Posted by giveawayboy on January 17, 2006 at 13:07:38:
In Reply to: Re: holy muppets creating symbolic worlds posted by cav on January 05, 2006 at 17:27:49:
: : Sure--this is a common phenomenon. Too often what is informing our lack of "expectations" is an unwillingness to understand the other--a fear of that which is alien to us and may challenge our sacred reality.
: : Let me take this to the next level. The ultimate use of language is in the creation of symbolic worlds in which to dwell. These worlds affect how we interpet reality, the world, God, ourselves, everything. The failure (unwillingness) to pass over into the symbolic worlds of the stranger is to completely misunderstand them at the highest level. The willingness and commitment to pass over into other symbolic worlds is the beginning of wisdom, and opens one to new revelations of the Holy (wholly) other and the possibility of self-transcendence and new horizons. God reveals Himself through the stranger; God is the ultimate stranger. This is why hospitality to the stranger is one of the highest virtues in true holiness. To know God, we must embrace the stranger. More than that, we must become the stranger, alienated even to our own traditions, to transcend our dualistic sacred order and truly encounter the Holy.
: I've noticed this about communication...the creating of worlds. I mean a good speaker or story-teller is someone who can draw the listener into that world they are trying to create and help them see it from the perspective of the speaker. But I've seen times when that fails miserably and the result is truly two people on the same planet in different worlds. I once heard a sermon where the pastor was trying to illustrate that God would give us the ability to minister to those around us despite apparent obstacles if we only stepped out to act in the moment, and he used the example, something like, "have I ever taken the chance to talk to that Spanish neighbor? Maybe I'm afraid. I don't speak Spanish, but if I step out and do it, who knows how God will provide and we'll be able to touch the other person." In the context of the sermon it was clear that he did not mean that God would miraculously make you able to speak Spanish so you could say hi to your neighbor(could happen, but not likely). But afterward a person who had been nodding agreeably the whole time said to me, "You know I never thought about God making me able to speak Spanish. I'm going to try it!"
: As for the ideas of otherness and moving beyond ourselves in the knowledge of God, I don't have room to write all that comes to mind. But I'm reminded most of those transcendent glimpses. The kind of thing that can't be communicated but is clearly from beyond our realm of knowledge. And how people who write about them are so often misunderstood. They seem too complex, or too shallow, or just crazy, when what they are trying to do is serve as a guide to take people up to the last moment they can recognize...the jumping off point so to speak. Unfortunately the place keeps moving...but I guess that's because it only intersects with our world in tangential places. Strangeness, otherness. We fear it, we avoid it, but in it we find such worlds.
Does this have anything to do with the randomness of Grover's foot seen mid-air, the blue fuzziness and the variations of light and shade in a closeup shot, of something we could never recognize until we moved out far enough, or seeing a hurling Kermit, like some perverse sattelite from behind and imagining that the back of his eyes were little golfballs imbedded into the green? Does it have anything to do with contemplations of psychotic flying fish or random explosions accompanied by laughter? Could we find a new meaning for human existence and mysticism in all of this? Who knows? I know this much. I've Ernie's, Bert's and Oscar's feet before. Not to mention, Tele's. So there is life beyond waist level.