Lincoln, Darwin and Unemployment

Unemployed at last! These are the famous opening words of Tom Collin’s classic Australian novel, “Such Is Life.”

Unemployed at last? It seems insensitive to say these words at a time when global unemployment is expected to hit 50 million in 2009. How could losing your job be such a moment of glee and relief? It’s like saying, “Ah, finally my bank account is empty, or at long last my hips are arthritic.”

I don’t expect its true for everyone, but I keep meeting people who announce their lay off with a sense of cautious optimism. I can understand joy at good news. The fact that January retail sales rose by 1% is cause for cautious optimism. But I don’t immediately understand the joy of being laid off.

I look to Darwin and Lincoln for the answer. They both share today as a birthday, and they share much else in common. They were both heretics in the truest sense of the word. They chose to follow their own intellect and wisdom even when it meant being unpopular. Like other fine heretics, Jesus and Einstein, St Francis and Galileo, they promoted the idea that all things are related.

This was a radical departure from the worldview that they (and many of us) inherited. We were taught that life is like a pre pay phone card. The beginning and ending is pre-determined. In this analogy the phone company is God. God made the world with an order that we are not to mess with, lest we breach our contract.

The truth of evolution is so liberating. Even death, especially death, is necessary for natural selection. Without huge amounts of death, nothing changes. Without huge change, nothing new can emerge.

And this doesn’t have to compromise religious beliefs in any way. If God is the source, evolution is the process. If God did it, Darwin described it. Or maybe to continue the phone analogy- Evolution is God’s way of doing upgrades.

While some find a manual for pre-pay creationism in Genesis, I see Genesis as free form brilliance. It is ancient poetry describing evolution before they had words or science to match. It is camp-fire story telling with the intention of praising an unseen order to which they felt intimately related. This unseen whole grounded them as it does us, no matter what name you call it. It gave them a moral compass, as it does us. It gave them a sense of wondrous kinship, as it does us.

I’m excited about Darwin’s birthday. I’m excited to be part of a community that embraces the best of science without fear. I hope to alleviate any anxiety about embracing evolutionary theory, and to show the spiritual liberation that evolution points to.

And now I get it. Unemployment, no matter how death-like it feels, is a natural selection for new possibilities and growth. Unemployed at last. Such is evolutionary hope.


NB I ran my thoughts by our resident physicist Howard Van Till (another fine heretic) to make sure I wasn’t committing any scientific blasphemy. He replied with a nice description of genetic variation and natural selection. He said I could include it here

Spontaneous genetic variation is the way that Earth's ecosystem explores new possibilities for life forms. No exploration = nothing new to look forward to. Thank "God" for genetic exploration.

Natural selection = go with whatever happens to work best at this time and place. That implies that the future will be interesting but admits that the details are yet to be worked out. This approach preserves the possibility of surprise. Thank "God" for surprise.


One last note- I LOVE this Darwin quote on attention.

“Attention, if sudden and close, graduates into surprise; and this into astonishment; and this into stupefied amazement.” Darwin Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals p. 278

Simplifying My Inner World

"There are only two ways to live your life: one is as though nothing is a miracle; the other is as if everything is. I believe in the latter." Albert Einstein

It was such an ordinary situation. But ordinary is often where the gold is found. I was driving to my daughter’s ballet recital, due to begin at 5. It was 4.55 and I was just around the corner. I was on time. Can you believe that I actually considered stopping at the store to pick up some lemons? For a moment I thought I could do that and still be on time. I had a momentary debate between the part of me that likes to complicate life, and the part of me that said “my purpose here is to watch my daughter dance. Just do that.” The second voice won out. When I got to the store after the recital, I was told that someone had not ten minutes earlier bought all the lemons. Poetic justice? Not really. My need for lemons was neither poetic nor a matter of national security.

Here’s the important part of the story. The recital! It was AMAZING. My 6 year old did her thing. She was so beautiful and poised, and loved performing her moves. I was completely transfixed by her. The recital lasted all of about 3 minutes, the culmination of several months’ preparation. For those 3 minutes, I had this incredible sensation that this was the most significant moment of my life. I knew that I would achieve nothing more lasting in my whole life than soaking up the presence of that moment. It was all of everything, full of grace and beauty.

Something peculiar has washed over me since arriving back from Australia. Everything feels less complicated. The calm of being on vacation has stayed with me. Two physical effects have pleased me. 1. I have never recovered from jetlag more quickly. 2. I lost weight on vacation, while eating whatever I wanted to eat. I almost always put on weight on vacation.

