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| This evening's sunset in Calmar |
Okay... Thirty Days in and I am sad today. Sad that Simone Weil only had 34 years of life. At first I found it hard to think that she had something of wisdom to pass along to me at 57. I remember me around her age. I was heavy into the Pentecostal scene. I couldn't even imagine walking near to the thoughts and queries that Simone Weil had. I wasn't introduced to the idea of thinking beyond denominational belief structures back then. I was told what, how and why to believe what I did. Church wasn't about thinking... I was just looking for a place that wasn't boring and I found it. That's right. The Lutheran church was boring; The Pentecostal church wasn't.
I did find something interesting in Courtney's chapter on Weil.
“In La Pesanteur et la Grâce (Gravity and Grace), a collection of her reflections, she says religion hinders true faith when religion gives us God in a way that consoles us. In other words:
if we find rest and comfort
in the God our religion presents to us
(seen)
then the God we’re accepting is an idol
standing between us and the Real God
(unseen).
For Weil, the Real God is one that disturbs and destabilizes instead of comforting, and she insists that the purpose of religion is to open us up to longing. Instead of offering succor, religion should continuously generate our desire for the Real.” Courtney Cantrell
Excerpt From Appetite for Antithesis: (De)Knowing God in a Lenten Practice
Comfort seems to be the bedrock of the religion I grew up with and embraced for four decades. Who doesn't want to be comfortable. It explains so much cognitive dissonance in religious circles. There's not thinking and not questions... because comfort is the requirement. To think and to ask questions is uncomfortable... and we aren't going for that.
I checked my blog. I didn't find any reflecting in the other AFL years on Simone Weil. I don't know why I didn't register with her. Maybe it was her age. Not sure. Her story captivates me more than her words. Oh yeah... that would hurt right there. As a writer... I would hope my words captivate people, but maybe all I have to offer is my story.
