Expressing Pagan Values

I’m a bit late to the dance, but have learned that June is Pagan Values expression month. That’s cool- We Pagan-hearted folk need to both stand up and speak up about our own lives, lest we get drowned out by the noisy mainstream.

It took me a while to decide to write something in this vein. First of all, I needed to decide if I was comfortable with the meme itself, since it seemed to be hitch-hiking upon the appropriation of the word ‘values’ by the Christian Right. They’ve taken it and turned it into a shibboleth that denies any who do not believe exactly what they believe their right to express themselves.

I don’t like that. Never have.

But perhaps by expressing our own value sets and widely publicizing them, Pagans (and non-believers also) can reclaim that word and snatch it from the clutches of the zealots. That is always a good thing.

That said, I can state my own Pagan Values in just nine words. This is the Rede of the TechMage:

Keep what works. Fix what’s broke. Pitch the rest.

Keeping what works is simple- when something works, it is obvious to all observers. Lots of stuff works- like the concept of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations (IDIC)- which seems to be the basis of many Pagan belief systems. Treating people the way you’d like to be treated is also a working precept. So is being a conscientious steward of this planet.

Fixing what is broken can be problematic at times- especially when it seems that the dead-weight of culture and often repressive tradition is pressing against any progress. People in power do not like to give it up- even if they are obviously incompetent or obsolete. But if my colleagues and I could get Wicca recognized as a legitimate faith in the military chaplain’s handbook (paving the way for open circles and chaplains assistants- and eventually a Wiccan chaplain..some day…), and get the Pentacle finally legitimized as a proper religious symbol for military veteran’s headstones (which will include my own), that is progress. We still have a ways to go.

Pitching the rest is an active process- keeping clutter out of mind, life, and practice brings the first two precepts together. Understand that lives run in cycles, with phases of active growth and learning, absorption of what is learned, meditation/rest and yearning to grow again and busting the crust of inertia. Pitching the old to make way for the new is part of this never-ending cycle.

My own Pagan life has had its ups and downs- from active zealotry and enthusiastic activism to near hermit-like withdrawal from public practice. I’m returning to an active phase of my own practice, but have not yet resumed any public work. And I may not, either- it may remain semi-public and mostly online, which is more comfortable for one such as me.

But whatever phase of the cycle I am in, my own personal Pagan values still act as my compass as I move through the stages. They are a filter and a guide, a simple example to pass along to others, free of dogma and bias, usable by any who care to take them up.

Isn’t that what values are all about?

US Soldiers in Afghanistan Told to “Hunt People for Jesus… So We Get Them into the Kingdom” (Video)

I bought the May issue of Harper’s magazine just to read Sharlet’s article. It was scarier than his earlier “Jesus Plus Nothing” article. And it does not look like the current administration is doing anything. From Sharlet’s article:

“Not only did Obama keep on Robert Gates as defense secretary; he retained the secretary of the Army, Pete Geren- another star of the Christian Embassy video, who also, in commencement remarks at West Point last year, characterized America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as struggles for religious freedom against the “darkness and oppression” of radical Islam- and also appointed as his national security adviser the retired Marine general James Jones, a regular on the prayer breakfast circuit. Nobody believes the new president shares Bush’s religious sentiments, but clearly he is willing to shave constitutional protections in exchange for evangelical peace. The new president appears to have adopted a hands-off approach not just to religion in the military but to the very relationship between church and state.”

I’m a USAF veteran, and served at the very end of the Cold War. Even then, it was clear that aggressive evangelicals were using the service as a mission platform, and overtly religious command staff were allowed to do what they wanted, including, in some cases, nothing- if they thought that the difficulties suffered by the enlisted member might mean they’d ‘come to Jesus’- literally. I have first hand experience of that, but that’s another story.
More on Afghanistan
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

“Swine Flu” unveils a larger problem- and a possible solution

Your BLT or pulled pork BBQ might not give you the H1N1 flu directly, but it is a vector. Find out how and why- and what you can do about it.

Real food vs. Sorta-food

More and more I understand what Michael Pollan means when he calls certain foods ‘edible food-like substances”. Even the fancier, more expensive corporate-created factory foods cannot hold a candle to something simple that is made from scratch.

