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bay witch musings

~ thoughts on parenting, paganism, science, books, witchcraft, nature, feminism, unitarian universalism, herbalism, cooking, conservation, crafting, the state of humanity, and life by the sea

bay witch musings

Category Archives: quotes/poetry

Maxim Monday: Have respect for suppliants (Ικετας αιδου)

13 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by thalassa in interfaith, paganism, quotes/poetry, religion

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

#delphicmaxims, #paganvalues, behavior, civility in religion, interfaith, interfaith etiquette, maxim monday, prayer, religion and politics, religious freedom, respect, tolerance

delphic maxim 42 respect for supplicants

Its been a while since I’ve done one of these (at least a year, I think), but I came a cross a spot-on blog post on a topic that is near and dear to my heart, and I thought it might be time to bring back Maxim Mondays (not every Monday to be sure, but more often than not at all!).

Originally, I had something of a slightly different tenor in mind.  Something lofty, something about being our best selves, something about respecting the individual and collective search for truth of all people, even those we disagree with. Because I think that having respect was something that should be self-evident among a majority of reasonable people. Because I think that religion has become the scapegoat for the behavior of people who are just assholes.

Christian, Jew, Muslim, shaman, Zoroastrian, stone, ground, mountain, river, each has a secret way of being with the mystery, unique and not to be judged.
~Rumi

Because, when in the presence of the prayers of persons belonging to a religion that is not my own, I take a moment to bow my head, close my eyes, and think of bloody England out of good manners, and respect so that they may have their moment of reverence.   Because I was raised to think that a certain level of civility in public discourse is essential to a diverse society and that most people understand that it takes the cooperation of all peoples to maintain that civility.  Because I think that we should respect the person as a person, even if we disagree with their beliefs.

In fact, I even had it written and scheduled to post tomorrow morning.  And then I deleted it all.  Because I’m sick of some people use their religion as a shield for being an asshole. (really, you should go read this, because the entire post is going to be a rant about it)

Wide differences of opinion in matters of religious, political, and social belief must exist if conscience and intellect alike are not to be stunted, if there is to be room for healthy growth.

~Teddy Roosevelt

Let me first say that this event comes as no surprise (particularly after a similar event a few weeks or so ago).  Let me secondly say that I strongly feel that religion has no part in governance, not even in invocatory prayers.  If you need to pray to do your job, do it on your own time like every other wage earning member of the public is forced to do.  But, with that being said, if we are to acknowledge and continue the tradition of invocations in the legislature, or any other place of civil governance or official state-sponsored event, then it must be open to everyone.

Sure, those who disagree with an invocation certainly have the right to walk out or turn their back or heck, to stand upside down and sing a song. Actually doing so makes them an asshole with no manners.  And, in this case, an asshole with no manners using their religion as the scapegoat for their bad behavior.  If you are a Christian that feels the need to turn your back in protest for an interfaith prayer, you are not “being like Jesus” or showing strength of conviction, you are only showing that you are so insecure in your beliefs that you can’t manage basic civility, and you look like an ignorant bigot.  You’d have been better not to show up at all (and hold your own prayers privately.

If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life’s exciting variety, not something to fear.

~Gene Roddenberry

Religion is a tool.  It can be both beneficial and benign, but it can also be destructive; it all depends on the heart of the person using it.  When one’s heart is bound with hate and darkened with ignorance and fear, religion becomes a tool that divides and destroys. Respecting someone’s expression of their religion does not mean allowing bad behavior to pass without comment.  Respecting religion does not mean tolerating incivility and intolerance.  Respecting religious freedom is not a free pass to allow ashattery to run unchecked.

If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.

~John F. Kennedy

I don’t care what name (or names) are used to address what one believes to be divine in this universe, how our how often one prays, what books one reads, holidays one celebrates, or what dogma (or lack of it) they claim represents that power; I care that one treats others with the same compassion and respect that they would wish for themselves from someone whose beliefs are different from their own.

And if they can’t manage that, then they should at least learn to use some good manners.

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Monday Musings in Verse

09 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by thalassa in poem, quotes/poetry

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

mary oliver, poems, poetry, unitarian universalist

A morning of poems by Mary Oliver, an American poet born in the 1930’s and sometimes called the “unofficial Unitarian Universalist poet-laureate”…

Some Questions You Might Ask

Is the soul solid, like iron?
Or is it tender and breakable, like
the wings of a moth in the beak of the owl?
Who has it, and who doesn’t?
I keep looking around me.
The face of the moose is as sad
as the face of Jesus.
The swan opens her white wings slowly.
In the fall, the black bear carries leaves into the darkness.
One question leads to another.
Does it have a shape? Like an iceberg?
Like the eye of a hummingbird?
Does it have one lung, like the snake and the scallop?
Why should I have it, and not the anteater
who loves her children?
Why should I have it, and not the camel?
Come to think of it, what about the maple trees?
What about the blue iris?
What about all the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight?
What about roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves?
What about the grass?

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

an excerpt from One or Two Things

The god of dirt
came up to me many times and said
so many wise and delectable things, I lay
on the grass listening
to his dog voice,
crow voice,
frog voice; now,
he said, and now,
and never once mentioned forever

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only that you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.

