Unknowing in 2011
There are changes afoot here at the Website of Unknowing, and I thought my dear readers would like to know a bit about what I have planned.
First of all, I’m working toward giving the site a new look. Not much to say on this front, except that I’ll be working with one of the leading designers of websites for authors, and am very excited at the prospect of giving the site a facelift — which, hopefully, will make it more consistent with the overall message I hope to convey.
Secondly, I’m looking at giving the “pages” section of the website a makeover. Currently there are sections devoted to Christian mysticism, to Celtic spirituality, to spiritual formation, my archives, and various other topics. It feels rather cluttered and hodgepodgy to me — so I want to take advantage of creating a new look for the site to simultaneously create a new structure for it as well. I’m not sure yet exactly how I’ll format it, but I’m thinking along these lines:
- The Blog will continue to be the site’s “Home” page.
- The obligatory About Me page will include my bio, photos, calendar, and miscellaneous archives.
- A Books section will give detailed information about my writings as well as other books I recommend.
- The Praxis section will introduce readers to key elements of contemplative spirituality, Celtic wisdom, and Christian mysticism.
- The Exemplars section will be set up to celebrate the lives and writings of saints, mystics, and contemporary authors whose work I find inspirational and/or instructive.
Finally — and I hope this doesn’t upset anyone (and it might make some people happy) — I expect to be posting less frequently to my blog in the future. Over the last few months I have tried to post something every day. I’ve enjoyed this, and have been amazed at the wonderful response from readers who have come to be regular respondents to my writing and the quotations that I post for your consideration. I really have enjoyed managing this blog. Unfortunately, though (or, again, fortunately depending on your point of view), both professional and personal demands on my time over the next few months (which include two writing projects, a number of speaking engagements, and of course the ongoing need to maintain my prayer life before all other writing commitments) have made it necessary for me to let go of updating the blog daily. I’m not sure what kind of rhythm I will settle in to: maybe several times a week, maybe only once a week. I’m committed to updating the blog at least once a week, but less than daily. We’ll see how that plays out.
So there you go. That’s what I have in mind for the future of the blog. To you who visit and read this site, I am truly grateful. Thank you for joining in the conversation.
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas, from our house to yours.
Here’s a picture of our tree. But even more important, here’s a Christmas story to read — and pass on.
Consume Less, Enjoy More
It is possible to overdo ANYTHING...
For as long as I can remember, I’ve had issues with digestion. It’s a family thing: my dad complained about indigestion, and apparently had an ulcer (no one talks about ulcers any more. Did they go out of fashion when acid reflux kicked in?). Speaking of acid reflux, I finally took my indigestion to the doctor, started taking a proton-pump inhibitor, and had an endoscopy when I discovered that I had a condition called Short Barrett’s Esophagus. The “short” means it only was at the bottom of my esophagus, which I suppose is a good thing; but given that my grandmother died of esophageal cancer and that Barrett’s is a risk factor for the same, I’m pretty much going to have an endoscopy every three years or so from now until the end of my life. Better safe than sorry.
I’ve learned a lot about acid reflux since my diagnosis, and I know all the tricks like eating early, sleeping on an incline, and avoiding certain trigger foods (which I don’t always do well, which is why sleeping on an incline is so relevant). But the simplest way to manage reflux is, ironically, often the hardest thing to do: and that’s simply to eat less food.
Yesterday I read an article about how to avoid a heart attack over the holidays (one of my brothers has had several heart attacks and one of my grandfathers had heart disease, so it’s something that I do have some concern over). Of course, the article was a litany of common sense advice: be careful while shoveling snow, monitor your stress level, even get a flu shot. But not surprisingly, the number one suggestion was this:
Avoid overindulging in food or alcohol. The risk of an attack appears to double in the two hours after a particularly large meal.
It’s so simple, isn’t it? Eating less reduces the risk of something small like indigestion, and something major like a coronary. It’s one of two must-do’s when we wish to lose weight (and yes, the other one is to exercise). So why don’t we “just do it” — why do we keep on eating so much?
