Let Me Sum Up

 Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.

It might surprise some of you that a blog so overtly Christian would use a quote from Karl Marx. Marx was not a big fan of Jesus. Or any other religion for that matter. Even though he technically grew up in a Christian family (his father, a non-practicing Jew, had joined an evangelical church for political reasons) and he did get married in a church. He openly felt that philosophy would one day replace theology. Which is kind of funny as they both wrestle with the same questions, just from different angles. But it isn't terribly important whether Marx believed in God or not. The point is that I believe in God but my belief doesn't blind me to the truth. There are a lot of areas that Karl and I do not see eye to eye on, but I absolutely agree that change is where it's at.

I don't think it takes much paying attention to our current state of affairs to know that things have gone a bit off the rails. You'll also notice there is no shortage of pundits, philosophers, preachers and politicians who are willing to literally talk your ears off about how and why we got here (and certainly don't forget who and what helped along the way). But let's face it. People have been talking for centuries. Obviously, I have done and am going to do some talking myself. But the point of the Chaotic Good Party is that talking must end and doing must begin. Only by actually doing can we change the world.

Which brings us to the five foundational words: love, grace, joy, peace and hope. And my attempts to turn what are essentially emotions and concepts into easily repeatable actions. To recap, here are the genius acronyms that have been previously revealed:

Choose Love

Join Others to Yourself

Give Radical Attention to Connect with Everyone

Perform Every Act in Christian Empathy

Help Other People Endlessly

These are what I will forevermore refer to as the Basics. The basic hows and whys behind what we do. It is still my intention to spend a good chunk of time coming up with all kinds of whats to do. Whats like knitting scarves, random acts of yard work, giving gardens and who knows what else. I will always be on the lookout for new ideas. This doesn't mean I don't also have more topics I want to talk about. I'm passionate about modern myths that need to go and the seven social sins of Gandhi, among other things (our church is just finishing up a fascinating sermon series on that second one). Lots of great stuff to anticipate.

And if I've rambled on too much or those acronyms are more than you'll ever remember, here's the wall art version:

Let's Choose Love, Join in Joy, Give Grace, Perform Peace and Help Spread Hope

Are we going to face opposition every step of the way? Count on it. But realize that if a certain kind of people are horribly upset by what we do, we are on the right track. It is now time to be radical, my friends. To fly in the face of systemic evil. To strive towards making on earth as it is in heaven a reality. To be together, to be chaotic and to be good.

Hope Floats

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an extraordinary person. In the face of race riots, government scrutiny, continuing oppression from Jim Crow, systemic persecution from a system that already showed signs of failing and setbacks to his mission, he was still able to offer hope to the world. In spite of church bombings, the calculated murders of people connected with his cause and vicious smear campaigns against his character, he continued to dream. Even having a sure premonition of his own impending assassination did not keep him from the fight. One of the questions we have to ask ourselves is how? How did he manage to do that? Unfortunately, we can't ask him in person but I do have some ideas (please try to act shocked).

Hope is a pretty loose concept in our world. Don't believe me? Google quotes about hope. Notice something about most of the results? The word hope isn't actually in many of them. Even the definition is kind of vague: the feeling that events will turn out for the best. The best for whom? And what if I'm hoping that things will turn out terribly for you (which may or may not be the best for me)? Does hope spring eternal? Does it actually float (and if so, does it float more like a cloud or a red balloon)?

The word hope occurs 163 times in the NIV bible, 20% of those times in the Psalms alone. There is hope for a wide variety of things: deliverance from one's enemy's, that the cries of the poor and afflicted will be heard, that your children will turn out all right, for strength, for wisdom and for the righteous to prevail. Hope is almost exclusively found in the Lord and His promises for a brighter future.  We are told to guard against letting our hope wither and encouraged to hold on to our hope no matter the circumstances. God is the hope of Israel and Jesus is the hope of the world.

