Longing

For many years, I have worked as a spiritual director for people all around the world. The most fascinating thing I have discovered is that underneath all mad/sad/bad feelings is a core of longing—something that blessed being wants, is longing for. I think that’s why poet John O’Donohue’s words hit me where I live.

“May you come to accept your longing as Divine Urgency. May you know the urgency with which God longs for you.”

Oh yes, it’s true. God does long for us just the way we long for the Divine. It’s mutual, a two-way street. Another name for this kind of longing is Divine Discontent. It’s what gives us humans the impetus to change.

I spend much of my counseling time explaining that longing is Divine Urgency, not in the sense of hurriedness but in the sense of Urging. The next time you discover you’re longing for something—go for it. Do what it takes. The longing is divinely seeded, Beloved. Trust it.

Seeds XV, 21

Angelina’s Choice

I think I understand what Angelina Jolie is trying to do with her choice to publicize her choice to have a double preventative mastectormy: she’s trying to use her celebrity for a good purpose. I admire that.

I also admire my friend Sue Katz whose blog on the subject must simply be repeated. This is from Katz’s blog called Consenting Adult. Here’s the URL if you want to climb around some more: http://suekatz.typepad.com/sue_katz_consenting_adult/2013/05/preventative-mastectomy-do-you-trust-the-medical-establishment.html

17 MAY 2013

Preventative Mastectomy: Do You Trust the Medical Establishment?

by Sue Katz

Let me start by saying that I know nothing whatsoever about medicine other than what I have picked up from living 65 years. So this is my gut reaction to the issues Angelina Jolie’s NY Times article have raised.

I don’t often take up advice that the medical establishment offers, because I’m old enough to have seen almost all of it reversed. Don’t eat the yellows of eggs: no, do. Use margarine instead of butter, no don’t. Sweet & Low is a great substitute for sugar; oops. Buy pure bottled water; oh dear, it’s just water with a label and a price. Wine? Chocolate? Have a pap smear every single year; no, don’t bother. Mammograms? Who knows. Fosamax, taken by women with osteoporosis for decades to strengthen bones, can cause them to break. The latest reversal I’ve noticed relates to the “evils” of salt.

I give you this long introduction as a way of explaining that I just don’t buy any of it. I did my MA thesis back in the mid-80s on “The Lie of Gender” in which I showed how the absolutist “scientific” declarations of the medical establishment about gender differences (such as brain size) were a pile of hogwash, and how they were all reversed in various ways. Science has yet to find a fool-proof, universal method of establishing gender – perhaps because they think there’re only two. I have observed that science is a tool of the changing needs of the ruling classes. But I digress.

So now they’ve’ve learned about all of these genes– some of them actually OWNED by people and institutions. I mean genes – human genes – that are patented. The science-industrial complex gone completely wacky. But that too is another story.

I don’t trust anything medical that hasn’t proven itself for a couple of decades. I am wary of the new conclusions based on the Genome project. I am wary of anything at all that predicts outcomes based purely on one’s chromosomes. “Female” chromosomes, let us not forget, were the reason (excuse) why we couldn’t run Marathons, own property, work as engineers, drive big trucks, wear pants, vote. They are still the justification in many countries for many limitations: from divorcing a mate to going to school.

Biology, I have written literally hundreds of times, is not destiny. By that I mean that it should not be destiny. Cancer is surely impacted by diet, carcinogens in the environment, access to medical care, and, frankly, we don’t know what else. Making decisions based on a genetic map seems freaky to me. Making decisions based on predicted percentages seems even freakier. Of course, considering the price of those maps, few of us will be opting for elected mastectomies. Angelina Jolie has the benefit of privilege on many levels, from economic to international reassurance of her attractiveness to having a wealthy, supportive partner to so much more. She can do whatever she wants with her body, as far as I’m concerned, and so can any other person.

But if medical science tells me I’ve got an “87 percent lifetime risk of developing breast cancer” – I’m going to question such precise figures 100% of the time. Science is, after all, a rather malleable practice. Remember, Pluto used to be a planet.

***

So, Angelina, I’m sorry they scared you so badly and I hope you made the best decision for yourself.

And, Beloved, statistics are just numbers used in a scary way. Go deep within to find out your truth and live that—not the “truth” of the statistics, or the medical establishment, or Angelina Jolie.

Expectations

I don’t know who said it, but when I read this sentence, it made me dizzy it felt so true. Try this on for size.

Expectations are premeditated resentments.

Whoa.

Really?

Uh, yes. Sometimes, they can be. And, paradoxically, we need to expect the best in order to receive it. Go figure that.

Here’s what this really means: Of course you will have expectations. It’s attachment to them in a rigid way that causes the problem of premeditated resentments. So know that you will expect the best, and if it arrives, you can do your happy dance, and if it doesn’t, you can do your happy dance because of what did arrive.

Healthy expectations are willing to be surprised by something new and better.

Seeds XV, 20