This was driven home when I had my morning meal a while ago. I needed something salty and fluid, and there really weren’t any breakfasty things that fit that bill, so I got a Annie Chung soup bowl out. It contains pre-cooked udon noodles that are meant to be heated together with some concentrated broth base and freeze-dried veggies. It was good, but I was thinking that I could scrounge together something even better and fresher, without any unpronounceable ingredients. Sometimes, though, I am too tired, busy, short of time, or in this case, ill- to fix something from scratch, and I have to eat these things or do without.

Still, I come away dissatisfied- at the texture, the taste, the whole plasticity of the thing, and my understanding that I could do lots better.

I suppose that I am fortunate- my peculiar sensitivities to taste, texture, etc. have been keen enough to have kept me from falling into the traps that Dr. David Kessler has discovered await us in corporate restaurants, freezers, and convenience stores.

His new book, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite is on my To Get list. Hopefully, the library will have it soon.

But the article puts things into perspective, and gives us a peek into why we eat the way we do:

The labels showed the foods were bathed in salt, fat and sugars, beyond what a diner might expect by reading the menu, Kessler said. The ingredient list for Southwestern Eggrolls mentioned salt eight different times; sugars showed up five times. The “egg rolls,” which are deep-fried in fat, contain chicken that has been chopped up like meatloaf to give it a “melt in the mouth” quality that also makes it faster to eat. By the time a diner has finished this appetizer, she has consumed 910 calories, 57 grams of fat and 1,960 milligrams of sodium.

Instead of satisfying hunger, the salt-fat-sugar combination will stimulate that diner’s brain to crave more, Kessler said. For many, the come-on offered by Lay’s Potato Chips — “Betcha can’t eat just one” — is scientifically accurate. And the food industry manipulates this neurological response, designing foods to induce people to eat more than they should or even want, Kessler found.

Is it just me, or is there something lost by not chewing food? I like regular Chinese eggrolls because there’s that crunchy-cooked cabbage inside that makes you have to take your time with them. I don’t think I could put one of those Southwest eggrolls into my mouth.

In fact, there are a lot of foods I simply cannot fathom ever buying or eating. And oddly enough, most of them are aimed squarely at ‘my’ demographic: (busy) middle-aged women. Like those “Warm Delights”- basically a ‘volcano cake’ made of chocolate, chocolate fudge and chocolate syrup that one can put into the microwave, to get a ‘warm, decadent’ experience. I had a coupon for one, and examined the label. It was sugar, more sugar, chocolate, flour, and fat. And sugar. Did I say sugar? Including that evil of evils- high fructose corn syrup. This was a gooey, fat, chocolately sugar-bomb, waiting to detonate- a heartburn bomb of the highest order, a toxic spillage of incredible horror.

I put the damn thing back. Lots of ‘lady-food’ is of this sort- gooey, sweet, either frozen or warm, full of fat and chocolate- and aimed squarely at our weakest spot.

My brain must be programmed differently- I pass stuff like that up all the time- preferring the single piece of Dove chocolate (heart-shaped ones are best) tucked into the roof of my mouth and slowly melting. I only need one. More than that, or chewing it- would set off a massive attack of heartburn.

Yes, sweets give me heartburn- especially the doughy, gooey, fatty ones full of sugar and chocolate. Don’t get me wrong- I adore chocolate, and worship marzipan, but I can happily ignore the candy aisle while waiting at the checkout. I idly peruse the offerings, checking them off in my head: can’t eat that, can’t eat that, nope, nope, na-ah… Once a lady behind me was eyeing the rack, and made one of those ‘we’re in this together’ sort of remarks that implied that I was as big a slave to the candy as anyone else. I told her that I would much more enjoy decimating a jar of picked okra or beets or crunching down on a pepperocini than biting into a Snickers bar. She kind of backed away from me like I’d grown horns.

But it’s true- I can demolish a jar of pickled okra, or beets, or sauerkraut, or similar things- they’re my ‘crack’. Even better, they have few calories, little if any fat or sugar, and I have to chew them. I love that crunch, that garlic-vinegar-peppery taste, and the item itself. They have a good mouth-feel, and they don’t give me heartburn. Not even the little jalapeno rings I pile into.

Modern corporate food is to my mouth what modern corporate music is to my ears- all noise and little signal, loud, overcompressed, no dynamic range, and all sounding and tasting alike. With food, it’s all the same fake flavors, and salt that totally obscures everything, and with music, it’s all pounding bass with the melody so compressed that it’s hard to tell what the instruments are.

