#i need to nonstop talk about h2o.

[yasamlynn]

is there an active h2o discord server or sth... i am begging on my knees.

[guerrillathoughts]

Guerrilla Book of the Week - Book 4 - The Raggamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning

This week, I knew that my reading time would be greatly reduced. Due to work commitments I had to reschedule a lot of my time. So I went to my ever growing box of unread novels and memoirs, facts and fictions, Satires and Horrors, Travels and Histories. All various sizes and even shape. I dug down to the bottom and chose a book I bought many years ago. It was in near perfect condition and had never been read. It still had it’s purchase invoice inside. 2009. Eight years ago I bought this short book for less than four British pounds. Had I really been that busy over the last eight years that I couldn’t make room for 174 pages? And what had I achieved in those 8 years? 2009 I was just about to finish my undergraduate degree. Five years after buying this book I would go back and complete a one year post graduate. But in between, could I really not have found the time to read 174 pages?

Memories came to me that saddened my heart. The reason I bought this book, was because a friend at the time requested that I do so; a friend with whom I had fallen out of touch with. In eight years I had become so far removed from this friend that I wasn’t even in attendance at her wedding. This week I decided to find the time to read 174 pages. At first I was a little uneasy with this book, as it is not at all what I thought it would be. By the title I had assumed that this title would be about a Vagabond, or Ragamuffin, that just travelled or was at least semi nomadic, expecting it to be a travel memoir. This is very far from what this book is. This book is one man trying to help the reader to see the beauty and the grace of God. However I do not think that one needs to be a Christian to find value in the words. On nearly every page I found my self reaching for my pen to write down quotes, or make notes that could help me to write a post this week. Obviously not every quote or note will see the light of the blog, but it is a testament to just how Christian Brennan Manning is - As with Jesus, his words are not just for the righteous. He starts the book by listing who the book is for: “The bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt out. It is for the sorely burdened who are still shifting the heavy suitcase from one hand to the other. It is for the wobbly and weak kneed who know they don’t have it all together and are too proud to accept the handout of amazing grace. It is for the inconsistent, unsteady [disciples] whose cheese is falling off their cracker. It is for poor. weak [and sinful] men and woman  with hereditary faults and limited talents. It is for earthen vessels who shuffle along on feet of clay. It is for the bent and bruised that feel their lives are a grave disappointment [to God]. It is for smart people that know they are stupid and honest [disciples] that know they are scallywags. The Ragamuffin Gospel is a book I wrote for myself and anyone who is discouraged along the way”

If you take away the references to God, I am sure that many people would find themselves in this list. And this book has a lot to say. Yes Manning says it through the avenue of belief in the Christian God, but I feel much of what he says is relevant, or should be relevant, even to non-believers of that faith. This post is not an argument for, or against Christianity. It is not about which faith is the one true faith. This post is about the book I read, the thoughts it stirred up in me, and who I become.

Disclaimer: I was born into a Catholic Family, raised in the Faith and still practise to this day, despite countless doubts.

This book is not about judgement. It is not about telling the reader that they are a sinner and that they must repent. This book actually has a whole chapter entitled “Tilted Halos”, that starts with an anecdote of a very uptight conservative Christian talking to the doctor about headaches. After questioning the Christian about his values he concludes the that cause is “Simple, my dear fellow. Your halo is too tight”. It further includes a very forward thinking quote that states simply “We miss Jesus’ point entirely when we use his words as weapons against others. They are to be taken personally by each of us”. Basically, he is passing no judgement in this book. He does not list sins of which one need to repent, nor does he use it as an opportunity to snipe at the Homosexual Community, the Atheist Community or communities of other faiths. Christians take all the flak. The book starts by talking about how incredible our universe and planet are, and how mathematically our Planet seems to have been created.

“The slant of the earth, for example, tilted at an angle of 23 degrees, produces our seasons. Scientists tell us that if the earth had not been tilted exactly as it is, vapours from the oceans would move both north and south, piling up continents of ice. If the moon were only 50,000 miles away from earth, instead of 200,000, the tides might be so enormous that all the continents would be submerged in water. Even the mountains would be eroded. If the Crust of the Earth had been only ten feet thicker, there would be no oxygen, and without it all animal life would die.

