Mark Radar's *The Wanting Life*

FROM MARK RADER’S BOOK,

THE WANTING LIFE:

He cornered the idea, slapped it around for being ridiculous, only to find that it was still standing, unharmed, blinking and eager, like an idiot pet. (45)

And yet, this radio silence. (57)

Luca studied Paul for a second with a smirk on his face, eyeing him up and down. It was as if being brushed by a very soft wing. (95)

…he communed with the mirror. (115)

Time breathed. (131)

Published by Unnamed Press, Los Angeles, 2020.

anti-religious religion

Epicurus as the founder of an anti-religious religion

(Harold Bloom, in Genius, in the section on Lucretius)

---------


Bloom is commenting on Lucretius' On the Nature of Things, calling it a 'poetry of belief.' Lucretius, being a disciple of Epicurus, is seen as one who believes SOS strongly in materialism that his anti-religious perspective takes on religious import. Thus, Bloom names it 'anti-religious religion.'

We see this kind of vehoment atheism today in the writings of Christopher Hitchins and Richard Dawking. They write with religious fervor against religion. Paul Tillich taught us that true faith is about Ultimate Concern. Serious atheists have an Ultimate Comcern about ultimate reality in the same way as Christian theology does. Therefore, their atheism functions as a religion. Even Nietzsche was religious in his own way.

Humans can get away from neither religion nor myth. Both are inherently part of human consciousness. The discipline of science is a form of faith. Science has faith in Order; it is based on the myth of the existence of 'laws of nature.'

I thank God for the religion called Science. Faith in the orderliness of the universe has brought us much progress and pleasure.

Poured in waves

"God is no fixed point or central government, but rather is poured in waves through all things. All things move."

(from the poem "What He Thought" by Heather McHugh)


---------


In a poem that discusses what poetry is, McHugh refers to the execution of Giordano Bruno, a 16th century scientist and philosopher. He was burned at the stake for heresy.

Bruno, like Spinoza, expressed a pantheistic theology. He refused to say that the transcendent Other is actually other--separate. Bruno also espoused multiple universes.
He was way before his time. Physicists in our day confirm his basic understanding of reality. Current theological discussions among some Jewish and Christian thinkers, as well as non-dualistic spiritualities, affirm Bruno's religious vision, perhaps splitting hairs about absolute pantheism.

All things move. God is no fixed point.

We can no longer get our fix through an unmoved Mover or nailed down dogma.

God is poured in waves through all things.

Every winter

"Behold, we know not anything;
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last--far off--at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring."

(Alfred Lord Tennyson, from "In Memoriam")


--------


This is real faith. It admits ignorance. It names itself Agnostic.

Faith and agnosticism are not rivals, they are twins. To have faith is to not know. "We know not anything." What a clear, honest and courageous statement! Fake faith pretends to know. When we have real faith, we know that we do not know.

Nevertheless, we trust. We trust something or someone. We trust Goodness. We give ourselves into the hands of that power that transforms the barrenness of winter into the vitality of spring.

In the Christian tradition we call it the resurrection of Christ. You may call it something else.

I trust that good shall fall to all, and overcome the Fall.

Prison of Meritocracy

"They remain inside the prison of meritocracy..."
(Richard Rohr, in The Naked Now)

_____


The prison of meritocracy is a terrible place to spend life. Rohr is talking about living with the belief that everything has to be deserved. Dividing the world into the 'deserving' and the 'undeserving' is a tireless job. The way to escape this prison is to open one's heart and mind to make room: create a spaciousness in one's consciousness. Let go of the gavel and take off the judge's robe. Let be. Live by grace and allow others the same freedom.

Invitations

"I know those habits that can ruin your life still send their invitations."
(words of Hafiz; from A Year with Hafiz,  by Daniel Ladinsky)

______


Have you had an invitation to become angry lately?
Has someone's words sent you an invitation to break up a relationship?
Has an invitation arrived in your brain to feel sorry for yourself?

Invitations can be turned down.