The Anti-Brett Favre and the Football religion

I am the anti-Brett Farve.  

While this football hero was brought back to town by three of his fellow Viking football players, I was busy working at my home office. Creating new syllabi for the next semester, I was also thinking about calling the University again, to make sure they were working on my contract. Without the contract, I have no access to the virtual or actual classroom. I can not create the class webpages for lecture and syllabi posts. I can not get a key to the office or the classroom. I can not be paid.  This is all because of paperwork stuck at academic affairs at a small state school. Unlike Favre, I am not appreciated, with people eagerly awaiting my return. I am not of value to the school, apparently. The fuss at school now - the news headliner - is that the school may need to cut its football program. 
  
   Physically, I am also in many ways the antithesis of Favre - small and thin, and a very feminine woman. I didn't get married at 20 and become a grandparent by 40 (which I think is just weird). So up until now, Favre has been societies ideal in many ways, as a white male football player, team leader, and married man with children. The guy seems decent enough, seems to care about other people. But a news station stopping all programming to break with live footage of the man stepping out of an airplane to return to the Vikings football team camp?  What are the values here? 

  Our society seems to value sports above education, men above women, muscle over mind. Vicarious victories through sports heroes are more highly valued by many than actually developing a disciplined fitness routine - which is actually good for the mind. (Yoga theory comes in to play here). Our society as a whole doesn't seem to appreciate spirituality or religion. The study of religion as an academic topic is relagated to the "nice extra" at a school as a glorifed confirmation dogma class. Yet, spirituality is about what we value personally, and religion is about our collective values. Think about how powerful it is to have knowledge of people's values!

   Football then is a religion, I guess. Favre is some sort of Saint or Savior, and Sunday gatherings to watch the games are the ritual services. Thus we get the crazy dress and irrational behavior of football fans  - they are just going through their rituals. Meredith McGuire speaks about such behavior in Lived Religion.
"Quotation "  .   

I agree with her in many ways, but find that the world's religions often provide the choreographic background for an individuals embodied behaviors.  Religions are NOT about dogma  to begin with! 
  
No one has a football Creed, but they do have football rituals, a type of theology (Favre is god?), some conception of ethical behavior in "sportsman-like conduct" to imitate, and perhaps even some sense of "mystic" joy through group meditation sessions (concentrated silence while watching games). Where did this behavior come from though?
  We structure our behavior in order to express what is deeply valuable to us. The movement comes first, and structures the parameters of our actions, gestures, and motions. How we organize our days and our events is even based on these deep values, including how we participate in football culture.
    
At present, I think I am exactly opposite of what soceity values. Elain Aron's Highly Senstive Person book series [Search Amazon.com for highly sensitive person; or other bookstores] seems to confirm this. It is the football star who earns the big bucks and is admired. It is the counselor, teacher, minister, helper who is shut out of modern life.  We have an epidemic of depression, racism, unethical behavior, and insensitivity. Education on how and why we are creating such values is the antidote. So, a religion department at a university is a necessity right now.

  I don't think I'd be happy as the "football star."  I'm happy being a dancer, yoga teacher, and religion professor. But I do wish I had the appreciation Favre receives, or at least be appreciated enough to be married and have children. For all people like me, I do hope we somehow experience the type of greeting Favre experienced. 
 
     

Material, Immaterial Girl - Or a Yoga Girl: Tikkun Olam and the Environment

I  went to the Yoga Congress on the environment, and I got horribly ill. It was probably the room - an un air conditioned room with minimal amount of ceiling fan movement to relieve us in the 90+ degree heat and high humidity.  Granted, I get asthma in such weather; that brings on sinus problems. So, it wasn't smart for me to stay at the session. Yet I was intrigued with the lectures, despite the discordance between what the speakers said, and the physical reality of the session. Was this a promotion of an idea that the physical world doesn't matter, and that we were to transcend the circumstances of stifling air, lack of water, and minimal breaks?  This is contrary to HaTha yoga, and perhaps the discussion of the environment and us being a continuum. We are material "girls" in a material world, but this is a spiritual reality.
    WE ARE ONE     That's a rather intangible idea without example and explanation. The speakers explained it this way - the problem is you think as a human you aren't an animal, and are not part of the environment. It's a consciousness that says to us that it doesn't matter if we put chemical fertilizers on corn fields. But, even if we don't get chemical run-off that taints the water we drink, we do get an unnatural overgrowth of corn, which creates a more moist atmosphere, saturated with more pollen. And then you and I get more allergy and asthma problems. ( The second speaker stressed that global warming is real, and also causing massive physical problems throughout the world).