But how do we generate hope, even if we've slipped up and lost it? Like so many other things, I think feeling hopeful relies on relationships. Not with things but with people. I give you the last of my foundational acronyms (at least for now; I can't make any promises for the future, no matter how much you might hope I'll stop):

Help Other People Endlessly

I have developed an unshakeable conviction that the more we help others, the more we will lean into love, the less we will be invested in the ways of the world and the more we will believe that everything will turn indeed turn out all right. The very act of helping someone else not only lifts them up, it is going to give you a boost as well. Provided, of course, that you aren't expecting anything in return. The moment that helping others becomes transactional, you can kiss hope goodbye.

What do I mean by transactional? That is how seemingly every relationship has become here in late stage capitalism. It has, in fact, been the basic modus operandi of capitalism from the beginning. I give the cashier at McDonald's (an average of) $9.29 and they hand me a tray with a Big Mac, some fries and a cup for a beverage. A merchant offers a good or service for a certain amount of a commodity. If I agree to said amount, we exchange the appropriate commodity for said good or service and the relationship is over. It can be more complex than that. The merchant could strive to make you happy enough to engage in future transactions or you could become dissatisfied with your purchase and reopen the transaction for some kind of compensation, but that is essentially the scenario.

Other relationships can easily become transactional as well. If you've ever said to someone "you owe me one," you've been in a transactional relationship. The old adage "never lend a friend money" exists because it implies that the relationship with your friend will become transactional and the friendship will be ruined (spoiler alert: it probably will). If you feel like you need to do a certain number of chores around the house before your spouse will grant you relations in the bedroom, guess what, your marriage has become transactional (and is likely in trouble). Needless to say (but I will anyways), it is really hard to hold on to hope and continue to help others when all your interactions become quid pro quo.

This was actually the first acronym I came up with when I started to think about the philosophy of the Chaotic Good Party. It sprang into my mind wholly formed but with one exception. Originally I had the letter E represented by the word Epically. Because who doesn't want to be epic on a regular basis. The more I thought about that though, the less it rang true to me. Opportunities to perform epic feats of goodwill are actually kind of rare. Most acts of kindness and help are small gestures. And they are infinitely repeatable. And helping, like all of the other actions in this series of TED Talks I've been giving, becomes easier to do as you move along and the goal here is to make it a natural part of your daily life. Will we occasionally make big, bold, epic, attention grabbing acts of helping others? Yes. Will most of our help be small (but no less radically chaotic), possibly go completely unheralded or even fall short of our intentions and veer into the realm of disappointment? I infinitely hope so. 

Peace like a River

When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.

As a card carrying member of Gen X, I had the privilege to spend a good chunk of my formative years watching Fred Rogers, the voice behind the above quote, potter about in his neighborhood. Week in and week out, I would help Mr. Rogers feed his fish, learn how crayons were made from Picture Picture, ride Trolley to the Land of Make Believe and hope that Mr. McFeely would stop by with one of his speedy deliveries. The show's slow pace and genteel demeanor aren't for everyone (my mother admits to finding it somewhat creepy), but millions of us found it a warm and comfy place to regularly visit. It wasn't until well into adulthood that I began to realize why I felt that way and just how much the whole thing centered around the concept of peace.

Peace is actually a funny thing to think about. It's frequently paired with the word quiet, even though it's possible to find peace in the middle of chaos. It sometimes gets defined as the absence of war, which reduces it the to something you don't do rather than an activity you do. That's a mental trap I've fallen into myself. When I was younger, there was a period around 1990, during the Gulf War, when churches around us were putting signs in their yards that said "Wage Peace." I thought they were silly. My logic went something like if I'm not waging war than I must automatically be waging peace, so I did the thing without even trying. Yay! 

Ah, youth. Obviously, I've changed my position quite a bit since then. Turns out that peace is so much more than the absence of aggression or noise or conflict. Peace is a mindset that, when actively practiced, becomes a lifestyle.

Peace is mentioned over 230 times in the Bible. Frequently in the Old Testament, it's mentioned in connection with conflict. Forces trying to negotiate peace before fighting. The vanquished trying to end a conflict peacefully. A prophet warning Israel that an invader is coming to end what peace they are currently enjoying. In the latter parts of Isaiah and the New Testament, peace is something that comes from God. Something that is bestowed on those who let go of the ways of this world and follow the teachings of Jesus. A way to stand against the forces of war and evil, not just the absence of those forces.

