Skip to main content

Just Another Sucker

Yesterday, my old friend John M-B came up to visit me. We spent the day at the beach, talking about life. John's a UCC minister turned therapist; in addition to being a newbie Quaker, I'm a therapist turned teacher. We always have tons to talk about. So it wasn't until the trip back that I got to talking about recent spiritual developments in my own life, including joining Ministry and Worship, and my feeling of just how much I have to learn before I'll be able to talk about all this and make sense.

John laughed at me (one of the things I love about him most). Then he said, "You know what your problem is? You've always been a sucker for God."

I love that. I really love it when somebody finds a way to say something that's really true--and says it in a way that cuts truth down to size.

Yep. I'm just another sucker. I'm not sure what "God" means, but I do think that I am indeed a sucker for it... And John has known me long enough to laugh with me about it.

And, lest I forget, the last meeting of M&W was much less frightening. I was a lot more comfortable asking dumb questions--and it doesn't matter if they aren't dumb questions, because you never know that until after you ask them anyway--and M has agreed to be an offical answerer of dumb questions for me. Which helps a lot. Plus, we laughed a lot. (I don't know if I can trust spirituality without laughter; hence my delight with John's turn of phrase...)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Quaker Pagan Day Book: Testimonies and Queries

Pagans often argue about how to define who we are.  What are the boundaries--between Wicca and Witchcraft, between Heathens and Pagans, between polytheists, pantheists, and non-theists...  While I could do without the acrimony, we're a new as well as an old religious movement, so it makes sense that like any adolescent, we are fascinated by questions of identity. I will admit to preferring the Quaker approach to identity, though: rather than trying to create the definitive checklist of belief that make someone a "real Quaker," Friends typically share a body of testimonies and questions for reflection with those who are drawn to the Religious Society of Friends. "Do you feel this same sort of spiritual leading?" Friends ask one another.  "Does this speak to the condition of your soul, as it does to ours?" Queries, not checklists of doctrine, hold the ways Quakers approach discernment, including around membership.  And though no individual can declar...

Peter on Grief and Communities

Well, that was unexpected. For the last year, ever since my mom's health took a sharp downturn, I've been my dad's ride to Florence Congregational Church on Sundays. That community has been important for my dad and the weekly outing with me was something he always looked forward to and enjoyed, so I didn't mind taking him there. It meant giving up attending my own Quaker meeting for the duration, but I had already been questioning whether silent waiting worship was working for me. I was ready for a sabbatical. A month ago, my dad was Section-Twelved into a geriatric psych hospital when his dementia started to make him emotionally volatile. I had been visiting him every day at his assisted living facility which was right on my way home from work, but the hospital was almost an hour away. I didn't see him at all for three weeks, and when I did visit him there, it actually took me a couple of seconds to recognize him. He was slumped forward in a wheel chair, lo...

What Do You Mean, Quaker Pagan?

"What do you mean, Quaker Pagan? You can't possibly be both!" Every now and then, we do get a comment on the blog that, if politely worded, does drive at basically that point. Usually the critic is a Quaker and a Christian, though I have certainly heard similar points raised by Pagans. Let me state a few things up front. Peter and I both do consider ourselves Pagan. Neither of us considers ourselves to be Christian--I never was one, and Peter hasn't been for decades. And we do consider ourselves to be Quakers... as does our monthly meeting, which extended us membership after the normal clearness process. We consider ourselves Quaker Pagans. (Why not Pagan Quakers? Pure aesthetics; we think the word order sounds better with Q before P.) Here's the argument for why Peter and I can't possibly be both: 1. Paganism is a non-Christian religion. 2. Quakers are a Christian denomination. 3. ERGO... Yes. We've considered that argument, oddly eno...