Oh, I know the chorus. We’re an affluent society; we eat to manage stress or difficult emotions; we have survival instincts that nobody knows how to turn off. I think another issue is that we’re so distracted. We eat while watching TV, while reading, while driving, while checking our email. We eat while flirting, while striking a business deal, while arguing with our spouse. We over-consume food because we’re over-consuming life.
“Less is more” has been on my mind a lot lately. I need fewer possessions than what I currently have. I need to eat less food, to read fewer books, to spend less time online. Is this a function of my age (I just turned 50)? Maybe so, but to anyone younger than me who is reading this, all I can say is “don’t wait!” Don’t wait until you are twenty or fifty pounds overweight before you start seriously modifying your food intake. Don’t wait until you have a heart attack — or develop Barrett’s Esophagus — before committing to eat less. Don’t wait until you realize that you own so many un-read books that it will take you thirty years to read them all, before you start winnowing out your library. Don’t wait until somebody takes pictures of your living room and uses them on a poster for Clutterholics Anonymous before you begin to manage your accumulation of stuff.
Consume less, enjoy more. Less food, less stuff. More life, more health, more time for the really important things like family and prayer. It’s my new mantra.
Watching this makes me think I’m under-utilizing my iPad
Here’s an interesting little bit of hi-tech Christmas cheer from North Point Community Church, a megachurch located here in the Atlanta area.
Giving away the Word
The New Living Translation.
I just received this in my in-box, and thought it was worth passing on. The folks behind the New Living Translation of the Bible are currently running a contest on their Facebook page. You can enter to win a trip for four to a center in Florida where efforts are being made to translate the Bible into, well, pretty much every language there is (yes, I know this is a hot issue — but if people are going to embrace the Christian faith, it makes sense for them to have the Bible in their own language). By entering, you can vote for one of three ministries to receive a cash grant (my personal favorite is The Dream Center which works with gang members and other at-risk youth in Los Angeles). Entering the sweepstakes makes you eligible to download a free recording of Matthew West reading the Christmas story. You’ll also be in the running to win Bibles for yourself or for a ministry of your choosing.
Want to learn more about the contest? Visit the New Living Translation Facebook page.
Why Narnia fans should give the Dawn Treader movie a second chance
Okay — my “revised” review of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie has been published at the Huffington Post. Hint: I compare the book and movie versions to two of the gospels.
Check it out:
Spiritual Lessons from the ‘Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ Movie
Just for fun…
Here’s a little promotional video that the good folks at Paraclete Press put together. Have fun…
If you want to order a copy of the The Lion, the Mouse and the Dawn Treader, click here.
The Dawn Treader Movie: Give it a Second Chance
I don’t want to say too much right now — I’ve written a piece that I’ve submitted to another blog; if they turn it down I’ll post it here, and if they publish it I’ll post a link. But here’s the gist of what I have to say: I went to see the film adaptation of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader for the second time yesterday, and I liked it much, much better than the first time around. Indeed, I think the trick is simply to let go of expectations. Yes, the story in the movie is different than the book; and yes, I still say the book is better. But the movie has some treasures of its own. I won’t say more now… but look for a more in-depth post (or a link, if it ends up being off-site).
And so see Dawn Treader! If you’ve seen it once, even if you didn’t like it, give it a second chance. I think it’s worth it.
Quote for the Day
One of the greatest favors bestowed on the soul transiently in this life is to enable it to see so distinctly and feel so profoundly that it cannot comprehend God at all. …They who know God most perfectly perceive that God is infinitely incomprehensible.
Those who have less clear vision do not perceive so clearly how greatly God transcends their vision.
— John of the Cross
quoted by Aldous Huxley
in The Perennial Philosophy
Byron Borger reviews my Dawn Treader Book
The first review of The Lion, the Mouse and the Dawn Treader (or, at least, the first review to come to my attention) is in!