Both are very unpleasant for me- sort of a sensual soot, a perceptual pollution that obscures the good things that are buried within it. When I look at a ‘Hot Pocket’, it’s hard to imagine that the crusty, sticky shell was once wheat waving in the sun, or the ingredients were once animals or plants. They’re all glued together by the Magic Gravy, or the Cheese-glue, obscuring what they originally were.

How can people not only eat this stuff, but actually crave it? And how can we return to real food? Is this food at all? Why the hell am I eating it?

I felt the same way looking into my bowl of Annie Chung’s Chinese Vegetable Udon soup this morning. The corn was corn-ish, the single sad strip of shiitake was a shadow of the real thing, and the peppers and onions had been dried to a consistency that I could floss my teeth with, had they been long enough. And there was something in the little freeze-dried block that totally eluded my identification- was it egg? I ate it, but swore to myself that I would not purchase it again. Even I have my limits- and they’ve been reached.

Sometimes Pagan groups just… end

Why are Pagan groups so volatile and disband so often? The answers might be surprising.

Contemplating a “Post-Christian” world

It’s Holy Week- for some. Sure, I knew it was coming- but I did not realize it was Holy Week until I heard discussion of it in my SF group, of having to leave the bi-monthly club gathering early because of church services, and choir practice, and all that stuff. This is the most “Christian” time of the year- even beyond Christmas.

I am so thoroughly outside the Christian liturgical loop that Easter no longer registers with me. No bunnies, baskets of colored eggs, no Lenten observances. I ate a hot dog Friday. I rarely eat them, but someone was doing a cookout and giving away hot dogs and hamburgers, so I had a hot dog. Eris would be proud. Discordians, beyond anyone else, truly believe in busting paradigms and iconoclasm. While I am not a practicing (or ‘true’) Discordian (and I am not sure that there is any such thing), I appreciate the cheeky disregard for religious rules and ruts that is inherent in their worldview.

But I digress.

The Pagan/Wiccan celebration of Ostara is fixed, unlike the moveable feast of Easter (which follows the lunar calendar), and occurred last month- Spring Equinox. The next big Pagan holiday (for those who observe the Wheel) is Beltane, or May eve, which is at the end of this month. I might find a local Circle who welcomes outsiders, and participate. While I dislike creedal, dogmatic and scripture-trapped religions, I do enjoy the sense of community in touch with and celebrating each other and the seasonal changes in our environment that Pagan observances uphold.

One thing I am happy about is the apparent growth of so-called “new religious movements”- including Pagan faiths- in this decade. Pagan faiths (and I use “Pagan” as an umbrella term that encompasses Wicca, Druidism, Witchcraft, Asatru, Recon and other similar faith groups) have grown in number more rapidly in this decade than in the 90s. But this growth is a source of existential anguish to some Christians, who talk about a ‘post-Christian’ America. Others, including Wild Hunt blogger Jason Pitzl-Waters, see these demographic shifts in a different light:

[But] as I’ve pointed out before, we should be clear that “post-Christianity” doesn’t mean Christianity is going away, or that America will soon be overrun by secularist stormtroopers, but that (as Mohler points out) there is a new narrative concerning religion that displaces Christianity as the lone voice of moral authority.

And this ‘new narrative’ is in harmony with many other trends that are starting to not only emerge, but thrive and flourish- including elements of sustainability, local food movements, gardening, reducing carbon footprints, and becoming more in tune with our environment and planet. While not all Pagan belief systems are “earth based”, enough of them are, and actively incorporate environmental and seasonal awareness- to start rising above the ’separate/ next world’ barriers of Christian belief. Pagans generally focus on the here and now, not the hereafter. They are also empowering gender-wise- females hold the same power, responsibility and religious parity as males. They believe in thinking for oneself, living in the moment, and in consciously utilizing synchrodipity (magic), and are not tied to Scripture. Gods are everywhere and in everything- and hierarchies are flatter- or have morphed into interconnected networks, with each individual an equally contributing and valuable nodal peer. The triumphal, exclusionary, fear-infested fundamentalist model is replaced with an inclusive, personally empowering, community-oriented and example-based model, where practitioners are not ‘above’ or apart from other people or creatures, but in harmony and included. The obsession with Armageddon, war, demons and apocalyptic matters has been pitched out, and the idea of restoration and sustainability has replaced it. It isn’t the end of the world, it is the beginning.

