Being and Empowerment: Introduction

(This is the rough beginning of what I hope will be the introduction of a long essay spoken about in the essay blog. Most of the research will be documented there but I will be posting chapters and paragraphs here. I would love some feedback on the content and suggestions for other literary sources to be used.)


I have been thinking about the social model of personal and community development envisioned in the Baha'i community. It is becoming more and more apparent that the unity we envision will only come about when each of us take ownership of our potential and responsibility to the process. There will be no passive observers in the transformation.

For many it is challenging to be around large crowds of people. There is an inverse relationship between the number of people at a gathering and the quality of interaction that ensues. At a certain point one can feel completely isolated. In the Baha'i community, there has been a significant shift in the past few years to hold activities in peoples homes instead of a centralized location. These activities are no longer events in which a few perform and the rest spectate. Instead, everything is viewed as a process of building capacity within ourselves and the community. Being a Baha'i means actively working to overcome the divisions which plague our society, not standing in the larger and larger rooms together until the whole world is enclosed.

All too often we have been content with a superficial unity reflected in a type of large group mingling. In the dominance of the crowd the real potential and vulnerabilities of people are neglected, and hence we become passive observers to an evanescent impulse. Thus, as Paulo Freire would conceptualize it, we are like banks in which those who speak eloquently and can dominate a discussion deposit their wisdom as the rest of us save it up. This is how most religion today operates, with the members coming a few times a month to "do the church thing", without reflecting on how it relates to their lives and institutions.

We must realize that we have been given the spiritual tools and the dignity to realize the change within our hearts and to build these new divine institutions with our own hands. A Baha'i study circle stands as a model of engaging people of very different bearings in a singular study of spiritual human potential, while at the same time providing the flexibility of dialogue and independent thought. In each study course, a new practice is introduced which builds capacity for service to the community. By completing the last study course people are trained to bring along others through this process.

Spiritual empowerment requires an understanding of being itself and the process of a self-reflection and spiritualization. As this concept is investigated we can begin to define its relevance in a collective process to create real change in the world. The question of being has been a preoccupation of philosophers and religionists for quite some time. Martin Heidegger devoted his whole philosophical career to exploring this question, while Paulo Freire identified the "humanization" of being as a prerequisite to social transformation. This essay attempts to explore the historical thinking on being and community empowerment and place in a spiritual context using the Baha'i institute process as a model.

The Brilliance or Arrogance of Cormac McCarthy

I love the writing of Cormac McCarthy, his use of language is absolutely unmatched. I know he is good enough to deserve creative licence, and this isn't even technically a run-on sentence. But seriously, is the story better served by not having a period for 10 lines or so. The sentence after it makes it even funnier, it's like he's making a joke. He does this sort of stuff all the time, he also writes sentence fragments constantly. I would understand if it was poetry or it made the storytelling better, but it isn't and it doesn't. Maybe I just don't understand this aspect of his profound writing, will some McCarthy devotee please illumine me?


"It came boring out of the east like some ribald satellite of the coming sun howling and bellowing in the distance and the long light of the headlamp running through the tangled mesquite brakes and creating out of the night the endless fenceline down the dead straight right of way and sucking it back again wire and post mile on mile into the darkness after where the boilersmoke disbanded slowly along the faint new horizon and the sound came lagging and he stood still holding his hat in his hands in the passing groundshudder watching it till it was gone. Then he turned and went back to the house."

Stuff that's happening

I've been thinking about what to write on this blog. There have been a couple of false starts, words have just fallen flat. I am really excited about an ongoing essay project. The scope of it will probably have to be toned down at some point, or else it will never get written. It was going to be collaborative, but that is looking less likely. I feel an intense need to engage in collaborative, creative writing projects with other people. I have tried to initiate things but nothing seems to get off the ground, which is a little bit frustrating. Maybe it is a sign that I need to put more energy in other aspects of my life right now.

Speaking of which, Sjo and I visited some of her family this evening. I had a really nice time, they are all very wonderful people. Here are some photos...





Jimmy and I. Jimmy is one of the most interesting people I have met. He is so good hearted and full of energy. I have to say it took me a while to get used to his personality, but now I love being around him, he makes me happy.

One of the cutest pictures I personally have taken of Sjo

The cousins. Nancy is in the middle, she is awesome. Very inquisitive, open minded, and mindful of things.

Jimmy, who is an artist, painted this on three different panels, each of which he gave away. We will have to all get together again to create the full picture.

And finally a moment of deep understanding and recognition...

Shout Out

Check out this website. It hosts daily video discussions among bloggers and other public thinkers on a wide range of topics.

A Bikeride

Sjona and I took a bike ride along the Rio Grande today. The last time we rode I had themes of landscape and nostolgia heavy on my mind. Today not so much, just happy to be with the one I love.









Just kidding, here we are below...