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a different metaphor
Dec. 1st, 2018 11:55 amThose who’ve known me for quite a while, might remember the delight I took in Advent Calendars. That’s fallen away over the last few years, but this year I’m taking an interest again. Sadly, my good dozen calendars are in storage in Virginia. I did pick up a Peanuts calendar and found a couple online.
Loyola Press’ calendar doesn’t start until tomorrow, Dec 2nd. Apparently the Christian Advent works differently from the secular Advent that I'm used to, but I started looking at it today. The commentary on Kadinsky’s Last Judgement is interesting but I didn’t find it particularly engaging.
The related exercise, a guided visualization, which they call an imaginative prayer, didn’t work for me at all. At first it reminded me of Tonglen, a meditation practice out of Tibetan Buddhism. In the Loyola Press visualization, you imagine all the conflicts in the world coming in to your mind. But then, instead of creating light from yourself in the darkness, you imagine that light coming down from above. So I tried rising above the earth to feel all the conflicts and it quickly shifted in my mind to looking for the helpers. Instead I was searching for all the people’s small acts of goodness that were making a difference.
Looking back on my response to their exercise, I’m reminded of the time Barbara Marx Hubbard was trying to work out why she was so in favor of space exploration while her friend wanted to stay on Earth. I don’t recall the exact details but I do remember Hubbard’s insight: Oh, you have a different metaphor. She continued that neither way of viewing the world is right or wrong. They are just different perspectives.
The Catholic metaphor just isn’t my metaphor although I will continue checking out their Advent Calendar. I do want to acknowledge the season and there might be something that speaks to me. I think it’s time to figure out my metaphor.