Peace, you see, is something that you can do, over and over again until it is the way you are. But how? The act of peace is only vaguely alluded to in the Bible. Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek when we are struck. To give someone who steals our cloak our coat as well. To be meek and merciful and to mourn and be literal peacemakers. None of which seems intuitive or even likely to cut down on conflict. There are even some people who claim to be disciples of Christ who read all of those admonitions and come to the conclusion that Jesus was weak. A recent poll of pastors actually revealed that their congregations have the most issues with sermons based on the Beatitudes, one of the major cornerstones of Jesus' whole philosophy. I know you can't be Christian AND think Christ was wrong, so what are those people not getting?

I think it's a matter of getting mired in worldly thought processes and losing focus on what is actually strength in motion. Think about it. Someone who is stealing your cloak is doing so because it makes them feel powerful or at least less helpless in an unfeeling society (it's rarely actually about the cloak). If you look them in the eye and say not only do I let you have my cloak but I willingly give you my coat as well, two things happen. One, you erase a good deal of the power imbalance. Suddenly, they are no longer taking, you are giving. It's a subtle difference but enough to unnerve a whole lot of bullies. Second, by looking them in the eye (and yes this is a crucial component no matter how much it makes you want to pee your pants), you also change the dynamic of your interaction. Some, like Gandhi perhaps, would say it forces your opponent to give you at least a modicum of respect. I don't know that I would go that far, but I do think it takes a good deal of the fun out of it for them. Obviously, this isn't going to work on everyone. Some people are assholes no matter what you do. But I believe it will tilt a surprising number of situations in your favor. I, for instance, have never actually been punched in the face no matter how much my mouth runs.

But what about all the times you aren't in imminent danger? How do you spread (and enjoy) peace on a regular basis? If you've been reading along the last few posts, it should come as no surprise that I have an acronym to contemplate.

Perform Every Act in Christian Empathy

 

If the word Christian makes you squeamish, feel free to substitute caring. And, yes, Peace goes hand in hand with both Love and Grace but is subtly different. Love is choosing to act. Grace is giving someone the benefit of the doubt before acting. Peace is the mode you use to act. And empathy is the key word.

Empathy is not, as I think many people assume, the same thing as sympathy. Sympathy is the ability to recognize that someone else is in pain. It's pretty easy to sympathize with someone and let your involvement end there. I'm sorry you're hurting; I hope you feel better. Empathy is the ability to share in someone else's pain. To actually take on some of their burden and do something about it. This is an unpleasant situation; what can I do to make it better? In other words, empathy is putting yourself in someone else's shoes and trying to figure out how to act from their perspective, not your own. Recognizing that what you need in any given moment might not be the same thing that someone else needs in that moment. 

Empathy requires listening skills, processing skills and, often, a little bit of imagination. The end result of empathy, however, is a much bigger impact on both the recipient and the giver than mere sympathy, which will bring more peace to both of you. If you strive to make a deeper connection to people every time you interact with them, just imagine how much more peaceful your corner of the world could be. Will this be somewhat exhausting at first? Sure. Waging peace is like anything else in this world, practice makes it easier and easier to do.

Which brings us back to Fred Rogers. The more I learn about him, the more I'm sorry I never got to meet him. The peaceful nature of his show, which seems to be too good to be real for a lot of people, carried over into everything he did. He was a kind, caring, empathetic human being who strove to find the good in everyone he met. Movies have been made about skeptical people who came gunning for what was surely his false personality only to be won over by the genuine deal. He has become a personal hero of mine. I think he would be absolutely dismayed over what our country has become. I also think that he would not change how he interacted with the world. I like to think he would be encouraging about what the Chaotic Good Party is all about. Jesus is the original Prince of Peace. Fred was a good and faithful servant. Let's all be radical and do our best to follow in their footsteps.