Are raves still a thing? Never been a “raver” myself, so I’m not keeping track. But still…I felt some resonance with the sign, not least of all because some of the things that help keep my raving metaphorical squirrels feeling as though they might one day become orderly ducks – things like predictable societal functioning or seasonal traditions, for example – are in such disarray. Again. Still. Gah!

It’s easier to be “merry and bright” when the ducks are all lined up, isn’t it? So where do we look for anchors at a time like this? Let me suggest a different pair of metaphors for our consideration.

If we were on a sailboat and we had to weather a storm, we would have a couple of options. (Yes, this metaphor assumes we are somewhere warm, at least warm enough that the water is in liquid form. Go ahead…let yourself go to the Caribbean for a few moments. It won’t hurt a bit.) We could try to find a sheltered cove, put down an anchor, face into the wind and see if we could ride it out. For that to work, the anchor would have to be in something sufficiently solid to not drag when the wind hit; to keep us off-shore until the storm passed. Not a bad idea, as long as we have the necessary cove with the right kind of depth and bottom. To me, that feels somewhat akin to the way traditional religion has often functioned for its adherents in the past, under more predictable cultural and ideological circumstances. Sheltering, anchoring, reassuring.

But these days, with a more diverse culture, the idea storms that come with the sciences of uncertainty, the literal storms that accompany a climate of change and a nasty global pandemic that keeps battering our attempts at re-engaging a more predictable way of life, we might need to consider what we will do if the storm hits when we are out in the open sea. When that happens, we may need to trust our keel more than our anchor; to run with the storm for a bit rather than try to meet it on it’s own terms.

I choose to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Joyous New Year because I believe that there is something bigger than us that can keep us coming back upright even when we get decked by the most powerful storms and when the nice idea of a cove and anchor are not an option. I choose to call that something Love. I feel like that’s a more versatile, embracing metaphor than some other, more personified ones. Also, as someone that has grown up in the Jesus tradition, I think the Rabbi was onto something when he used Love as the definition of God. In other words, the bigger idea was Love; the lesser idea was our notions about God. To put it another way, “god” was the idea we looked through (remember the icons?) to see Love.

The metaphors matter – they are what we look through to see what is beyond us, to help us imagine what is out of sight but still keeping us coming back right-side-up when some gigantic wave knocks us over, or if some storm we hoped would only last a little while goes on and on and on.

Metaphor mash-up time: If your ducks are behaving more like raving squirrels and there is no calm cove in sight, remember that below the water line, out of view but real and essential, there is a counter-weight that has more heft than whatever is battering you, and if you trust it even when you are really getting tossed around it’ll bring you back to right-side-up. A bit bedraggled and forlorn, perhaps, but alive and ready to celebrate the sun when it comes back out.

Merry Christmas folks. I’ll be in  touch in the New Year.

Peace,

Tim

P.S. – Some housekeeping matters:

-If you haven’t already done so, check out Atticus explaining the complicated world of Table finances and their relationship to pie on our Facebook page. Rumor has it that we’re making progress in the direction of the whole leadership team getting pie in the face. My hair is short, so this is easy. Judi…not so much.  🙂

-We’re taking a week off from our usual gathering rhythms this week – no Sunday morning gathering , And Lunch After or Wednesday Zoom hangout. But we’ll be back….