36.768209 -76.287493

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redemped

04 Monday Jul 2011

Posted by thalassa in poem, quotes/poetry

≈ Leave a comment

we need a god who bleeds now

a god whose wounds are not

some small male vengeance

some pitiful concession to humility

a desert swept with drying marrow in honor of the lord

we need a god who bleeds

spreads her lunar vulva & showers us in shades of scarlet

thick & warm like the breath of her

our mothers tearing         to let us        in

this place breaks open

like our mothers bleeding

the planet is heaving              mourning our ignorance

the mood tugs the seas

to hold her/ to hold her

embrace swelling hills/ i am

not wounded i am bleeding to life

we need a god who bleeds now

whose wounds are not the end of anything

*we need a god who bleeds now, by ntozake shange*

36.768209 -76.287493

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Her shining ways (via diary of a randomly selected man)

02 Monday May 2011

Posted by thalassa in quotes/poetry

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Look up at the floating silver moon in her nightly arc. She walks her shining ways and lights the darkened skies. The clouds press down grey but dissipate Beneath the softest touches of her feet. See inside your mind the veils that drape and hide Those outstretched arms, those rounded thighs The unseen body of her inward soul that fills Blind heaven with her ambiguous dance or chase. Feel the rounded shapes and smoothest cover Of her spiritual sk … Read More

via diary of a randomly selected man

36.768209 -76.287493

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…all around goddess, who never left

16 Saturday Apr 2011

Posted by thalassa in quotes/poetry

≈ Leave a comment

City Goddess
by Leah Korican

Goddess of chain link fences
Goddess of street lamps
Goddess of red yellow green
Goddess of black tar

Goddess of help wanted
Goddess of mechanics
Goddess of broken windows
Goddess of public transportation

Goddess of clanking trolley
Goddess of graffiti
Goddess of cracked sidewalk
Goddess of steel suspension spam

Goddess of reflective metal
Goddess of reflective glass
Goddess of shining oil spot
Goddess of mirror

Goddess of hard surfaces
walls brick streets curbs
post folding chair
shopping cart

Goddess of smooth surfaces
mirrors painted lines tiles
wood floorboards aluminum

Goddess of soft surfaces
bus seats croissant
french fry silk suit candy bar

Goddess of rectangles
window boxes sidewalk
street truck back open
door newspaper

Goddess of circles
tabletop lamppost eyes
eyes mouth head coffee cup
doughnut eyes eyes quarter
dime stoplight

Goddess of straight lines
money slot sidewalk crack
window molding street line
wait in line rope line
building edge bridge wire

Goddess of wire spark
Goddess of gold
Goddess of glow
Goddess below above
DOWNTOWN
UPTOWN
ALL AROUND GODDESS
Goddess of on time
Goddess of too late
Goddess of wait
wait wait wait
WALK
Goddess of high heels
GODDESS OF TRUCK ROAR
GODDESS OF SIRENS
GODDESS OF EDGES
GODDESS OF ORANGE DIVIDER CONES
GODDESS OF FLOWER STANDS
GODDESS OF CIGARETTE BUTTS
GODDESS OF WASTE PAPER
GODDESS OF WASTE
GODDESS OF PAPER
GODDESS OF WASTE
GODDESS OF GREEN EXIT
GODDESS OF WHITE ENTER
GOING GODDESS
GODDESS RETURNING
GODDESS GOING
RETURNING GODDESS
GODDESS WHO NEVER LEFT

36.768209 -76.287493

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None is as free as one born on the wave, Born on the wave to the song of the sea; None can be brave until they are free, Free of all, but the call of the sea.

Month By Month

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About me

*Just an FYI: If you are wondering why there's not been a new post recently, new posts have been a bit slowed down by the new job...*

I am a (occasionally doting) wife, a damn proud momma of two adorable and brilliant children, a veteran of the United States Navy, beach addict, (American) Civil War reenactor and Victorian natural history aficionado, lover of steampunk, canoeing fanatic, science professional (and amateur in my preferred field), graduate student, and semi-erratic blogger.

If you have found this blog, you have also figured out that we are a Pagan family.  More aptly, I would describe my theological belief as a pragmatic sort of pantheism with a polytheistic practice and my religion as Unitarian Universalist Pagan.  I practice a bioregional witchery and herbalism (foraging ftw!), mainly working with domestic and elemental magics, and I have a thing for sea deities. For the most part, my blog covers a bit of all of these things, with a bit of randomness tossed in from time to time.

I enjoy playing with my kids, chillin with the hubster, swimming, being nerdy, the great outdoors, NCIS re-runs, chai tea--iced or hot, yoga, trashy romance novels, singing off key, kitchen experiments (of the culinary and non types), surfing the internet and painting.  I also like long walks on the beach and NPR's Science Friday and Neil deGrasse Tyson.  I love to read, sleep in on the weekend, and make the Halloween costumes for my kids every year. I am passionate about watershed ecology and local conservation efforts and vehemently anti-disposable plastics. But most of all...I'm just trying to take extravagant pleasure in the act of being alive.

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