From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V12 #449 Reply-To: shindell-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk shindell-list-digest Thursday, May 23 2013 Volume 12 : Number 449 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] Merton the Inspirer [Pete Jameson ] Re: [RS] Merton the Inspirer ["Michael and Linda Marmer" Subject: [RS] Merton the Inspirer Merton's good words about man are the key for me. He reached a point of enlightenment on the streets of Louisville one day: 1. From Thomas Merton's private journal, March 19, 1958: Yesterday, in Louisville, at the corner of 4th and Walnut, suddenly realized that I loved all the people and that none of them were, or, could be totally alien to me. As if waking from a dream  the dream of separateness, of the special vocation to be different. My vocation does not really make me different from the rest of men or put me is a special category except artificially, juridically. I am still a member of the human race  and what more glorious destiny is there for man, since the Word was made flesh and became, too, a member of the Human Race! Thank God! Thank God! I am only another member of the human race, like all the rest of them. I have the immense joy of being a man! As if the sorrows of our condition could really matter, once we begin to realize who and what we are  as if we could ever begin to realize it on earth. It is not a question of proving to myself that I either dislike or like the women one sees on the street. The fact of having a vow of chastity does not oblige one to argument on this point  no special question arises. I am keenly conscious, not of their beauty (I hardly think I saw anyone really beautiful by special standards) but of their humanity, their woman-ness. But what incomprehensible beauty is there, what secret beauty that would perhaps be inaccessible to me if I were not dedicated to a different way of life. It [is] as though by chastity I had come to be married to what is most pure in all the women of the world and to taste and sense the secret beauty of their girls hearts as they walked in the sunlight  each one secret and good and lovely in the sight of God  never touched by anyone, nor by me, nor by anyone, as good as and even more beautiful than the light itself. For the woman-ness that is in each of them is a once original and inexhaustibly fruitful bringing the image of God into the world. In this each one is Wisdom and Sophia and Our Lady  (my delights are to be with the children of men!). The song, however, is rife with embedded "Shindellisms"...much like the way people debate Dylan, Young, Cohen, our bard's work seems to be crafted to promote healthy intellectual debate. Me? I know nothing... Pedro in San Diego On May 22, 2013, at 10:50 AM, Isabel Frey wrote: > I wasn't familiar with Merton and so I did a little research. I was struck by > the brief affair he had with Margie Smith, a student nurse 26 years his > junior. (Some say he was deeply in love but the affair was never consummated.) > Could the song be drawing a parallel between Merton's affair vs. his public > image, and the driver vs, his passenger? Perhaps some sort of betrayal, or not > being the person the driver was expected to be? > > I also found this quote attributed to Merton interesting: "I am beginning to > face some facts about myself. Yes, need for more of a > life of prayer, greater > fidelity, greater sincerity and simplicity in > doing what God wants of me. > Easy to say all that. It depends on getting > rid of something very deep and > very fundamental in myself. . . > Continual, uninterrupted resentment. I resent > and even hate Gethsemani. I > fight against the place constantly. I do not > openly allow myselfnot > consciouslyto sin in this regard. But I am in the > habit of letting my > resentment find every possible outlet and it is such a > habit. . . . I am > not kidding about how deep it is. It is DEEP." > > "The friend you always needed would've kept our morning plan, but I drove us > back to Louisville, and kissed Gethsemani goodbye." I can picture a husband > and wife; the husband with a growing resentment towards his wife - perhaps for > having to take care of her, having to drive her around and going where she > wants to go - or just the resentment that comes with feeling trapped. In a fit > of anger at being lost he just drives home - to hell with it. Goodbye and good > riddance! He got angry and he went too far. In the end though he offers > something of an apology, perhaps when it's too late. > > Isabel ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 May 2013 14:09:54 -0400 From: "Michael and Linda Marmer" Subject: Re: [RS] Merton the Inspirer interesting that I was looking for a quote from Neil Young and found this, as I can relate to what he says here: I'm not into organized religion. I'm into believing in a higher source of creation, realizing we're all just part of nature. Neil Young Mike Marmer ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V12 #449 ************************************