July 27: Goodness and Decency, Camille T. Dungy, "Ark"

I'm currently watching President Obama address the Democratic National Convention.

Let me come clean:  I voted for the man.  Twice.  I would vote for him again, if I could.  He's talking about hope and optimism right now.  I remember the night he first won the Presidency of the United States.  I watched him address a huge crowd of people.  I saw a news anchor, a man of color, hold back tears as he talked about the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hope and optimism are not normal states for me, if you haven't noticed.  I can wallow and embrace darkness.  (I'm a poet.  It comes with the territory.)  Tonight, however, I'm not feeling pessimistic.  I'm feeling proud of a country led by a good, decent man.  I'm feeling optimistic that goodness and decency will continue to be a guiding light for the American people.  Darkness and pessimism will fail.

That's Saint Marty's belief.  His faith.

Ark

by:  Camille T. Dungy

I will enter you as hope enters me,

through blinding liquid, light of rain, and I

will stay inside until you send me out;

I will stay inside until you ground me.

We cannot outrun the rain. So many

summers I have tried. So many summers.

But when the rumble calls after the spark

there can be no escape. No outstripping

the drench soak, the wet sheath, the water caul.

This is more than you want to hear. Much more

than I want to tell you. Tabernacle

transporting my life from the desert, you,

the faith I am born and reborn into,

you, rescuer, deliverer of rain.

December 23: Miracle on 34th Street, Believe, New Cartoon

I'm watching Miracle on 34th Street as I type this post.  It's one of my favorite Christmas movies.  Of course, it's the original version with Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle.  While I don't mind the 1994 remake with Richard Attenborough as Santa Claus, it doesn't really hold a candle to the original.

The reason this film is one of my favorite things is its focus on faith.  Santa Claus is put on trial for insanity, and the plot hinges on a question of belief.  The lawyers, psychologists, and judge, basically everyone, are all forced to reevaluate their ideas about love and charity and compassion.  At the end of the movie, Maureen O'Hara says, "Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to."

I was listening to a program on NPR this past week.  It was a bunch of scientists discussing the origin of the universe, the Big Bang and what came before.  These scientists all kept circling back to the same question:  how did figgleblank come into being?  (You can substitute anything for "figgleblank":  hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, dark matter, whatever.)  Not once during the entire hour-long discussion did the word "faith" or "God" get mentioned.  It was the elephant sitting in the middle of the room that everyone was ignoring.  I was actually laughing at the end of the show.

Those scientists need to watch Miracle on 34th Street this Christmas.  They need to learn that not everything can be measured or calibrated or distilled or equated.  This time of year, belief takes center stage.  Santa Claus does ride around the world on Christmas Eve in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer.  The Son of God was born in a stable in Bethlehem.  As the hymn says, Love came down at Christmas.

Saint Marty believes that with his whole heart.

Confessions of Saint Marty