Never (in the vernacular) a mackerel slapper¹ but rather an agnostic Episcopalian my entire life, as a result of my mom leaving the Presbyterian Church, or, as she called them, “namby pamby grapejuice-drinking Presbyterians.”

The Catholic Church and the Episcopal made it to the finals. Every Catholic sermon mentioned sin; none of the Episcopal ones did. As my Episcopalian friends often say, “We’re Catholicism without the sin.” Big churches, fancy dress, smells and bells at the cathedrals², and most of the same saints. Oh, and also divorce, thank you Henry VIII, as well as married priests.

I briefly considered the Episcopal priesthood, once I found out you could be married, but that wasn’t enough: you needed a calling. I didn’t have one.

My mom’s best friend became an Episcopal priest, who told her at least a third of Episcopal priests are atheists. My best friend from high school was welcomed in the diocese of Oregon once he had agreed to the terms of the most conservative bishop in the state³. I’ll summarize for you: “don’t do it in the street, you’ll scare the horses.”

continued here

My mother found it easy to cut people out of her life. She did it to her mother and her brother, and almost to my brother.

One cutoff was her best friend Ginger. Ginger had moved next door with her husband Ron and her two children in 1972, after Steve and I had both moved out. For nearly 30 years they were inseparable. Ginger vacationed with Mom, came to my wedding, and was part of the texture of mom’s everyday life. But sometime in the middle 1990s, Mom had a falling out with Ginger. Ginger had disregarded mom’s advice. Mom did not take kindly to having her advice ignored. She was so upset she cut Ginger off. This was awkward, as Ginger continued to live next door. When I came to visit, Mom made it clear that I was not to stop by Ginger’s house. She was civil to Ginger, but that was it.

Things might have continued that way until Mom died in 2010, except that Ginger knew Mom was dying. Despite a decade of deep freeze, Ginger, a deeply religious and compassionate woman, picked their friendship back up as if it had never been interrupted, after mom’s diagnosis with cancer. And Mom simply accepted that things had gotten back to “normal.” They never discussed the cutoff. No one asked for forgiveness or an apology, yet all was forgiven.

 Dad had planned to take a year’s sabbatical from his bus-driving job to support Mom and drive her to chemo and radiation treatments, but after a few weeks he was driving Mom all right—driving her crazy. What she needed was support, transportation and company from Ginger. And that is what she got. Ginger came over for a cup of tea every morning after Dad left for work, then took Mom to the hospital, stayed while she was treated, and brought her home. Periodically, Ginger called me with progress reports. During mom’s last few months, Jan Karn, mom’s best friend from college, drove her RV/home up to Portland from Arizona so she could care for mom. Ginger let Jan park the RV in her driveway.

I was put in mind of this because Ginger doesn’t just talk the talk of being a Christian, she walks the walk. Jesus said “love your neighbor as yourself.” Some people who claim to be Christian (no names) appear to be  “cafeteria Christians.” They pick and choose which parts they want to live by.

Not Ginger. She is one of the few true Christians I have ever met.

My wife asked me if anyone is writing about the hypocrisy of fake Christians who enjoy torturing of the poor, the sick and the homeless. Anyone who posts an AI video of himself crapping on the American people is, by definition not a Christian. Neither is the author of Project 2025, nor are a wide swath of Americans who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk.

The mainstream media is literally afraid to write about Christianity, specifically this aspect of the hypocrisy of the politicized right wing version of it. Here is an article from a small independent newspaper in Milwaukee that tells it like it is: Faith without compassion: Exposing the false religion of America’s right-wing Christianity

This popped up in my inbox. Since almost all attribution on Facebook is garbage, let’s call it anonymous.

 “What is it about food? Everyone on this course is into some diet—the Zen macrobiotic diet, the mucusless diet, the Bragg diet, the raw food diet—how important is food really?”

A wise man made me a warm cup of tea and gave me an advice-gem:

Bronze Food: What You Eat Physically

“Food matters, of course,” he said, “you are what you eat. But if you eat some bad food, it’s gone from your system in two or three days.”

Silver Food: What You Consume Through Your Senses

“But there’s a deeper kind of food, not so easy to get out of your system—what you take in through your senses: what you hear, see, read, and watch—books, news, movies, all of it. This feeds your mind and heart, shapes your thoughts and emotions, and becomes your conditioning and subconscious. If it’s negative, it can lurk unseen and take years to release.”

Gold Food: The Company You Keep

“But the most important kind of food? Your friends: the company you keep has the biggest influence on your life. And the funny thing is, if you hang around with low people, you won’t bring them up, but they’ll bring you down.

“In India, we have a word: Satsang. Satsang means gathering in the company of the wise. Seeking the company of the enlightened. And if none are around, keeping the company of fellow seekers, uplifting each other, protecting, and keeping each other on the path together.” Do you have a Gold Food strategy?

This is the third in what is apparently becoming a series. I have previously complained about the lack of information on the open internet about the night Cronkite stood up, and Patty/Kathy from the Patty Duke Show being quaternary cousins. And now, I complain that no one has pointed out the startling similarity between Testimony of Light: An Extraordinary Message of Life After Death by Helen Greaves (1969) and Defending Your Life written/directed Albert Brooks.(1991).