It’s by Byron Borger and was written for the blog of the Hearts & Minds Bookstore in Dallastown, PA. It’s part of a long post he wrote called: C. S. Lewis: educational DVDs, books, devotional, Bible and other recent resources. As the title suggests, the post lists a gracious plenty of new and recent resources about the renowned apologist and Narnia-maker. Follow the link above to read the entire post; I’ve quoted his very kind write-up about my book here:
The Lion, the Mouse and the Dawn Treader: Spiritual Lessons from C.S. Lewis’ Narnia Carl McColman (Paraclete) $14.99 Do you seek the “radiant light of the silver sea”? Does it even choke you up to ask, to hear the invitation? This is a brief, but serious exploration of Lewis’ story, indeed, but it is more. The author is a bit of a character, himself, a former new age spiritualist, who discovered the reality of the risen Christ by his study of Celtic spirituality. Ahh, ahh, what a journey. And what a fine person to do a book like this, weaving deep truths from ancient writers (he has also wrote The Big Book of Christian Mysticism) relating them to the popular Narnia stories. Popular Jesuit writer James Martin says it is “Playful, provocative and profound.” Pretty good for an Irishman, eh?
The back cover notes that Dawn Treader is built around the Christian journey:from resisting God’s grace to discovering the reality of sin to finding relief in the waters of baptism. This voyage,for Christians of all ages, if full of adventures, temptation, discomforting silence, dealing with “Dufflepuds” (distractions) and a final terrifying journey to the “Island of Darkness” (the dark night of the soul.) As the Dawn Treader sails beyond where the stars sing, you will discover a world of wonders characterized by light and clarity, and encounter Aslan—Christ—himself.
I love the quote by Trina Paulus, author of the old classic Hope for the Flowers, who wrote “You can touch the hole journey of the Christian search for God–and likely be spurred toward renewal in your own life—by getting on this Narnian ship.” McColman brings a commonplace, yet mystical tone to this, and while it is playful, he gets at some profound stuff in ways that many Lewis interpreters do not. Chalk it up to his Celtic insight; he sees Narnia as the “thin place” which it surely is. Very interesting, accessible, and inviting.
The Dawn Treader Movie: Lots of Excitement, But No Star Song
Okay, here is my initial response to the movie adaptation of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which I saw Friday evening. Spoilers abound. Read on at your own risk. (more…)
A Taste of Faith
If you live in or near metro Atlanta, I invite you to an exciting interfaith event tomorrow, December 12, 2010, from 3:00 to 5:00 PM at the Great Hall of Shallowford Presbyterian Church, 2375 Shallowford Road, NE, Atlanta, GA 30345.
The event is called “A Taste of Faith.” It is sponsored by the Atlanta Interfaith Leaders Fellowship. Here is the description of the event from the Shallowford website:
Join the Atlanta Interfaith Leaders Fellowship, founded by Ben Johnson, for its annual Taste of Faith. Enjoy fine food and fellowship with members of the Atlanta Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian communities. Each will have booths and members present to introduce you to their own unique holiday celebrations with colorful displays, excellent food samplers from around the world, and joyfilled conversation. At about 4:00 p.m., Ben Johnson will speak briefly on his interfaith vision and the work of the Atlanta Interfaith Leaders Fellowship. There is no charge for this event and all are welcome—no reservations required. See you at the Taste of Faith!
I’ll be there. Hopefully I’ll see you there too.
(Interfaith graphic comes from www.interfaithresources.com. Visit their site to purchase a variety of interfaith resources).
The “Voyage” Starts Today
Why is the Mouse smiling?
Today the movie adaptation of C. S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader opens in American theaters. The third of the Chronicles of Narnia, it features a wondrous sea voyage — a quest in which our heroes (King Caspian, Reepicheep the Mouse, and the English schoolchildren Lucy, Edmund and Eustace) seek the seven Lost Lords of Narnia — but also seek the very end of the world, beyond which lies Aslan’s country itself.
Okay, so they’ve changed the story somewhat. And granted, the movie so far is getting mixed reviews. But the consensus of the reviews I’ve seen seem to indicate that it is a step up from the last Narnia movie, Prince Caspian. It may not be a great movie, but I suspect it will be perfectly enjoyable, and of course, the source material is wonderful.
So go see it. We’re going tonight. I’ll write about more about it at some point over the weekend.
