"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Eleven.

“We have to relax the spiritual cramp which knots us
in the painful “I” that is all we know as ourselves.”
Thomas Merton

UNTO US, ALL IS GIVEN

Tomschulzartist

Today's Editorial: "On Justice and Righteousness and Empathy"

Milton and Bernice have been stopping by my house over the years. Primarily as the temperature turns off cold. Milton is a veteran and Bernice is deaf. Milton and Bernice have made some poor life decisions over the years. Over the years, I have given them directions to certain social services and given countless gifts of twenty dollar bills to help assuage their various hungers and needs. It's not much, all in all. But it is something. I have listened to their stories. Their stories have remained constant in that they include a downward spiral that has left them bereft of much of their dignity. But the years and circumstances have not yet stolen the all of who they are. They are sad. And orphaned by their choices. Milton has cancer. Bernice has no heat. Where is their ladder that will help them climb up out of adversity? They just want that ladder.

Posted Direct from the Spidey-Hole.


"My heart and my mind, fill with peace."


"Water Labyrinth #11"© 2010

“Unbounded Extension”

“The Universe is experiencing great joy in this moment!" exalted The Universe.
"That experience of The Universe's impacts God in such a favorable way", purred God.

"Really?" grinned The Universe. (Oh yes, The Universe can grin). "Sweet."

"For Unto us a Son is Giv'n."

"King"
Tokyo - based Artist Isaac Schulz

“Symbolic Transference”

“Here's a question for God", started out The Universe. "What happens when an Entity perishes?"
"Good one, The Universe", responded God. “In the sense that time is perpetually perishing, an Entity has perished when it is complete."
"But then God is saying that an Entity is always at the same Time Becoming and Perishing?" asked an incredulous The Universe.

"That is precisely what God is saying", said God precisely. "And that is what God refers to as an Entity with spatial needs."

"The increase of his government
And peace shall never end."

Albert Einstein on World Peace


THE READING

"In the newness of the world God was a young man, and grew indignant over the slightest thing. In the newness of the world God had perhaps not Himself realized the ramifications of His Laws, for example, that shock will spend itself in waves; that our images will mimic every gesture, and that shattered they will multiply and mimic every gesture ten, a hundred, or a thousand times. Cain, the image of God, gave the simple earth of the field a voice and a sorrow, and God Himself heard the voice, and grieved for the sorrow, so Cain was a creator, in the image of his Creator."

Marilynne Robinson "Housekeeping" 1980

This concludes Week Eleven of
"The God and The Universe Conversations".

All art and writing by Tom Schulz unless otherwise noted, or unless it is so cool
he will try to get away with claiming it as his own.

"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Ten.

"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Ten.

“It is no good casting out devils. They belong to us,
we must accept them and be at peace with them.”
D.H. Lawrence

"Duck and Cover"
Civil Defense Film 1950

Today's Editorial: "On Context, Tides and Empathy"

An acquaintance recently asked, "If one friend is worried about the tax bill and I cut my finger, which matters more?" Intriguing question. One that points out that no relational equation can have an answer that is insulated from the prevailing circumstances. A new wave forms behind the wave that is in collapse and all waves are similar. It is the Tsunami that reeks havoc on a large scale, yet even the smallest wave is an agency of erosion. Perhaps empathy is not about understanding or about comparatives. In this moment, let us consider that empathy is a method of recognizing each circumstance as essentially linked and then embracing that beyond our own personal traditions of being.

Posted Direct from the Spidey-Hole.



Seabrook Island, SC.
Preparatory Study for "Contemplative Tides"© 2010

“Res Vera”

“Excuse The Universe if The Universe appears not able to think 'outside the cosmos', but it seems that time would have to be a definable order of successions if Becoming were as significant as God lets on", intoned The Universe in a display of munificent logic.

"For the purposes of argument, that is an extraordinarily clarifying statement", replied God. "In a static reality. But in fluid time formats, the progression of Becoming is interactive with both continuity and potentiality."

"Dang, God - God has an answer for everything!" fumed an exasperated The Universe.

Jack Matney Memorial Labyrinth.
Presbyterian Hospital. Charlotte, NC (detail)
Photo by Mary de Wit, in2Wit.

