Prada

 I saw the movie, “The Devil Wears Prada.”  The night before I watched on TV, the first of this movie, made 20 years ago.  One of the differences I noticed is that there was little cell phone focus in the first movie.  In the second one, they were part of one’s body it seems.  And being answered immediately.  New York City street scenes had changed some, but it was the cell phone that made the difference.  How do you ladies wear those high heals and walk?  Isn’t it painful?  Oh, there was a cell phone in the first movie, but not so noticeable as the second and the thing I like is that the actress threw it into a fountain of water as she made a decision to change her life.  Such is the control of the phone, high heals or not.  

Worship Technology

 We have a secular spirituality.  We worship technology, efficiency, and with it tend to lose a sense of the Transcendent consciousness.  We are forever with our techie things rather than poetry or spiritual writing, art, and leisure for desert time.  We don’t like being alone with ourself because it makes us feel lonely.  Without our phones we tend to think we are missing out on something.  People call us or text us and then say, “Why didn’t you respond,” as in NOW.  Transcendent consciousness means that God is the only NOW that is consistent and waits for our response.  Not a demanding God but a patient one.  At lease for now.  If you walk out of your room, house, apartment and forget your cell phone maybe it is a God-shot?  Keep going.  

Hidden

 I am a Christian, A Catholic to be more precise.  So I believe that Jesus is the Christ, God.  I try not to look at other religions, non-Christian ones, as completely devoid of Christ.  If Christ is God and God is everywhere, then I try to see Jesus Christ in other religions, but hidden.  Some of the most spiritual people I have met in non-Christian religions have seen something of their religion in mine.  Does this mean we are all the same, one as good as another.  Not for the believer.  But it does keep us from trying to destroy one another.  I talk about my religion as the Truth, the Way and the Life.  But if you don’t agree with me, beheading you or burning you at the stake is not the answer.  

Sundays

We tend in our Western culture to compartmentalize religion and spirituality.  Christians go to church on Sunday for instance, but outside that time, life is controlled by secular culture.  We tend not to see the spiritual in the ordinary of each day, the repeat tasks.  Some other cultures resist Western ways in part because they do not want to lose the sense of the spiritual in the ordinary.  Recovery programs in the West know that it is a 24hour process.  You don’t do a couple meetings a week but otherwise don’t practice the principles the rest of the day.  I try to keep this in mind when I am going about my day so that I don’t try to escape into my electronic world.  

Hope

 Hope is not evidence-based.  Faith is.  You believe because of what you have heard and seen.  You might say you have never seen God but believe.  This belief is based on what you have heard and seen in others, such as parents, friends, rituals, preachers, readings.  You pick up on their experience.  In Recovery programs you have faith because of what you have seen in others.  Could this be for me too?  Could I get sober like these people?  You have no evidence that you can get sober because you have never been sober, only dry.  This is where hope comes in.  Hope is what keeps us all going forward.  I keep hoping I will be a good priest.  I have seen it in other priests and hope that if I do what they do, I have a chance.  

Mausoleum

The Mausoleum life is one that looks pretty good on the outside but is all about death and dying on the inside.  Young people especially know this if they have addiction issues.  They can still look good on the outside, but inside they are spiritually and physically dying.  They are not yet into recovery that heals the insides.  As a priest, I have my clerical clothes that I wear on the outside and can look pretty good when I need to look and sound good.  But if I do not have a spiritual practice for the insides, then I am dying, or living the :mausoleum life.   

Recycling

 I am more peaceful and therefore pray better when recycling does not make me crazy.  We have the three barrel system here in San Francisco.  Each barrel has pictures on it of the various things that go in that barrel.  Some of those picture images look the same on different barrels.  Often I am holding something in my hand that does not seem to fit any picture.  Makes me crazy.  But AI, a bot, will help my meditation.  How?  It will take away the crazy in me.  In time, when I am about to put something into one of the barrels, the AI will gently speak up and say, “No.”  Then it will tell me which color barrel will take my item to discard.  San Francisco says it is coming.  A bot helps me meditate.  The future!