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Achievement capital m capital a. phelps life

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Achievement capital m capital a. phelps life

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uuasheville.org

Publication date
Topics
phelps, life, person, achievement capital m capital a., unitarian universalist, sermon
Contributor
https://divining.app
Language
English
Achievement capital m capital a. phelps life: He called it that the distinction of a man of achievement capital m capital a. or the thinking man capital t capital m.
Addeddate
2022-06-08 04:49:26
Church
uuasheville.org
Identifier
uuasheville_org-140323_Paradox_and_Wonderment_Sermon
License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Scanner
Internet Archive Python library 3.0.1
Text
Toward the middle of this past week. Social media and news outlets were peppered with announcements and commentary. Stating that fred phelps had been admitted into hospice and was at the edge of death. Fred phelps. Is known for being the leader of the infamous westboro baptist. Who pick at funerals and other events holding characteristics signs with large block letters rudely blaming most of the country's ills. And the homosexuals. He did in fact. i later in. Later this past week. As i often do when controversial things happen and get lots of play on social media. I waited and i watched. Toosii. What would be sad. Before i framed my own response. The commentary i saw ranged from. Good riddance now we can pick it him. 2. I will not give my time or energy to this person. Whether he is alive or dead. And further to perhaps we should be grateful to him. Because he brought such an extremist position. And made the middle ground so much more attractive. And i found myself wondering how the hold in my own heart. The two truths that i saw. The first. Is that fred phelps preached hate. And intolerance. His rhetoric was surely responsible for suicides and hate crimes. Four children being thrown out and disowned. Certainly for my own. Mental anguish at times. He was responsible for countless. Awful things. But the second truth. That i see is that fred phelps phelps. Was a human being. He was a person. Who had inherent worth. And we do not give up our inherent worth. Even when we do awful things. And i think the reason that this is true. Has more to do with us. Then it does with him. They say they're holding onto anger and resentment is like drinking poison. And expecting your enemy to die. When we allow ourselves to hate a person. Even when that person quite seriously and truly deserves. Much more animosity than i even have to give him. We do not harm that person or their memory by hating them we harm our own heart. We harm our own spirit. And it turns out that it's even more complicated than we might think. According to the topeka capital-journal. In the mid-1950s phelps was reportedly the only lawyer in topeka kansas who would take anti-discrimination cases related to school segregation after the brown versus board of education decision. Really. What. Apparently in the 80s he was recognized for his work. For civil rights. I don't know what caused him to shift his focus to demonizing the lgbtq community. But that's not the point here. The point is to illustrate the dramatic complexity. We can see in a single human being. Political columnist matthew rosa says it's in our nature to believe that there is an impermeable dichotomy between what makes one person a hero and another person a villain. Get phelps's life proved not only that they can coexist. But they often spring from the same source. We are constantly alive in the midst of paradox. We work hard to make sense of the world around us which is constantly changing. And endlessly complex. John keats. Quit. Is well-known. Frequenting the phrase negative capability. Which is when a person is capable of being in uncertainties mysteries and doubt without any irritable reaching after fact and reason. When a person is capable of being in uncertainties mysteries and doubt. Without any irritable reaching after fact and reason. He called it that the distinction of a man of achievement capital m capital a. Or the thinking man capital t capital m. But i interpret this. More inclusive lee as any person who seeks to be reflective. Think is what. Keeps referenced when he talked about the man of achievement or. This distinction that he talks about the ability to rest in the midst of uncertainty mystery and out without trying to explain things. Is quite quite challenging. I agree with keith though. It has been said that the human capacity to reason is the thing that sets us apart from other mammals. But i tend to agree more with those who suggest that it is our capacity for empathy. That sets us apart. Annabelle and an ability to empathize perhaps relies on one's ability to sit in that space of unknowing. That space of inaction. Of deep. Deep listening. A space of deep. Feeling. Do the work of the thinking person which i would also described as the work of the religious community. Is to rest in the midst of uncertainty mystery and doubt without trying to explain things. This is not an easy feat. Course because we humans have a need to explain things it's natural. Course. But living in the uncertainty can be its own spiritual practice. In a literary sense the purpose of a paradox is to point out a truth. But phelps is not a literary trope. He is a real life example. Who's is the kind of paradox that is so hard to reconcile because his good works and his hate speech have all have both happened on a national stage. Phelps is not someone that we know intimately. So we don't get to know we don't get to learn the true complexity of his experience. And either way. It's hard to argue with the fact that the last three decades of his