   What about Physical Reality    I get this, and it is so so yoga an idea. We are part of the physical reality around us, which is all also a spiritual reality.  But, what is the solution?  Avoiding material reality?  Art doesn't count? Is Madonna's new "material girl" clothing line immaterial? ( Yes, that Madonna). All 3 of the swamis speaking that day stressed RELATIONSHIP. Remember that we are in relationship with all around us. They also subtly spoke of Intention, but that is more a kabbalah idea).
     I don't think any of the speakers were telling us to transcend our physical needs, but remember that any harm we cause others really will harm us. So an example - if art or Madonna's clothes cause suffering in some way - causing us to spend too much money to purchase them, so we don't have enough money left for Tzedakkah (charitable giving), that is a problem. I'm seeing more artists use recycled materials for their work though, at the local open studios. And Madonna is making stylish, rather affordable clothes for Juniors that so far are more tasteful than some of the trashy wear promoted by others. (I have no idea who makes them - another issue).

 RELATIONSHIP  and RENUNCIATION  I wish the conference organizers were aware that it was contradictory to have us just sit and listen for 3 hours in the hot heat, with few breaks and no real time to process the lectures. Maybe it was the idea of "renunciation" promoted by Swami Veda.  We were to renounce our comfort at the expense of our health?  Well, that could be a yoga idea, but I don't think that is what he had in mind. I think he meant that by less attachment to things, we can better appreciate our relationship to the plants, and trees, and animals, and oceans, and fish (he mentioned them all in his meditation leadership). 
   I still didn't get this though, so I though maybe if I thought of renunciation in Jewish terms. The 10 commandments?   The "do nots" are renunciation of bad actions.   That makes sense. Then I found these quotes of the great Jewish Scholar Abraham Joshua Heschel:

"Self-respect is the fruit of discipline, the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself."

"Life without commitment is not worth living."

Can we discipline ourselves? can we say no to excess?  can we commit ourselves to relationships, renunciating supposed freedom?  It is all in our self interest, really, as it grows self-respect, and awareness of the beautiful world around us.
  As one of the speakers reminded us - meditate to remain in an ecological frame of mind that respects relationship. We separate and meditate in order to be more in relationship with every living thing.


  What else can we do?   I love ritual, as it sets the direction for good actions into the body. This one just came via email from Rabbi Arthur Waskow:

"In some communities, on Yom Kippur there is a tradition of full prostration of all or many congregants during the Avodah service, imitating what the ancient Israelites did at the Temple while the High Priest breathed God's Name.

If this were done outside on the earth, instead of inside on the synagogue floor, and if it were allowed to last 18 minutes, it would reconnect  adam with adamah, the human-earthlings with the earth.  Our muscles, as well as our minds, could intimately touch the earth, embrace our Mother.

The service could help us commit ourselves to redeem the relationship in our generation."

see www.theshalomcenter.org 
     

Himalayan Yoga Meditation Congress 2010
July 23-August 8, 2010
Minneapolis, MN

There are several events for this one. I like the Congress description:

 
With the most serious environmental disaster in U.S. history continuing to develop in the waters and on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, the perilous relationship between humans and the natural world has never seemed so fragile. While Congress investigates the cause of the oil rig disaster and thousands work to clear oil from both water and land, it may be time to consider a spiritual approach to understanding our relationship with the our natural environment.

The emphasis is mine, and they used my favorite word - relationship.  I'm trying to attend at least the Saturday event. Last year I led a Jewish meditation at the congress, and this is a great, warm, welcoming interfaith group. Those who attend aren't  "religious" in the stiff and doctrinal sense, but just very cool people, as is the Swami. I personally would like to see more people of all ages, and more men attend - yes,  young, old, athletic, handicapped, and even men can enjoy being spiritual and in relationship.


Here are the remaining events.

"Peaceful Planet, Heart, and Mind"
Lecture by Swami Veda Bharati
August 5
7:00 pm, Macalester Plymouth United Church
1658 Lincoln Avenue West, St. Paul
Cost: $20 suggested donation

"The Feminine: Spirituality and Environmental Activism" - I really recommend this one!
presentations by and panel discussion with Swami Nityamuktananda Saraswati, Swami Jaidev Bharati and Swami Veda Bharati
August 7
1:00-4:30 pm, Macalester Plymouth United Church
1658 Lincoln Avenue West, St. Paul
Cost: $25 suggested donation more info