Perhaps this growth of non-Christian religions reflects exhaustion with all the fear-mongering and doom-saying that seems to be part and parcel of certain Christian sects. We’ve been living under a cloud of fear- of terrorism, of bankruptcy, of war, disease, and economic collapse for almost a decade. Books like the “Left Behind” series and “Rapture Ready” websites are heavily pitched by preachers seeking to fill up pews and coffers. But in spite of that, the sun still shines, plants still grow, the seasons change, and life continues. In a time of major breakdown of established systems, the various Pagan paths offer a new way of seeing things. They do not gloss over real problems, but they return the power to change things to the hands and minds of the people.

I’ve been living in the Pagan world for over 30 years. I made a conscious choice to seek wisdom and spiritual solace outside the bounds of Christendom, and have found much to encourage me. I was in the early wave of change, and have seen both good and bad things happen, and have helped cause some good things, too. And my journey has taken me into and out of – and back into- the folds of the Pagan worldview. Unlike the Christian doomsayers who see their faith fading away, I see a different Path- one that reawakens people of faith- and none at all- to the understanding that we’re all on this planet together, and we have to believe that that ‘higher power’ is not “God”- it’s us. Perhaps instead of dreading the changes a more Earth-centered and dogma-free worldview Pagans will bring, Christians should welcome it. We are the saviors we’ve been looking for.

A journey to my past

I am an Air Force Brat as well as a veteran- it is one of the things I consistently mention on bios long and short. I lived overseas as a kid- in Okinawa and Japan. Those places left an indelible mark on me- in ways difficult to really describe. But I have memories of playing in cane fields in Okinawa, among old junk, pillboxes and barracks left over from WW II. I can tell Japanese script from Chinese and Korean without too much difficulty, and while I’ve lost what little Japanese I’d learned as a kid, I can still spot it out easily. Kids are sponges. I like to tell people that I knew what sushi, manga, and anime were before they became popular in the States. I was even asked to appear in a Japanese TV show- but my mother declined to allow me.

They say you can’t go back to your youth, and that is mostly true- but I would still love to return to those places to visit. As an adult, I would get more out of it. I took so much for granted as a kid, including living overseas. I remember the astonished reaction of my Arkansan classmates when I started a sentence with, “When I was in Japan…” The concept of leaving the US was as alien to them as I was. It was normal to me- and as soon as I was able, I joined the USAF to continue the adventure. I spent 8 years in Europe, and was hoping for an assignment to Japan before my career was abruptly terminated by the end of the Cold War.

Still, it’s been a dream of mine to return for a long time. It’s only been a dream- like buying a home, it’s means-centered. And while I can have ‘little’ vacations and trips, a big one like that is out of the question. But maybe not now- Microsoft and Lenovo have teamed up to allow people to name their dream- and even document it. They have a ‘Name Your Dream’ contest, and I entered it.

You can vote for my dream here:

I have plenty of leave, and no problem blogging it. I’d have to learn how to videotape things- I am better with a still camera. But it would be a great thing to be sent back with both the means and gear to make this dream a reality. I’ll even invest in a Rosetta Stone course to brush up on my Japanese. The contest permits me to bring one person, but I would also have to bring my dad along with my sister. After all, she was born in Okinawa. Her memories of it are dimmer than mine, since she was much younger than I was.

Going back would be so cool… Help me make it so!

Going Mobile with Public Radio

I listened to a very interesting segment on NPR’s All Things Considered, about a mobile application for the iPhone, called Public Radio Tuner. People with iPhones or iPod Touches can listen directly to streams or download various public radio stations on their devices. It’s a really cool idea. Here’s what the Tuner blog says:

We are hearing from some public radio fans that love the idea of the Public Radio Tuner, but are not iPhone or iTouch users. They want to know if the Public Radio Tuner will ever be device independent. The short answer is, we hope so.

One of the goals of this project is to help the public radio industry as a whole take advantage of the emerging mobile market. The collaboration of organizations working on the Public Radio Tuner allows us to share resources in building the app, but it’s also meant to shares the benefits and experiences gained from this project.

We think it would be a great idea to bring the Public Radio Tuner to more mobile devices. For this phase of the project, the iPhone was chosen as the initial platform because of the availability of the SDK (software development kit) and the ubiquity of the iTunes music store as a distribution point. Simply put, it had the greatest potential to reach the most users right away.