WSCA Interview Tonight
Tonight I’ll be interviewed by Deidre Hebert on WSCA 106.1 FM in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for her “Pagan FM” program. Dee is doing a series on Paganism in conversation with other faiths, and I suspected I was selected to be the Catholic on the show because of my former sojourn in the Pagan community. So the conversation should be interesting: not only about why I am a Catholic, and how I see Catholicism in conversation/dialog with Neopaganism, but also perhaps looking at the dynamics of my own journey, from Episcopalian to Pagan to Catholic.
Anyway, if you’re interested in listening in, the interview will be live, airing from 10:15 to about 11:00 PM tonight, Eastern time. If you’re not in New Hampshire, you can listen online by clicking here.
Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen
On Monday Fran and I went to see Vision, a recent German-language film directed by Margarethe Von Trotta and starring Barbara Sukowa, on the life of the twefth-century visionary abbess, Hildegard of Bingen. Many people in our time know of Hildegard exclusively through her music, thanks to beautiful contemporary recordings like Gothic Voices and Emma Kirkby’s luminous A Feather on the Breath of God. But Hildegard was more than just a composer — she was truly a renaissance woman, centuries before the Renaissance! In addition to being an abbess and a musician, she was a visionary, an herbalist, a healer, a playwright, and a mystic. She corresponded with some of the leading figures in the church in her time, from the pope to Bernard of Clairvaux. She did all this in an age when women had virtually no social standing, making her an icon for feminists. The movie is a beautiful and contemplative retelling of her life, from her entry in the cloister at age 8 through to her midlife (it does not show her death, in the year 1179 at about 81 years of age).
If you like this blog, I think I can safely say you’ll love this movie. So go see it if you can, or at the very least, plan on renting or buying the DVD when it is released. Thankfully, Von Trotta doesn’t seem to have any axes to grind, which makes for a rich movie that I think could be enjoyed by both the convinced faithful and the thoughtful skeptic.
Below is the movie’s trailer, which will give you a sense of the lovely cinematography. I think the trailer plays up the idea of Hildegard as a proto-feminist and church rebel; thankfully the movie itself is much more nuanced in how it portrays Hildegard’s occasional conflicts with her superiors.
On the Perils of Translation
A friend of mine (who prefers to remain anonymous) who blogs about Middle-English word studies related to The Cloud of Unknowing has posted a wonderful and thought-provoking meditation On Translation. He considers the challenge of living in a society where the market pretty much decides what does and doesn’t get published, which means that some pretty dicey translations (and paraphrases) of literary and sacred texts end up getting disseminated.
He uses Rumi as a case study, and his attack on the “highly commercialized franchise” of contemporary Rumi translations/paraphrases is particularly interesting. The key question seems to be this: at what point, when a “translator” so radically tampers with a text that its meaning is significantly altered from the original, is it unethical to even pass the text off as the work of the original author? In a market economy, who gets to say what is and isn’t a responsible translation?
Obviously, I am an advocate for the dissemination of the writings of the Christian mystics as far and wide as possible. But nearly all of the mystics wrote in languages other than English, and the most important English mystics wrote in middle English. So unless you are a polyglot scholar, the question of translation will hover over anyone’s attempts to read the mystics. It’s worth considering, even if most of us will be left with a humble recognition that we have to trust the good will and integrity of the translators, editors and publishers whose work we read.
Once again, here’s the post: On Translation.
Read an excerpt from my new book!
Paraclete Press, the publisher of my new book on the spiritual lessons from Narnia, has posted a generous excerpt from the book in PDF format online. Please take a moment to read it — and if you find it entertaining or useful, I hope you’ll order a copy (or three) for yourself or to give away.
Click here to read an excerpt of The Lion, the Mouse and the Dawn Treader.
Click here to order The Lion, the Mouse and the Dawn Treader from Amazon.com.
