Mercifully cooler this morning, with a ten-day forecast in the 70ºs. Cash has put on her bear suit. (They don't feel temperature really, but they like to change with the seasons.)
I feel more grounded this morning. I'd felt lost yesterday, after the news that my auntie is moving to hospice without ever going home again...
Penny Cooper was helpful:
"You are not lost," she said. "You are right here."
Thank you, Penny Cooper. That is correct.
Soon it will be Rosh Hashanah (Sept. 6), which reminds me––what a wild ride it has been since Ruth Bader Ginsberg died.
I had to double-check to make sure it really was only one year ago.
Crazy to remember Trump was president, there was no vaccine...
Let's see... what is happening?
I am giving up on Flannery O'Connor's letters.
She has one point I'm interested in--her main and maybe her only point--that grace takes the form that suits the circumstances, suits the person.
I appreciate the reminder in the weird circumstances of these times.
But I don't share O'C's belief (her insistence, really) that God will sort things out (in eternity).
That belief seems to restrict rather than enrich her imagination. (Not sure I'm saying that right...)
Racism is a sin, she says, but I am not in sympathy with her "God will sort it out" attitude. I mean, wouldn't that be nice?
But I don't believe it.
It's not as simple as saying, "FO'C is racist."
Hers is an attitude that's sort of like our attitude toward cars.
In the future, people might well look back on us and say,
"How could they keep driving cars knowing it was killing the planet?"
To us, driving cars is so normal, seemingly so inextricably entwined in our economy (like slavery was?), we barely think of it;
or, we may make exceptions for ourselves: I commonly hear people say, "My actions don't matter––corporations are the main polluters".
The helpful thing in that is,
We (I) could use this understanding of how we navigate the challenges of our times, our world, to understand how people in the past navigated theirs.
A good historical question:
What did people in the past think they were doing?
Not, "What do I think they were doing?"
And, in fact, it's exactly that question I DON'T hear FO'C asking--what do other people think they are doing?
It's all, "This is how I see God acting in the world."
Again, I like her perspective on the weirdness of God, but it's extremely limited.
I've read Flannery O'Connor's letters before, and I've gone as far into understanding FO'C as I need or want to.
Oops--gotta go, bink is here to go out for coffee!
XOXO everyone!