Had the oceans been a few feet deeper, carbon dioxide and oxygen would have been absorbed and no vegetable life would exist. The earth’s weight has been estimated at six sextillion tones (that’s a six with 21 zeros). Yet it is perfectly balanced.” This is of course incredible, to consider our planet’s perfection. Our planet is literally just perfect for life to exist. Any slight differences and our planet would not be the home it is today. And yet it is home. How much more incredible this becomes when we take a wider view of our existence and consider the perfection of our Universe. “The nine major planets in our solar system range in distance from the sun from 36 million to about 3 trillion, 6,664 billion miles; yet each moves around the sun in exact precision… The sun is only one minor star in the 100 billion orbs which comprise our Milky Way Galaxy. If you hereto hold a dime, a ten-cent piece, at arm’s length, the coin would block out 15 million stars from your view.”

So sorry to quote such a considerable chunk of this book, but I think it does a great job of putting us in our incredible place. You see the reason I think this is important, is because for me this can’t all be an accident. I am not arguing the existence of a creator God, I am merely suggesting that there must be more to life than the dull drudgery of working nine to five everyday, in jobs most people do not even feel are important. There must be more wonder. This is a point that Manning labours over nearly two full chapters, concluding with a quote from Rabbi Heschel; “As civilisation advances, the sense of wonder declines”. He labours the point because it is very important, that people of today no longer take the time to experience wonder. He describes some of the ways our race used to wonder at the world around us, and he describes how we are losing that ability. Again I am using a large quote from this book, but I really couldn’t cut it down.

“By and large, our world has lost it’s sense of wonder. We have grown up. We no longer catch our breath at the sight of a rainbow or the scent of a rose, as we once did. We have grown bigger and everything else smaller, less impressive. We get blasé and worldly wise and sophisticated. We no longer run our fingers through water, no longer shout at the stars or make faces at the moon. Water is H2O, the stars have been classified, and the moon is not made of green cheese. Thanks to satellite TV and Jet Planes, we can visit places available in the past only to a Columbus, a Balboa, and other daring explorers.”

One of the reasons I practise Landscape, Nature and Wildlife Photography is because I do still wonder at the world. When I see a beautiful painted sky or indeed a rainbow I will often pull over and enjoy them, even sometimes when I am in a rush. For me this is probably the most important time to enjoy such sights; whenever I am simply to busy to do so. I remember my shock just this year when meeting a girl from the country, to find that she had never laid in a field and counted the stars; There I was from the City, talking of my experiences on the west coast of Ireland, or under the unspoilt Bosnian Sky. I have discussed my love of the exciting. The moon may not be green cheese, but why not choose to believe it is anyway? I know this sounds naive, but hopefully if you take the time to read my previous post about this, you will understand and hopefully enjoy.

Manning really labours this point and it is beautiful. He labours the fact that sometimes we are simply just to busy. That in a modern civilised society “We barely notice the clouds passing over the moon or the dew drops clinging to the rose leaves. The Ice pond come and goes. The wild blackberries ripen and wither. The blackbird nests outside out bedroom window. We don’t see her. We grow complacent and lead practical lives. We miss the experience of awe, reverence, and wonder.”

Manning seems to be suggesting, as I alluded to earlier that there must be more to life than the dull drudgery of working nine to five everyday. We live our practical lives. We drive to work, come home and prepare for the next days work. We clear the massive pile of meaningless paper work, merely to make room for tomorrows massive pile of meaningless paper work. Manning makes a statement about religious people, but this statement could apply to all but the simplest of Children. “So often we religious people walk amid the beauty and bounty of nature and we talk nonstop. We miss the panorama of colour and sound and smell. We might as well have remained in our closed, artificially lit living rooms. Nature’s lessons are lost and the opportunity to be wrapped in silent wonder before the God of creation passes.” I have blogged about the importance of the sound of water in my life before. But it is too true that I have in the past missed the excellent glory of the world around me. I recall one trip hiking through the mountains of Spain, that I was so set on my destination that I missed the beautiful vistas, the birdsong in the mountain forests and the smell of the pines. I may as well have stayed at home. This is exactly why it is when I am hurried or rushed that I choose to pull over, stop the car and watch the sky, the cloud formations or the colours streaked creatively. I wish to be wrapped so often in that silent wonder. So often people tell me that go go climbing and hiking alone is dangerous and a bad idea - But sometimes when you do so with another soul, where your souls may be quiet, maybe that day is not a quiet day for them.