life were spent spreading hate. So why not side with the commenters who said i won't give this man any more of my attention. Anymore of my time or energy why should we pay attention. What do we gain from allowing ourselves to see the complexity of this particular human life. We ignore the complexity. At our peril. When we are allow ourselves to see the whole picture of a human life. We are more able to understand that our own choices have the potential to be both life-giving and harmful. I don't know what phelps his motivation was for his civil rights work. And neither do i truly know what his motivation was for his hate speech. But i know that his actions caused pain and suffering to many. Your life and my life. Are generally played out on a much smaller scale. Anna much smaller stage. And our choices tend not to be so dramatically positive or negative. Then the left we are each capable of both hurtful and healing choices. An essay about keith suggests that it is easy for us to respond to uncertainty and mystery with tension and restlessness. Intention and restlessness cause conflict. Pizzas framing of negative capability as a positive one which caused us to refuse the conflict. And embrace the creativity. That can come from these challenging experiences. This morning's first reading suggests that our own imagination is required to interpret another's poetry. Poem belongs in here. In the warmth of the chest. Which perhaps is also the place of empathy. Rumi tells us that we must interact with his words and add our own nuances to the meaning. So we sit in the uncertainty. And we add our own interpretation to our experience. And we find the generative and creative energy that comes when we don't fight the discomfort. What's a paradox. When we allow ourselves to sit in the mystery without reaching to fix it or understand it immediately. We can begin to look at a situation with curiosity instead of fear. And when we approach our lives especially the difficult parts with curiosity. Is easier to face the unknown. As i said i don't know phelps intimately. But i have walked past his pickets on more than one occasion. I have been within a few feet. Of those awful signs. And the overwhelming feeling i got from them was one of fear. I don't know his motivation or the events that led to his choice to propagate hate but i see clearly that fear is the motivator. Fear is at the center of that movement. We can see this in many places and situations perhaps you can think of a time when you responded to a life event out of fear. What happened. Did fear help you make connections with other people. Did it. Help the situation go well. I'm guessing that unless the situation you were called involved a lion or a bear. Fear did not help you very much. How do we determine what our role to be. How do we determine what our own legacy the legacy of our lives will be. Do we let history be our guide. Like the foot in the neruda poem. When do we abandon the possibility of becoming a butterfly. Or an apple. Even if a foot is simply destined to become a foot. It doesn't have to be come blind. And shut-in it's shoe. And truly naruto's description of the foot begs us to think about the role of the child. The child who is so good at wonder and curiosity. The role of the child especially as it grows up and begins to deny the possibility inherent in its life. Neruda implies that the foot knows. But the child forgets. Is the crocus pick their peak their bright heads out of the wintry soil. I recall the feeling of my own feet in summer. The summer grass. And i know that i can remind my feet. Which are so clenched up in their little shoes right now. I can remind my feet and so remind myself of the curiosity and the wonder. Have a child's toes discovering that particular feeling. F.w. grass and warm soft. Dirt. And it is true also. At fred phelps was not the only person who died this week. So his is not the only story to tell. In reflecting on some of the other deaths i've experienced recently. What's closer to my heart. People i knew and loved. Even some who were close to the heart of this community. I see the complexity of each individual life. At the same time i can observe the impact of that life. On the world around us. The impact of life such as by shelly's. Psy. Was one of the very first people that i visit and not one of them that he wouldn't he and frankie were literally the first people i visited. When i came here. About 3 years ago. Lori masterton memorial service still the same shoe area first baptist church yesterday with laughter and song. And countless people pledging to carry forth lori's mantra. Don't postpone joy. Eleanor artman's life with dedicated to lifting up the stories of women in leadership and empowering us. Both as individuals and collectively refusing to let the dominant story exclude our experience. All of those lives impacted people on smaller stages. And we're equally complex. We do not know the totality of another's experience. And sometimes that is a difficult truth to reconcile. Life is full of an ambiguity. And we have an opportunity. To cultivate our willingness to embrace uncertainty. Live with mystery and make peace with it. Negative capability offers us a way to approach paradox and move through to curiosity. To approach the world around us with wonderment. And openness. As sharon said in her opening words. Do any human beings ever realize life. Well they live it. Every every minute. Do we ever. Realize life while we live it. Every every minute. We are more than just feet trapped in shoes. More than just black printed words on the white page of a poetry book. You are a paradox. An untapped reservoir of possible outcomes. And our work is to reflect and engage in the work of becoming. Together. May it be so.

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