Day 45: Bad Friday's new tradition.

 

I decided to incorporate Jesus Christ Superstar: Arena Tour 2012 into my day today.  I first watched it last year on my birthday which coincided with Bad Friday.  (Oh yeah... ditching the Good label for this day... it seems so unfitting) 

It is still pretty powerful.  I can't get over Tim Minchin and Ben Forster's vocals in this production.  They both are amazing vocalists and this show is such a tribute to their skill.  

I am glad I am at the end of this forty-five day journey.  I think I'm done thinking about thinkers.  Time to focus more on collecting  postcards and connecting with people from around the world.  

Today, I got to chat with someone from Egypt who is sending me some postcards of the pyramids, Sphinx and the Red Sea.  I am wanting to expand my knowledge and use the opportunity that the postcards give me to learn more about the countries I am hearing from and writing to.  

I still have Courtney's book to finish... Looking forward to getting caught up and back on track with the last two weeks of chapters.  It has been a helpful read and a fine companion on this AFL journey.  

Day 44: There is nothing more beautiful!

 Well this is it.  Tomorrow is Good Friday and my annual tradition to watch Jesus Christ Superstar awaits me.  I didn't get much out of this week.  I think I tried one reflection and fell asleep while listening.  I awoke and forgot what was said and sung.  Oops.  

I did save the reflections in case I do get inspired to try again, or in case I need a sleeping pill.  It's not that they are boring... just relaxing.  

I realize that what I got out of this journey was the community more than the content.  That is the whole story with me... the people matter more than the presentation.  

I value a group of people who are a safe place for this curious agnostic.  We don't all have to agree or line up with our theology or lack there of... but we listen and share space.  I can't think of anything more beautiful.  

Day 43: Obligated

I have three days left to post.  It's 9:00 pm and it's bed time.  I have not been inspired to write.  I feel obligated to finish this week with a post each day.  Is that why I'm writing... because I'm obligated to write.  Where is the fun in that?  Can anything good come out of being obligated?  

A friend of mine claims obligation as the reason she needs to go to church three times over Easter.  I remember those years.  When church was an obligation to fulfill.  I guess that is why I don't do church anymore.  I feel for her... and thought I had gone past that in my life.  But here I am "obligated" to post each day until Lent is over.  Is that any different?  

Day 42: Nothing Deep or Profound Today

 I am so behind.  There is only one week to go and I have at least three or four chapters in Courtney's book from last week to read yet.  I just haven't been motivated to get invested in this week yet.  Maybe after the weekend is over and there is no deadline, I can finish the book and take in what remains to be taken in.  I guess the lack I am connecting with is a lack of ambition.  

I am thankful for yet another ride... but will be glad when I don't have to sit at my computer and wonder what to say at the end of the day that is deep and profound.  

Day 41: It's a small world after all.

 The world is a small place when one looks at it from the stars.   I wish we had that kind of vision.  Maybe we wouldn't be so political, polarized and arrogant.  Maybe we would be more like the humanity that Gene Roddenberry envisioned in his Star Trek Universe.  A humanity without labels and without borders.  

It's a small world... sung and play by "The World" 

Day 40: Inspiration from Courtney

“Since I first became aware of Peter Rollins’s work in 2018, I’ve come to see embracing of contradiction/Lack as vital. Where I initially found it not only unrelate-to-able but downright antithetical to my paradigm, I now perceive it as the greatest freeing I could possibly experience. It’s liberation from running myself down in my head. It’s liberation from the exhaustion of forcing myself to chase after “becoming a better person.” It’s liberation from society’s neverending demand that I figure out and then raggedly chase whatever it is that makes me truly happy.

It is also liberation from religion’s relentless, crushing pressure to “obey God, improve my relationship with God, please God, be perfect.”

McGowan’s way of presenting it all feels very accessible to me. My problem, as ever, is the how. What’s the practical side? How do I turn tarrying with contradiction into something that’s more than a mental/meditative exercise? Practices such as AfL do, in a strange way, “recenter” me to remaining decentered. (YAY, PARADOX.) But I need more than a yearly Lenten practice. I need a frequent, regular “Sabbath” of pyrotheological decentering, something that grows me into true satisfaction with and enjoyment of[…]”

Excerpt From

Appetite for Antithesis: (De)Knowing God in a Lenten Practice

Courtney Cantrell

Today, I just want to share some inspiration from Courtney.  I am still plowing through her book and enjoying the journey.  I am so glad she is walking alongside my last AFL.  

One more week.  

Day 39: Send me a dog!

It's bed time and I don't have much energy to write anything profound.  Maybe that will come tomorrow.  We have one more week...  

I am grateful, and tired.   It's time to move on soon.  My head needs a refresh and a different direction.  

There is nothing like a Naked Pastor cartoon to fill the empty void in my inspiration.