Manning has not finished labouring this point. The author is really trying to hammer home the nail; There is beauty and wonder all around us. “Our world is saturated with grace, and the lurking presence of God is revealed not only in spirit but in matter - in a deer leaping across a meadow, in the flight of an eagle, in fire and water, in a rainbow after a summer storm, in a gentle doe string through a forest…” and we need to take the time to take it all in. We need to live full and enjoyable lives. And this is almost as important to the author as the beauty of the world. It is not just about accepting that we have a really incredible world, but it is about getting out there and experiencing it; about wondering.

The author does accept that “It is only the reality of death that is powerful enough to quicken people out of the sluggishness of everyday life and into an active search for what life is really about”. It is so true that for so many people, they need a near death experience before they realise that they can actually live life whatever way they wish. That they can break free from the monotony. But until that near death experience, the majority of us may never make our decision; We have “To choose between generatively and stagnation, between continuing to have an impart, or sitting around waiting to die”.

Manning labours this point quite a bit also, concluding it with Norman Mailer’s quote “We are either living a little more, or dying a little bit”. A really scary concept. We are either living, or we are dying. Its black and white, fifty fifty, “do or do not, there is no try”. I addressed this concept in my post earlier in the week. We must decided to live deliberately. Either way I find some truth in the quote “The child of God knows that the graced life calls him or her to live on a cold and windy mountain, not on the flattened plain of reasonable, middle-of-the-road religion”. Not from a religious point of view, but from a literally point go view. I don’t just think that what has become of our civilisation is a waste, I know it is a waste. The concrete jungles do little for my mind, body and spirt. As John Muir famous said “The Mountains are calling, and I must go”. I know that Manning intends this as a metaphor and not about literally living in the mountains, but we all have that calling deep down in side to do something different. Manning goes on to talk about how wonderful the he thinks “The God who flung from his fingertips this universe filled with Galaxies and stars, penguins and puffins, gulls and gannets, Pomeranians and poodles, elephants and evergreens, parrots and potato bugs, peaches and pears and a world full of Children“ is. Messner talks about how wonderful he thinks the galaxies and stars are. It does not matter where it came from, both are expressing the need to find wonder in the world again.

What strikes me most about this book, is how easily one would reject it. Manning is labouring many of the points that Reinhold Messner laboured in his own book. How important is the wilderness to our soul? How beautiful a world we live in! How unnecessary and unsatisfying it is to live the bourgeois lifestyle. Those that would read Messner’s book may be quick to reject Mannings due to his belief in the Christian God. How quick Mannings reader may be to reject the non-Christian writing of Messner. Yet both authors labour the same point. That we live in a really wonderful and incredible planet and that so many of us are missing the joy of it all.

Another point made by both is the importance of other people. Last week I reflected on how Messner found his first solo attempts to be too difficult because he “…was lost at the mercy of my own loneliness” and he talked about the importance of a shared experience, and his book finishes with a reflection on the importance of real honest friendship. Manning makes a similar point in this book. He uses his experiences at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting to bring this point.

“Some talk to each other daily on the telephone, others socialise outside the meetings. The personal investment in one another’s sobriety is sizeable. Nobody fools anybody else… For one small hour the high and the mighty descend and the lowly rise. The result is fellowship”

The personal investment in one anothers sobriety is a wonderful concept. But it should not be unique to Alcoholics Anonymous. Maybe if we all sought investment in one another, there would be a lot less people that struggle with sobriety. Maybe we would see the decommissioning of arms and the take up of peace. Maybe there would be less infighting within religions and a lot less between religions. Maybe. Either way it is the other people in our lives that get us to the end. Even in their absence. It is the knowledge, or the feeling of their presence that makes keep going past the final hurdle. Manning reflects on this with the imagery of war “The soldier in combat who, during the lull in the battle, steals a glance at his wife’s picture tucked in his helmet, is more present to her at that moment in her absence that he is to the rifle that is present in his hands”

Now as a pacifist, I think this is a wonderful image. Where could one be farther removed from their loved one that in seperation due to war.

I’ll end by repeating a harrowing quote.

“We are either living a little more, or dying a little bit” ~ Norman Mailer