“Realitas Objectiva (or: Clothes Make the Man)”

“So then, God", continued The Universe, "is there any point for an Entity to make a plan? The Universe means, given the input of non-local potentialities and all."

"Plan away, by all means', soothed God. "Plans are great comfort to many Entities. Just keep aware that as soon as an Entity implements a plan, it has always already long begun. And when a plan is completed, it may be in the midst of casting out countless galaxies."

"What a beautiful awareness", sighed The Universe.

Seabrook Island, SC.
Preparatory Study for "Contemplative Tides"© 2010

“Intermittently Rational”

“The Universe considers that The Universe is capable of sustaining persistent qualities", flexed The Universe unabashedly. "And that these qualities fundamentally define Nature!"

"Gosh, that frozen logic works in theory", God mulled. " But a Monistic Universe then only embraces the illusion of change. A Pluralistic Universe, however, might consider the alternative view of Nature as a society of diversities."

"Yeah, yeah - that last thing God said", replied the Universe with animation.

"From Here to Eternity" 1953
Directed by Fred Zinnemann

"All my thoughts, words and deeds
Were only bringing me closer
To universal embrace:
Here I am resting joyfully in myself,
Wrapped in deep silence on all sides,
And my heart beats in the rhythm of everything
Which surrounds me.
Enough. No need for words.”
Julian Tuwim


This concludes Week Ten of
"The God and The Universe Conversations".

All art and writing by Tom Schulz unless otherwise noted, or unless it is so cool
he will try to get away with claiming it as his own.

"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Nine.

"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Nine

“Meaning is not in things but in between them.”

Norman O. Brown

"In Both Worlds (Firmly Planted)" 2007
Sam M. Walton School of Business, Fayetteville, AR

Today's Editorial: "On Conversations and Empathy"

A cursory investigation found several resources defining empathy as the projection of one's own personality into the personality of another in order to understand the person better. Other definitions followed a similar vein of thinking: the idea that we may best understand another person’s plight by impressing our own sensibilities upon them. Which is not an exchange and not a conversation.
Odd, really.
If the one language we speak is the Language of Me, then how are we to understand anyone at all? Maybe a vital part of defining empathy would be the awareness that understanding another person must indeed, include the other person.

Posted Direct from the Spidey-Hole.

"The Abundant Universe" 2006

“Change and Doctrines”

The Universe had been really busy. Busy. Busy. Busy. God stood by (as much as God can stand by) and observed all the frenetic activity. "Hey there, The Universe!", interjected God, "That looks like quite the adventure of evolving actual things. Got any concept of what will come out of all this busy-ness?"
"God", replied The Universe, "it is what it is."

"That's cool, returned God, "whatcha gonna do when the is-ness becomes Being?"

Mystery Photo (attributed to John Schulz)

“Antecedent States”

"The Universe was wondering how the Historical Reality could exist along with the Contemporary Reality, if indeed it even does", pondered The Universe out loud. "Slow day?" laughed God. "Well, no - don't laugh at The Universe", pouted The Universe. "The Universe means, God acts as the linking datum of existence in a continuum, right?"

"Yeah", replied God, "But still the extensive divisions of potentialities can mess with that. Mess with that bad."

"Arabesque" (detail) 2008
From the "Inter-faith Prayer Painting Project"©

“The Category of Transmutation”

“The perceptions of "images" in the presentational immediacy must be like looking at the light of a particular star and enjoying in in the moment, even as an Entity understands that the star may no longer exist", stated The Universe with just a touch of smugness.

"Fascinating!" responded God. "And then by following relevant historical routes, then that perception of that light may form a corpuscular society and become a galaxy which then is the 'real' galaxy."

"Whatever, God", barked a petulant The Universe.

Scene from Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" 1927

"People spoke the same language, but could not understand each other."

O

"That which has form emerges from that which has no form; that which has no form emerges from that which has form. Therefore the path of supreme spirituality cannot be sought in being
and cannot be fathomed in non-being;
it cannot be lost through movement
and cannot be gained through stillness."
Ming-Chiao, "Five Houses of Zen"

A Lass: Babble On

This concludes Week Nine of
"The God and The Universe Conversations".

All art and writing by Tom Schulz unless otherwise noted, or unless it is so cool
he will try to get away with claiming it as his own.