Dreams Require Action

Yesterday, on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, a date I, like many people on this planet, remember with sorrow and prayers for the dead, a date that shocked us all awake, I posted my dream for post election America.

Today I want to emphasize that dreams require action. Those of us who have a dream of a cooperative society, not a warring one, must take whatever steps we can to help make it so.  In my dream, each person has his or her own disposition and soul purpose, so no one can dictate what another should do, but we all do something.

I'm dedicated to the spirituality of Love, which is not a person, but a vital Energy, as in essence are we.  Love is something that can seldom truly be described in human paradigms. So for me, the challenge is to come up with something creative, something I can do from my heart, that might help make it so.

Well, speaking out is one thing.  In my post election America, we aren't afraid to talk with one another, but we use respect.  Name calling, bullying let alone shooting people doesn't come into the equation.  We try to figure it out, we ask our dreams for council, we believe there is a way to live together and serve a greater purpose than our puny little physical selves.  The fact is, as human beings, we die.  Jesus came back from the dead, but that's not all that unusual.  We all come back. We all cross over. Maybe Jesus just wants to make us feel safe in that crossing.  This is why I call dreams organic spirituality; anyone can figure this out for themselves if they pay attention to their dreams.

It occurs to me, that sign in town I mentioned yesterday employs a strategy that reduces everything to a false slogan and appeals to fear, trusting it's the most common denominator among the people of this great land right now. These words are really more symbol than sign, meaning, they pack an emotional wallop that goes far beyond words.   It's large and simple, OBAMA = SOCIALISM in red and the catchy one liner, "gateway drug to" in between the two big words.  In my dream, I see a sign right across the street in the same mode: JESUS = SOCIALISM with the thought in between "He loves the poor."  See what I mean? 

I'm not comparing President Obama to Jesus, but neither should anyone compare him to Stalin or Castro.  That is why this gentleman's sign is inflammatory: it uses the biggest hot buttons in the American psyche, or so he thinks.  It's defamatory, because the person this is being said about has done nothing to deserve this incredible disrespect, and not true because caring for the poor is not really communism or any other ism the world has contrived; it's Christian, according to the teachings of Jesus.

I’m very lucky that back in the late 70s and early 80s when I was studying for the Roman Catholic priesthood at  Colgate Rochester Divinity School, http://litadreaming.blogspot.com/2010/03/awesome-correlations.html the theologians I read, the people who taught me and the nuns, priests and bishops I knew, were all very much in favor of ordaining women to the Catholic priesthood. Then Rome managed to reassign a lot of those bishops, to Siberia, I presume, and many theologians were “silenced” (just ask the ever beautifully vocal, Matthew Fox, the theologian not the actor).

Today, RC Headquarters through the Pope is yelling at American nuns for caring about the poor more than protesting against abortion; really?  I’ve always, always found a great deal to admire about  many major sisterhood orders in this country. I’ve lost track of the RC community because my spiritual interests are elsewhere, but I'm always proud of what many American nuns are accomplishing. 

And what I’ve always loved about Jesus is his commitment to the least among us. When we start calling caring and social justice, socialism, we turn into an unsociable contentious culture obsessed with money; when hate is stronger than love, we’re in for tough times ahead.  In my dream of the future, Americans have the heart to live their Christianity and not be fooled by dictates and dogma from the old boys club.  Just because your pastor or priest tells you to jump off a bridge, doesn’t mean you have to do it.  No, we listen to our Mother, she speaks to our Hearts and we vote our conscience.

In my dream, we Americans don’t make a caricature of our Divine; we accept each  person’s way of expressing spirituality, just as we respect each person’s way of finding intimacy and relationship. There are a diversity of roads that all converge in Love, we respect them all. 

Now here’s my huge disclaimer; the visual image I chose for this post is very strong, dreams have taught me the power of image.   I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT JESUS IS A SOCIALIST; I BELIEVE HE LOVES THE POOR.  Also, I DO NOT BELIEVE PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA IS A SOCIALIST;  HE ACTS MORE LIKE A CHRISTIAN THAN THE OTHER PARTY'S NOMINEES.  AND JUST LIKE JESUS, HE STANDS UP FOR THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN.

Back to my communal dream; a communal dream must be communal.  If we each contribute something to making our dream happen, we can do just that.  I’m calling all Jesus loving Christians especially to ask themselves in their heart, would Jesus vote for the rich merchant or would he vote for a man like Barack Obama?  Also, we know what Jesus would say about violence and nasty approaches to our message; he’d say be creative, but come from your heart, not in anger, but in hope,  creatively, as creative as you can get.

Let’s dream on it and let’s act on it.  Let’s make the future we want, not just for ourselves, but for our children, their children and everyone’s children, for many generations to come.