not about leaving, but a book about delighting in becoming. Leach pokes fun at the laundry list of rules that drove her batty for their inaneness (not eating pickles) and astute in the ways groupthink can detonate your internal organs, “You might occasionally find yourself in environments where you fit in but where the fitting in is so vigorous that you would be scared to be somebody who did not fit in, so even though you do fit in, it creeps you out.”3
Leach takes the zingers of Jesus and holds them up against the practices and teachings in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and allows the tension between the two to create opportunities for absurdity to bubble up into hilarity. Promoting a rule heavy way when Jesus would rather eat, drink, and celebrate children is obscene. For certainly, “while he was here Jesus wanted to hang out with people with oomph.”4
Amy Leach is a dazzling poetic writer, sharp in critiques and wide in wonder. The Salt of the Universe is for anyone who has left a community or tradition to delve into the great wide open.
Nobody Home: Writing, Buddhism, and Living in Places by Gary Snyder and Julia Martin (Get it at the Public Library or Bookshop)
Gary Snyder is 94 years old. Nine or ten years ago my wife and I had the chance to hear him speak in Albuquerque. Like many folks, back in the day when I realized he was “Japhy Ryder” in Jack Kerouac’s Dharma Bums, I dug deeper. Snyder is a hero of mine and hearing him speak solidified my sense of his integrity on the path he walks. In Nobody Home, Snyder mentors Julia Martin from afar via letter and a couple in-person interviews. Mentor is too formal, Snyder pours in gratuitous energy and wisdom into their friendship.
There is one particular letter exchange that I took copious notes. Martin is asking Snyder about teacher / student relationship, family practice, and community. Each sentence could be pulled and examined on its own merit, while emphasizing “your mind and your own life are your best teacher.”5 Gary Snyder has spent the entirety of his life modeling a radical way by cultivating a natural community. This heightened craftsmanship is mindfulness at its best.
Nobody Home is for contemplative readers doing the practice, chopping the wood, and carrying the water within their natural community.
Contemplify Update
Season Five is cooking. I love this season. As always you can find the complete list of Contemplify episodes here and below are first four episodes of this season.
Brian McLaren on Life After Doom, Patient Urgency, & Complexifying Hope (Season 5, Ep 4)
Cassidy Hall on Queering Contemplation, Letting Go of Thomas Merton, and Expanding Foundations (Season 5, Ep 3)
Dr. Larry Ward on America's Racial Karma, the Fragrance of Wisdom, and Learning How To Suffer Less (Season 5, Ep 2)
David James Duncan on the Unintentional Menagerie of Sun House, Friendship, and the Beguines (Season 5, Ep 1)
All episodes are available from Contemplify through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get delicious podcasts.
Arts & Articles
CAN HIP HOP BE A CONTEMPLATIVE FORM OF A MUSIC? by Josué Pera (Substack): Yes is the short answer, but you must take a slow ride with the music links and insights provided in this piece.
ALL THAT IS SACRED directed by Scott Ballew (Yeti): Since first hearing of this project I have been itching to see it. Directed by musician and friend of Contemplify, Scott Ballew, here is the description: In the late 60's a group of poets, writers and musicians descended upon the lawless tip of the United States to pursue their love of literature and fishing (and cocaine and acid). Initiated by Tom McGuane - the prodigal son of American Literature in the 1970's - his friends Jim Harrison, Richard Brautigan, Russell Chatham and Jimmy Buffett soon joined him. This crew and that era were captured on film by Guy De La Valdene and Christian Odasso in an obscure documentary called "Tarpon" in 1974. They went on to create some of the best art, poetry, novels, and music of their generation - but there will never be anything like Key West in the early 70's. If you were lucky to survive it.
HOW THE PHILOSOPHER CHARLES TAYLOR WOULD HEAL THE ILLS OF MODERNITY by Adam Gopnik (New Yorker): “The best way to heal the wound is through poetry and music, of the sort that doesn’t offer propositions but casts spells and enacts rituals.” Ahhh.
Deplaned and tentless.
Tiredness traded in for homegrown rhythms.
Life happily trips on.
Tasting the salt of the universe,
Paul
All Bookshop purchase links give a kickback to a local New Mexico bookstore and to Contemplify. Big thanks.
Evening Machines pairs with southern Colorado, “Texas Hold ‘Em” in northern Colorado, Living Thing with the Pacific Northwest, The Avett Brothers in northern New Mexico, Clem Snide’s version of “Bird on a Wire” in the Tetons, and Gillian Welch everywhere.
Contemplify never wants money to be a filthy barrier to practice. So if you want to practice weekly with this contemplative basecamp at Lo-Fi & Hushed but aren’t able to offer support (no sweat!), follow the instructions here, no questions asked, just happy to have you practicing with us.
Leach, Amy. The Salt of the Universe, p. 47.
Leach, Amy. The Salt of the Universe, p.161
Snyder, Gary & Julia Martin. Nobody Home, p. 168
Loved the intro! Thanks for taking us for a ride on your wild July! It may my soul leap with joy! It sounds both exhausting and rejuvenating, what a blessing! 🤗 Welcome home!🙏