MY GOOD CHINA

My good china, such as it was, is now being crowded out by books. Books to me are a clue to life as I read the thoughts of others and learn about their experiences. I am not a scientific person but would confess to live more by emotions and imaginations than facts. I focus on what I have learned by experience and often turn to religious language to express my belief.

William James in his book "The Varieties of Religious Experience" records the experiences of other people as expressed in diaries and memoirs and published accounts. We can be trapped into having a detached view especially when we look into the practices of an ordinary religious believer who is content to accept the Bible without studying the history and the theology that it was based on.

We all experience an awareness of the sacred in different ways when a sense of awe and wonder fill our being. Many people might say, with good reason, to look for God in the church is the last place they would even think about looking. Does the liturgy give us the freedom to ask questions and to explore the unseen reality.
This is not to say that religion in all it's different forms does not have its own integrity and to worship with others enriches our spiritual being.

I know that times have changed from when it was a common practice to go to church, whereas must people are too busy or have been abused by religion so are completely turned off, or accept life just as it is.

Yesterday I took my book, Blog To Print, to visit the golden oldies in the nursing Home and I was amazed at the interest they had in it. They asked many questions about the pictures and we had to go through it page by page. I am a little disappointed in the pictures and I should have put more effort into editing it. I want to do it again and maybe Theresa will help me. I find myself a little afraid of the computer, afraid if I try something new I will lose what I have done. Right now my mouse has turned off so I guess it needs new batteries, and it is too early to muck about in the bedroom where dad is still sleeping.

"For an instant I thought of fire, the next, I knew the fire was within myself."
R. M. Bucke quoted in "The Varieties of Religious Experience" by William James.

"The True mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible."
Oscar Wilde, The picture of Dorian Grey.

I am reading "The Constant Fire" by Adam Frank.
Beyond the Science vs. Religion debate.