Quote for the Day
The problem of mysticism is to endow the mind and will of man with a supernatural experience of God as He is in Himself and, ultimately, to transform a human soul into God by a union of love. This is something that no human agency can perform or merit or even conceive by itself. This work can be done only by the direct intervention of God. Nevertheless, we can dispose ourselves for mystical union, with the help of ordinary grace and the practice of the virtues. We have just seen that, for St. Bernard, the two principal steps in this active preparation were humility and charity, or meekness and compassion. They both are “experiences” of the truth: the truth about ourselves and the truth about others. But since contemplation is an “experience” of God by connaturality, by union of love, St. Bernard sees that a connatural appreciation of the sufferings and sentiments of other men is an excellent preparation for the mystical knowledge of God in the obscure “sympathy” of infused love. After all, contemplation is an intimate knowledge of God that flows from a loving union with His will. And God himself has told us that the ordinary way to that union of wills with Him is union of wills with other men for His sake… We can see that, for St. Bernard and his contemporaries, the true fulfilment of the Cistercian life was something more than the literal observance of the Rule of St. Benedict, more, even, than the practice of perfect fraternal charity in a common life like that of the first Christians. Both of these were only means to a more perfect end: mystical contemplation and union of the soul with God. This must be well understood by anyone who hopes to grasp the full meaning of the Cistercian vocation, whether in the twelfth century or in the twentieth. The Cistercian Order is essentially contemplative, and it is contemplative in the purest and strictest sense of the word.
— Thomas Merton, The Waters of Siloe
Pattycake
This is cute.
Quote for the Day
Vocal prayers, as we know, give no information to God: but they do give us that temper of mind in which we can approach Him… If anyone objects that this is tantamount to saying that vocal prayer is a self-suggestion, I reply that a very great deal of it is self-suggestion; and, moreover, that we ought thus to suggest to our reluctant and wandering minds such devotional ideas… It has always been used by religious persons; and we ought not to be afraid of doing that which has always been done with profit, merely because psychology has given it a new and ugly name.
— Evelyn Underhill, Concerning the Inner Life
The Pope and the Anchoress
Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI dedicated his general audience to speaking about Julian of Norwich. You can read a transcript of the Pope’s message, or just watch the video:
Silence & Writer’s Block
Did the medieval contemplatives suffer from writer's block? Image via Wikipedia
I have a friend who is struggling to complete a dissertation. Entire days can go by without writing a single sentence. Sitting at the computer is an exercise in fear and frustration.
To say my friend has writer’s block is — well, you know, just another label. But like so many labels, it has a measure of usefulness. It’s interesting to read the Wikipedia entry on Writer’s Block. It describes the condition not only as the inability to write, but also “as the affected writer viewing their work as inferior or unsuitable, when in fact it could be the opposite.”
Eek. Even when I am voluble in my literary output, I never quite dodge the bullet of thinking my work is “inferior or unsuitable.” I usually come up with a more colorful or earthy way of describing it. I don’t think this is humility. True humility would be the ability to simply write at the best of one’s ability, to learn from constructive criticism, and then go about one’s business, not worrying too much about what other people think. No, I’m not there. I have a running commentary within me that gleefully points out every weakness, muddled argument, vague description, or ambiguous meaning that can be found. I’m too busy judging my writing to block it!
How do we let go of writer’s block? Of the tendency to condemn our own handiwork, without even bothering to get a second opinion? Like so many writers (Anne Lamott leaps to mind), I just muddle through — I do the writing, I post it to this blog or send it off to my editor, and then hope for the best. I suppose that’s better than not writing at all, but there’s a level on which such self-damnation really sabotages my joy; which means I am not being faithful to the fruit of the Spirit; which means there is sin lurking in there somewhere.
My friend is a person of faith, and so we have talked about the relationship between writer’s block and sin. Like me, my friend works hard to avoid allowing recognition of sin to become an occasion for self-shaming. Saying “I sin by beating myself up” is not meant to be an occasion for further self-flagellation! Rather, by acknowledging our own woundedness, brokenness, and willful turning away from God’s love, we simply create the space within us to turn back to the source of life.
I wonder if there is some way to open up the writer’s block experience as a doorway into contemplation? It’s funny: I sit to rest in silence before God, and my mind chatters away, filled with distractions. My friend sits down at the computer, only to encounter the most unwelcome silence. But what if the silence of writer’s block were to be an occasion for prayer? And for me, what if I met the voice within me that says my work’s not good enough with the same gentle silence by which I greet the distractions that arise during prayer? It seems that silence really can be a writer’s best friend. But like silence in all areas of life, it must be welcomed in order for that quality of friendship to emerge.
