March 15, 2016
I awakened at about 4:45 this morning and all of the following is from my half awake/ wishing I was asleep self:
My usual way of doing this daily writing is to get up (when the morning has broken, like the first morning w/ apologies to Cat Stevens whom I may have misquoted and still think of as a regular guy who has not embraced Islam and is doing like daily prayers facing east like Damian Lewis's character on Homeland which I hope to see the next season of one of these days.
Islam is a religion. Faith is what religious folks count on to keep them afloat. In a sea of uncertainty, having a life vest or a raft or a canoe or a sailboat or a yacht (depending on your personal needs and beliefs) is something I understand. Years ago I 'studied' Sufism (the 'heart of Islam.' The winged heart is the symbol for the Sufis) with a guy who called himself a 'sheik' of the Mevlevi Dervishes, Reshad Feild. He was a ginger Brit who had gathered a bunch of Hollywood young folks to mentor them in Sufism. They took a field trip to Wattles Gardens where I would go from time to time to sit in the sun and play my CapriTaurus dulcimer. Reshad and the kids (they were mostly in their twenties) gathered me up and invited me to join them. They had a nice big house over in East Hollywood, east of Western, where they lived communally. It was a little cultish, but the poetry of Rumi was standard in the weekly meetings that I attended. Reshad taught 'the turn' which is a rigorous ritual of the whirling dervishes of Turkey. Sufism is a gentle practice. The turn (they literally turn to God).. is beautiful to observe. The flaring skirts of the dervishes represent the unfolding of the Universe with one hand raised to the Heavens and one directed down to Earth, grounding the faithful between Heaven and Earth. I never took an Islamic name (never have been much of a joiner of anything.. except for the Screen Actors Guild!).. and found the people who lived with Reshad and his wife (was she his wife?) who delivered a baby during the course of my involvement and several serious students of Sufism, to be honest and kind and friendly. Ellen Burstyn, I learned from her autobiography (Lessons in Becoming Myself), had known Reshad about the same time I had. I am such a fan of hers, I'm sorry I didn't cross paths with her. Reshad drank. He had 'psychic' powers and also led chanting in the large 'ballroom' in the back of the property. It was very seventies and a good experience.
So: Faith. It is the one element that skeptics either deny or ignore. Which side are you on?
Having waded through the history of philosophy in Jostein Gaarder's "Sophie's World" I am now more asea that before. Not that confusion is a bad thing. I don't really feel confused, per se, but I do have a notion that everything's gonna be all right.. thanks to The Beatles. But but but.. I slipped up and saw Sarah Palin on TV yesternight and there she is screaming in her best Tina Fey impression that 'it's a revolution' and screaming incomprehensible stuff that echoes in a way that is just this side of 'inciting to riot!' You say you want a revolution, well, you know.. We all want to change the world... Ain't it great that some of the lyrics that most everyone knows can buoy you up and make you smile? Palin would have a hard time with the next line.. hah..
I go through my Facebook page daily now and just delete all references to almost all political stuff. I used to tease my childhood hero, Tom Hayden (no, not the California Tom Hayden, the Greeley, Colorado Tom Hayden) that even if Donald Duck was the President that things would be okay for the most part. In fact, because Donald Duck is such a reactionary, he might have had a fit and Oblivion would have been the outcome. Of course, we got GWB and things really went in the crapper.. but I digress... I just want the danged election to be over with. The comparisons of one candidate to Hitler seemed a little silly until recently. Politics is just a way to harmony, say some, but boy the rancor that is building with double digit IQ responses to current events is a little scary even for me!
I was hoping that by getting up and turning on the computer that I'd get sleepy and go back to bed. Oh.. there's a yawwwwn.. good..
I'd have posted a photo, but it's still the 'middle of the night' and that would have been silly. However, by the time you read this, the morning will have broken like a Tuesday morning and I'll have stuck that image up above as I have since December 22, 2015. Shoot. I may even have more to write in the next five hours.
How many spokes go out from the hub that you are in your life? Social? Family? Casual? Honest? Inconsequential? Do you ever allow crossover? How many of us can say our lives are an 'open book?'
//
I was able to sleep from 6:45 until about ten. I'm shaking sleep off and am into the day. The round and round of this writing just fell out of my fingers. Very little editing.
March 15, 2016
michaelsheehan
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