That’s cool- I have no intention of switching to AT&T anytime soon- even for an iPhone. (The iPod Touch is tempting- but I am resisting temptation right now…) So, it looks like this wonderful app will be available on other platforms- starting with Android, but perhaps Symbian (Blackberry), Palm, and Windows as well- pretty soon. I was reading about the new Palm Pre, due out with Sprint in June, and it is built on the WebKit framework. In plain English, that means that it’ll be ready to dock and rock with all sorts of cool goodies online.

Also, the report mentioned a site called PRX- Public Radio Exchange. I just signed up, and might get a paid subscription as well. I really like public radio, and since I seem to live more through my ears than through my eyes, the series and podcasts available here will be invaluable.

I love web-enabled, multi-platform technology. I mean, you can use your iPhone to stream your favorite public radio station through the cellular network. How cool is that?

I had an iPhone happily demonstrated to me by a very satisfied MacFan last night. It seems that iPhones are popping up everywhere. One app was way cool- she’d turned on her GPS tracker to chart her walk around the local high school track, and there, charted on a map on her phone, was a track-shaped circle drawn by her workout. I told her she needs to equip an energetic child (or a dog!) with an iPhone and spell out words or run around on the field and make Map Art. She thought that was a cool idea. Silly GPS tricks, anyone?

Who would have imagined even five years ago that such things could be possible?

“Brittle” religions, literalism, and (un)common sense

Live Journal user “mecurtin”, in a post about Biblical interpretation and creationism, raised some ideas that I thought were worth commenting upon.

For context, you need to go read this post by the always insightful Slacktivist. He makes some very sharp points about modern ‘brittle’ Christianity and their black-and-white, literalist thinking:

I should probably mention why this topic is an important one for me. Young-earth creationism is a particular pet peeve of mine for two main reasons.

The first is that it is not just false, but demonstrably false, and is thus often the place where the collapse begins for soon-to-be-former Christians raised to believe in the fundamentalist* house of cards.

This house-of-cards faith is a particularly brittle and fragile belief system that insists, emphatically, that all of it must be true or else none of it is true. Faith is, for these people, a pass-fail course. Get a 100 percent and you pass. Anything less than that, and you fail.

I grew up around some people who believed faith worked like this and yet I still can’t figure out the theology behind it. Their soteriology seems to work like “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” — except with no prizes awarded for any but the final question. It’s salvation by neither grace nor works, but rather by the knowledge of and mental assent to a very long list of arcane biblical interpretations.

A very, very long list. And that very long chain is only as strong as its weakest link (to mix both my metaphor and my quiz show reference). If every item isn’t true — or isn’t blindly accepted as true — then they insist that it all must be false. Thus if it is not true that the world was created in six, 24-hour days about 6,800 years ago, then it is not true that Jesus loves you. Or that you should love others as Jesus has loved you. Or that your sins are forgiven. Or that you are anything but alone and godforsaken when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

House-of-cards fundamentalism allows for no distinctions between babies and bathwater, between the central tenets of the faith and the adiaphora and error. So once one part of this belief system begins to collapse — as it inevitably will since young-earth creationism is disprovable — then it all has to go.

[*The Slacktivist uses 'fundamentalism' differently than I would- I would substitute 'Biblical literalist' instead. Not all Fundamentalists are Biblical literalists- but sadly, many are. --ed]

Kind of frightening, isn’t it?

Rummaging in my library

I enjoy good books. And I read a pile of them, too. Here’s a small sample of what I’ve got sitting on my various horizontal surfaces and reading spots around the house.

In the dining room:

Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 2009 Edition

Good wine is a treat, and knowing what you’re drinking and where it came from is bonus. This is one of the best books on wine around. Windows on the World was the restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center. It had one of the most extensive wine selections in the world. Even though the restaurant was destroyed with the towers, its legacy lives on in these yearly courses.

On my desk:

Windows Vista Annoyances: Tips, Secrets, and Hacks

I actually like Vista, but there are some screwy things about it, too. Vista Annoyances helps me to figure them out and cope with them. Another book is on my list to get:

Windows Vista: The Missing Manual

I’ve always enjoyed David Pogue’s column in the New York Times. His technical blog and videos are always both informative and entertaining. I’ve read his other books, and have several of his Missing Manuals. So, getting this one is a no-brainer.

While I love the Internet and all the goodies it’s brought to me, there’s nothing nicer than curling up with a good book- or tech manual. I might get a Kindle someday when the price drops into my range, but paper is still the way to go for me.