If you haven’t seen the film, stop here. If you have, ask yourself if the premise of the film doesn’t sound a lot like this scene from the book (condensed for space reasons):

Suddenly [there appeared] a cinema or television screen. Pictures began to emerge on it. They showed moments of stress, moments of triumph, moments of failure in the earth life of Doctor X. We saw patients; we watched him in his diagnoses; we followed him to the theater and witnessed his operations…

The pictures on the “screen” went on and on.

We were taken into the homes, lives, families of those on whom the Doctor had performed his successful operations. We saw the benefit to humanity, the healings, the resumption of happy, useful lives which were the results of this man’s skill.

To be fair, I wrote to Albert Brooks, and his assistant responded he’d never seen the book. And, I find that “life review” is a widely discussed topic, usually in the context of “my life flashed before my eyes” at the moment of death. But it is sufficiently out there that Brooks may simply have absorbed it and repeated it, something which may also have happened to Greaves.

To paraphrase Buddha: Pain is inevitable. Suffering is not.

From https://www.angelsdailymessage.com/: “This is from Bruce, Maija’s loving husband. Maija, the conduit for these messages, passed away on 4/21/21. This page will no longer be updated with new daily messages. I hope that the Angel messages have brought you a measure of peace and comfort.” She served the angels by channeling their messages for the last 40 years of her life.

Maiji Ingrida Meijers was 69 years old, and lived in Western Massachusetts. I would have been glad of her for a few more years in my life, but I must not be selfish. As the angels told her to tell us, “There will be a time to Go Home.  There will be a time to lay aside the body illusion and fly free in Wisdom and Light.  But, meanwhile, be the window through which the Light shines.” She was that window her entire life.

In some sense, I am sure it is a relief to her to remove the makeup and costumes of the life illusion. On the other hand, she often said we aren’t going to heaven; we are already there. She’s just had a change of address.

I won’t be presumptuous enough to attempt an obituary, as my knowledge of this beautiful soul is fragmentary. Maija Ingrida Meijers lived in the room next to me at MIT’s co-ed co-operative Student House during the 1970-71 school year. MIT turned out not to be for her, so I last laid eyes on her almost exactly a half-century ago in the spring of 1971. At the age of 19, she was already deeply spiritual, and touched my soul in a way it has seldom been touched.

I was fortunate enough to be able to catch up with her, once the Internet had sufficient moxie to lead me to her website. She offered me telephone counseling several times, and was a regular e-mail correspondent. I was a daily reader during the 21^st century. I recommend the now-static site and her books, available on Amazon. We are never gone as long as someone remembers us; Maija will still be here until I’m gone.

(this ties in with the lead item, Compassion Changed Me)

Doty MD, James R.: Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart

Once in a while, you read a book you know is life-changing―for others, if not for you. Two years ago, this book would have changed my life. After my spiritual journey of 2020, it’s just reinforcement for me, but it might be more for you.

I agree with the Dalai Lama, this is a remarkable and compelling book. It is similar (in a good way) to Dan Millman’s The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior, as it tells the story of a young man meeting an unlikely teacher and learning life-changing lessons―in this case about meditation and visualization. It should be given to every 12-year-old in the world. My grandson will get it when he’s ready to understand it, although I hope and pray he will already know about meditation and visualization by the time he is that old.

(I am shocked to find I never recommended Peaceful Warrior before: read the book or watch the movie.)

The two best quotes from the Magic Shop: “…when our heart changes, everything changes. And that change is not only in how we see the world, but in how the world sees us.”

And, “It's the same with wounds in our heart. We need to give them our attention so that they can heal. Otherwise, the wound continues to cause us pain. Sometimes for a very long time. We are all going to get hurt. That's just the way it is. But here's the trick about the things that hurt us and cause us pain―they also serve an amazing purpose… We grow through pain.”

Amen. I know every word of this paragraph is true because I discovered that you can heal a wounded heart―even after four decades―if you pay attention to the wound.

Doty also writes for the Huntington Post. I highly recommend On Grudges and Forgiveness: These studies show us the cost of not forgiving others can be physically taxing on us. I know this from personal experience as well.

And the most amazing thing  he discusses is the Heart Brain, noting the scientific fact that the  heart sends more messages to the brain than the brain does to the heart. Could the ancients have been right about this one? Check out some interesting heart intelligence science.

From my UPI chat group, this heartwarmer from Ron Cohen:

Daughter Zen got her initial COVID vaccination today in Israel. She is considered a critical health care worker.

A certified chaplain, she works a day or two a week at the hospital in Tzfat. She tours the whole hospital and sings to patients, accompanying herself with a variety of stringed instruments — guitar, ukulele, etc. Her visits are eagerly awaited by the patients — the highlight of the week for many.

Her specialty is singing to tiny newborns in the preemie ward. Even though they are separated by glass windows, the many monitors hooked onto their tiny bodies confirm they are involuntary responding. (Her singing improves their vital signs)

She always has intended her music to be palliative and comforting. As so many of my friends are well aware, I am very, very proud of her.

(Listen to a song she composed and performed for a cancer patient)