"One Earth, One Heart: Sacred Sounds of Kirtan"
Concert featuring A. Pavan and Pooja Goswami Pavan
August 8
4:00 pm, St. Maron's Catholic Church, Cedars Hall
602 University Avenue NE, Minneapolis
Cost: $15 in advance, $20 at the door more info

Breaking Bread: Food for All  (Usually a nice meal of dahl, rice, and veggies)
Simple vegetarian supper
August 8
6:00 pm, The Meditation Center
631 University Avenue NE, Minneapolis
Cost: $5.00

Peace on Earth Meditation
With recitation of the Lord's Prayer (But probably an interfaith event - and it is really a Jewish prayer)
led by Swami Veda Bharati
August 8
7:00 pm, St. Maron's Catholic Church, Cedars Hall
602 University Avenue NE, Minneapolis
Cost: By donation to cover hall rental more info

The Goddess: Creative Energy Workshop
Led by Swami Nityamuktananda Saraswati
August 12, 14
7:00-9:00 pm (August 12);
10:00 am-noon, 1:30-4:30 pm (August 14)
The Meditation Center, 631 University Avenue, NE, Minneapolis
Cost: $15 for Thursday evening; $60 for Saturday workshop

Relationships, Blogs, and Gardens

 My first post may be misinterpreted as praise for all things Californian, and rejection of all Minnesotan. This is not so. In fact, I found there were some very odd interpretations of Buddhism in California, where individuals used the idea of detachment to relinquish responsible behavior.  The following piece is an example of what I mean.



Blogs - There is one that quite amuses  and frustrates me as a professional in religion, and as someone who pursues a spiritual path. Why, why, why would someone write on the importance of Tikkun Olam (repairing or redeeming the world), having compassion for the earth, and avoidng a power-over relationship with the environment, yet was not able to carry out these steps with people in his life?

  Kind of reminds me of Judith Plaskow's speech about toilets - there are never enough for women. She explained the sociological, cultural, and theological associations made with women's bodies vs. men's bodies, reminding those of us listening that the study of religion is not for theory. It's for real people who live real lives. (The theory, however, involves viewing women's bodies as leaking too much fluid, where the perfect male is an excutive with a private bathroom, who is never viewed leaking any fluid).
 
The blogger I mention treated me, well, like a piece of trash to be thrown out. That was after telling me several times "I love you" with a great deal of feeling, after we became involved in a vey special and good relationship. Then something happened, of which he refused to tell me about.
 
 I am still greatly affected by the treatment, and I will just say that despite my best efforts, the guy kept making the situation as painful as possible for me, refusing to talk through what happened. Apparently
it was more important that he treat me like trash. My feelings or welfare didn't matter to him.

  I have a suspicion about what was wrong, and it could have been easily worked out, but he demanded he wanted an end to the relationship. Maybe that behavior is fine in High School, but very unrelational and lacking in compassion for a grown adult male.Over the years, he has still refused to talk-even via speaker phone session with a neutral therapist- or acknowledge that his behavior could possibly have affected me that badly - sort of like BP saying they didn't mean for the oil spill to hurt anyone.

   For me, such behavior isn't about compassion but a "power over."  If we are to have compassion for the earth, and be in relationship with the environment, we must also include people in that equation - all people, and especially those we claim to love. That has to go beyond kind thoughts to others theoretically, or applied only to those in a circle of friends, or a specific spiritual community.

‎   My story, sadly, has no happy ending for me. I still experience flashbacks of trauma from the experience. I am still unhappily single, and he is married.Well, at least he's thinking good thoughts, and at least I have a nice garden - of sunflowers, beans, roses, and beautiful friends and students who treat me like a human being.


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Why this blog?

A blog on religion and life?  

 When I lived in Northern California, I don't think anyone had a restrictive view of religion and spirituality. I saw many good examples of people living in out their Highest Values in everyday life. There was almost an implicit understanding that all spirituality is driven by these values, and that their home base is in our religion of chose. ( Of course, I was living in a bubble of selective community).
 
  Then I move back to Minnesota and find that "religion" is stuffy old church ladies, and Sunday morning stuff of conservatives. Or given limited definition, according to some religion is the root of all evil. Well, it is neither, but that seems to be the predominate local image. This image does get in the way of me teaching classes about the world's great religions - so much so that it's often difficult for students to understand that our Highest Values directly affect our everyday life choices, our thinking, our art and music, our relationships, and more.

  In order to provide illustrations for classes - and vent some of my frustration - I thought a blog would be a good idea. I'll post ideas to think about, events of interest of all sorts (yes, flamenco and ecstatic dance), links to my articles and book, and more. It's all related.