hope

Weekly newsletter 12.8.2020

Updates

Over the weekend, I published “Home for the holidays” on Medium. Since quarantime began, I’ve been paying attention to the ways that people are navigating their engagement of traditions and rituals during a pandemic that has upended our social habits and relationships. Some traditions have adapted relatively smoothly to virtual spaces (with some tech savvy), but extended occasions, like major holidays haven’t. For many, virtual platforms haven’t satisfied the instincts to gather and to travel. To make sense of this, I turned to a few of my trusted sages, the voices and ideas that help me to understand and that give me hope - Catherine Bell’s understanding of ritualized actions, Jonathan Z. Smith’s sense of “place,” Judy Garland’s ability to hit a note  just the right way. If you’re reflecting on how to navigate the holiday season or on how to maintain or adapt your traditions, I hope “Home for the holidays” can offer a few ideas and resources.

I post longer reflections on Medium - not regularly, but as they’re ready. If you’re interested in exploring my take on the world, visit https://billhulseman.medium.com/. If anything strikes a chord (or a nerve!), leave a comment on Medium, or reach out to me directly to get a dialogue going!

Guided meditations via Zoom continue! Mondays at 4:00pm PST. The aim is to practice being present - to ourselves, to others, and to the world. If you or someone you know could use a 20-30 minute dose of peace and quiet on Mondays, visit the meditation page on my site to sign up. 

I’d love your feedback to help me plan for 2021 - what topics should symposia cover? when should meditations happen? If you’ve got 2 minutes to answer 5 questions, click here: looking ahead to 2021 survey. Thanks for your feedback!

Good Stuff

Pod 
I saw heard Bryan Stevenson, director of the Equal Justice Initiative, deliver a keynote address at the NAIS Annual Conference a few years ago. His talk was, like his work and his writing, wise, astute, powerful, action-oriented, prophetic...blah blah blah. I don’t need to sing his praises or parse out why he is or should be a leading voice in our culture. Something about him stands out in my memory. It’s not charisma - I mean, sure he exudes that, but I remember something else, something closer to holiness, like I was in the presence of something important, someone closer to the truth, someone more deeply rooted in the sacred than I’d ever encountered. Some of that feeling of encountering holiness returned while listening to Krista Tippett interview him for this week’s episode of On Being. By the end of the episode, I was ready to say a novena for his appointment as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court someday...someday soon. His message seemed particularly poignant during our current season of longing, of waiting, of endless, endless waiting. Here’s a teaser: 

I am persuaded that hopelessness is the enemy of justice; that if we allow ourselves to become hopeless, we become part of the problem.  I think you’re either hopeful, or you’re the problem. There’s no neutral place. Injustice prevails where hopelessness persists. And if I’ve inherited anything from the generation who came before me, I have inherited their wisdom about the necessity of hope.

On Being with Krista Tippett, “Love is the Motive with Bryan Stevenson”

Listen
Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack for “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is the gold - nay, platinum - standard for holiday music (it’s a bold opinion, but I’ll go to the mat for this one), but I really don’t enjoy “holiday music.” Mostly, I’m skeptical of pop-stars’ covers of medieval carols or jazzy interpretations of tunes I learned as hymns in church, and, as I’m reminded every time Beyonce sneaks a breath in a vowel during “Ave Maria,” the quest to expand the canon of standards is a long game that requires patience and hope. And just as my hope was waning, I heard Ana Gasteyer telling Maya Rudolph, “I think I got woke this weekend!” before she cha-chad through a parody of office holiday parties. Every track on Sugar & Booze is great, but “Secret Santa” deserves to be fast tracked into the canon. 

If you stream music on Spotify, I’ve started a playlist called “Bill’s Good Stuff,” including music I’ve loved for a long time as well as things I’ve come across more recently. Feel free to add the playlist to your favorites! Bill’s Good Stuff Spotify Playlist

Read
In my guided meditation this week, I used a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke. This text has had a bit of a resurgence in popularity recently - Taika Waititi included an excerpt of it as a coda for last year’s “Jo Jo Rabbit.”

“Go to the Limits of Your Longing.”
Rainer Maria Rilke (tr. Joanna Macy)

God speaks to each of us as he makes us, 
then walks with us silently out of the night. 

These are the words we dimly hear: 

You, sent out beyond your recall, 
go to the limits of your longing. 
Embody me. 

Flare up like a flame 
and make big shadows I can move in. 

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. 
Just keep going. No feeling is final. 
Don’t let yourself lose me. 

Nearby is the country they call life. 
You will know it by its seriousness. 

Give me your hand.