Well. I begin the living of my 69th year of Life in this incarnate, "mortal" form! I am now married, to Dennis, my partner of nearly ten years. I've been retired for 6 years, having spent 41 years as a priest in the Episcopal Church. From the age of 21 until 35, I was a monk of the Episcopal Order of the Holy Cross - a religious order which, like most religious orders (certainly in the Episcopal Church) was /is 99% Gay. More on that in the future of course! Dennis retired on June 20th, 2014. He gets his Social Security this month ..... and I get spousal benefits: keep this in mind, you same sex folks who have recently married and are of the appropriate age! We are presently at the beginning of a "farewell" tour for 4 months in our lovely little Prius C (getting an average of 55 mpg), visiting friends and family. We are divesting ourselves of all our present possessions, getting our house in Silver City NM ready to rent, and in early December we are moving to Ecuador. Dennis and I decided that, in "retirement", we wanted Life to be an Adventure!
On April 3, 2014, I formally renounced my orders in the Episcopal Church. More on THAT later too!
I read this this morning: “The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off!” Good ole Gloria Steinem! I don't, however, feel pissed off in having "discovered" in my advanced age the "truth" that for the most part institutionalized "religion" is "failed" religion. Meaning - having spent 45 years pondering this business - that most religions began as an attempt to assist human beings to experience their unity with all Existence and so be liberated to live as deeply, joyously, profoundly, fully, as possible. They all developed "paths" i.e., religions, to guide people towards the Goal, which goes by many different names. My view is that they all have essentially failed ..... collapsing into organizations which spend most of their resources on self-perpetuation, providing mostly ways for people to feel good about themselves and to denigrate other paths and their followers. My sense is that this is now pervasive throughout the World ... and the human community is in a pretty sad state. The truth pisses me off ... but it also has set me free: free to be grateful for the vision of the unity off all things, and to try to live out of that core within myself.
All "belief", I now accept, based on the past 50 years of my Life, is personal choice. No "belief", no "sacred text", no philosophy, is "right". All are human attempts to understand the wonder we call Life. Each of us is responsible for making the choices concerning our "beliefs", and for living them out with integrity.
These are the things I'll be reflecting on in this blog ..... alone of course with the experiences of people and places that Dennis and I will have as we set out on our Adventure. If you are interested, follow along. And I'll be happy to receive any comments and your own thoughts and ideas ..... as long as they aren't just mean or nasty!
Cheers!
July 8, 2014
Happy Birthday!
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