I don’t know this for sure, but I can’t help wondering if my body is maintaining healthier levels of cortisol than it has in the past. There is one other physical effect that I hesitate to mention, lest I speak too soon. All my life, I’ve wanted a six pack. I’ve never even come close. Suddenly, I see two little dimples (just below my man boobs). It’s the beginnings of a two pack, and fills me with great pride and joy. Just today I heard someone say that high cortisol levels can lead to an oversized awning over a man’s toy store; an ample liquid grain storage facility.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I feel better than I have in a long time. Meditation no doubt helps. Diet is crucial. Exercise helps. Perspective is essential. But most importantly, dwelling in gratitude for the incredible joys and privileges that fill my life, becomes a beautiful cycle. Calm leads to more calm. Cortisol balance leads to greater life balance that balances cortisol levels and so it goes.

It’s all there in front of me, and it’s not complicated. I could wish for nothing more than to dwell in many daily moments with the contentment I had while watching my sweetie dance. My family is the greatest cause for gratitude in my life. Every one of my family members mirrors something essential and beautiful, spiritual beacons in my life. We don’t get it all right. But we do our best.

I’m so pleased to be able to introduce our new family blog. It’s called “At Home With Spirit”. Meg and I want to share some of our attempts to raise our kids to appreciate the beauty and power that surround them, as well as sharing their ability to frustrate and inspire us, all within 5 minutes. Meg has written the first post, and it’s typical of her; fun, spirited, profound, wise and beautiful. Check it out.

http://homewithspirit.blogspot.com/

"Miracles happen every day. Not just in remote country villages or at holy sites halfway across the globe, but here, in our own lives. They bubble up from their hidden source, surround us with opportunities, and disappear. They are the shooting stars of everyday life. When we see shooting stars, their rarity makes them seem magical, but in fact, they streak across the sky all the time. We just don't notice them during the day, dazzled as we are by sunlight, and at night they emerge only if we happen to look up at the right place in a clear, dark sky. Although we think of them as extraordinary, miracles also streak across our consciousness every day. We can choose to notice or ignore them, unaware that our destinies may hang in the balance. Tune into the presence of miracles, and in an instant, life can be transformed into a dazzling experience, more wondrous and exciting than we could even imagine. Ignore it, and an opportunity is gone forever." Deepak Chopra

Can Rick Warren Give a Spirit Driven Invocation?

On a tiny peninsula in Washington, inside a domed temple, there is an awesome statue of Thomas Jefferson. He is on a high pedestal, standing calm and tall in a long coat with a gaze that seems fixed somewhere far beyond “today”. Some of Jefferson's most famous words are set in the great stone panels that surround the statue. They are Jefferson’s words of freedom, gifts to future vistors. These words have expanded the vision and compassion of generations of freedom-loving people across the globe.

Jefferson believed that church and state should remain separate. He never, however, imagined that spirit and state could ever be separate. To remove spirit from state is to divorce wisdom, imagination and compassion from a nation’s vision. Without spirit, a nation will die a colorless death.

Much has been said about the selection of Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Pastor, to do the Inauguration Invocation. The progressive world is divided between those who support his selection on the grounds of bridge building, and those who think his selection is an offense to the LGBT community. It feels pointless to add my opinion to those already offered. Too much has been said about a decision that is already made.

Warren will give the invocation. His judgment, as well as the judgment of Obama, will be tested by the spirit in which he offers his words. He would do well to visit Jefferson’s Memorial before writing his invocation. If he catches the spirit of the founding fathers, his prayer will be part of the healing.

Let’s face it. In a few short sentences, Warren can’t possibly say what all parties want him to say. But he can catch the spirit of the occasion. Obama is banking on Warren catching this spirit.

All sides will have to give a little ground to Warren. For my part, I will have to accept that he will probably invoke a more defined, personal God than I care to relate to. Evangelicals will have to accept that he probably won’t take the opportunity to push any family values agenda.

He can’t say everything, but if he catches the spirit of Jefferson, he can say something that unites people. This is a great opportunity for Warren, and because I believe in the power of spirit, I believe Warren can still catch it. He can say something that affirms all people, especially those who have been marginalized by a government that brought religion too close and moved spirit too far away.

Warren has said some ignorant and hateful things about sexuality. Now is his chance to transcend his religious perspective in the interest of healing. If he catches the spirit of Thomas Jefferson, he will weep in wonder at the miracle of human diversity. His invocation will follow suit.

Warren can invoke a God so generous and wondrous that people fall to their knees, imagining the possibilities. He need not put too much definition on the God he invokes, lest he divide the nation further. He can touch the human longing for healing that is so strong at this point in history. He can point us all to our power and purpose that we are the ones we have been waiting for. We elected Obama. Obama takes responsibility for his appointments and decisions. We all create our future.

When Einstein said these words, I can only imagine he was gazing at something like The Jefferson Memorial-

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”

I wonder if Warren can help the nation to stand rapt in awe with his words. Obama has done it often enough. The whole inauguration will be an event of such wonder, and transformation. I’m prepared to give Warren a chance. Are you? I expect him to catch the spirit of mysterious connectedness; that our destiny is one, and that we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.