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MID-SUMMER REPORT
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| I smile...no...an outright
chuckle at my title for this page. Like there’s anyone in the world out
there that is waiting fore blue sheet, much less a mid-summer report. |
| But that's it. I write more
in spite of than because of. |
Here at the Summer World
Headquarters of Moment Ministries, Inc., there’s really lots to report.
Ask
those small kids who spent
a sunny afternoon on the beach gathering and counting dozens of little
green crabs they found under rocks. That's big stuff. They could care less
about news about Saddam’s sons. Who is Saddam on a summer day at the beach? |
| We do have folks dropping
by off and on. But only once did we have all three bunkhouses occupied.
More are expected. of course. Summer lasts through September, so we'll
be using those bunk spaces. |
| Lots of sun this summer.
Global warming? Actually, it’s a bit scary thinking of this world without
rain. We love the sun, but at what cost? |
| Visitors we can always count
on are 1) the meter reader who loves summer because the gate is unlocked
and she can drive down to tread the meter; 2) the Jehovah's Witnesses whose
appearance has been delayed; 3) the LDS (Mormon's) that sends its clean
cut, shirt and tie clad young men doing their mission to win converts. |
| I was mixing some concrete
as they arrived, so couldn’t stop and couldn’t run. So we talked. I can't
help but respect anyone who makes cold calls on unreceptive people. A certain
small percentage of people can't such appeals, so the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) continues to grow. They pushed their message
on me, trying to get me to agree that God still has power to appoint prophets
in these modern times. They wanted to lead me to confess to the possibility
that Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were God’s prophets. I said that, actually,
my favorite prophet was Amos. I picked Amos out of the hat because I was
in the process of leveling my concrete and remembered Amos and his plumb
fine. "I like prophets who remind us to make things straight." Eye's blurred. |
| They finally left me to
pursue more likely suspects. |
What I forgot to tell them
that one of my ancestor's, a great, great grandfather maybe, by the name
of
Woodruff was once the exalted
President of the Mormon Church. I think my mother thought that particular
side of the family might have some mental quirks. |
| Hey! WhiIe we’re name dropping,
one year the Dalai Lama actually walked on our beach while visiting neighbors
down the way. I'll sell stones on which he walked if any are interested. |
| So, when we’re not sailing
or doing happy hour on the deck, we’re in the swim of life. |
| I’m pretty much caught up
on my magazines. I must confess that the ecclesiastic and theological subjects
I worked through in Christian Century had no ring. In fact I found myself
wondering how anyone could be interested in such subjects. Maybe in the
winter. But in summertime in the Pacific Northwest? |
| It reminded me of the line
in the P.D. James mystery I read earlier this summer. I’m not the mystery
reader that Jean is, but I waded through the whole of "Death in Holy Orders.”
The book was referred to me with hope that. I might be interested in a
bunch of murders in a seminary. I found myself greatly disinterested in
murders and seminaries. (Sorry to my friends in the Seminary industry --
my contributions won't be cut off.) |
But P.D. James had a great
line on page 219 -- if not great, at least accurate -- describing theology
as
“...the intellectual
bastions which men construct to withstand the tides of disbelief.”
The voice was
that of a former seminarian
who admitted that through three years of theological studies his own disbelief
had remained unshaken. I had never thought of theology in exactly those
terms. While theologians may alter some directions of thought, I think
that few find their way to, belief through volumes of theology. |
My mid-summer contribution
to this theological conversation is that I am firmly convinced that more
of my personal outlook on life has been shaped by a lifetime of merging
my life and thought with the world I experience on the shores of Puget
Sound. If you want to formulate a personal theology you can read
volumes of theology. Or,
as is my preference, you can enter into communion with the sun, moon, stars,
tides, rocks, oysters, and
barnacles. You can ask the same questions asked by the prophets and psalmists
and cosmologists and theologians. You may want to write your own theology.
-- Art Morgan,
July 2003
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