Lessons from a year of writing on Medium.

A little more than a year ago, I started posting short essays and other thoughts here on Medium. Like many others, I have always loved writing in various vocations and avocations, and I was enchanted by the ease of this attractive, ad-free platform. After a few trial essays went off into the silence, as they will do, someone suggested that I introduce myself to would-be readers. So I posted “Look Who’s Talking Now” last October, by way of introduction, and kept writing.

Funny to reread that piece now. I dutifully offered a sketch of my prior experiences and the intersections of my identity. I said I had been listening to human hearts for decades, and thought it time now to share some of the more positive, interesting, and abiding ideas that I had come across over the years. I was furiously motivated at the time by my fear for the senseless destruction of our commons, our world itself, by an amoral few, and I believed that I was called to add my voice to the strong chorus of those intent upon defusing the coming apocalypse. All well and good, but I realize now that it took me a while to understand what I, specifically, had to offer that chorus.

I’ll keep searching for that voice, but at least I can say what I’m not doing. I’m not writing brilliant satire, though I do like to poke fun at our faintly ridiculous human frustrations. I am not teaching the world the magic number of things they must do to be more Productive, or Extraordinary, or Revolutionary, though I do candidly offer suggestions about random useful metaphors, insights, or practices from which I have profited. I’m not writing my own Origin Story in painstaking, cathartic detail, though I try to tell the truth about profound relationships or experiences I’ve had, especially if I think they might resonate with others. And, most importantly, I am not trying to proselytize, or preach, or pontificate on topics religious, or spiritual. What I do appear to be doing, mostly, is sharing some notions about G*D and G*D-talk that I hope will open minds and hearts.

Holy smoke.

In a way, I am peering at gigantic, cosmic, smoke-like questions with a small, hand-held spiritual, philosophical, or religious lens. And I invite the reader to join me in this minor discipline. I’m still driven to cries of outrage because humanity’s current challenges are matters of life and death for individuals, populations, species, ecosystems, but I try to temper outrage with empathy and humor.

Now, I do understand that the real-world solutions for our current existential challenges will come from the worlds of science, technology, academia, and any other constructive, creative, committed areas of human effort we can muster. But it will also take firm resolve and unshakable faith and courage, and too many people of conscience still drift away from the work, perhaps overcome with distractions, despair, ennui, escapism, fatigue, or despair. The current media environment doesn’t help, either; at best, it includes only a few moments, here and there, on the complex, multivariate, and universal implications of catastrophic climate change, extremist politics, or creeping ennui. Almost anything else is deemed more “interesting.” I’m faulting no one; most people don’t like to think about death in any way, let alone the death of… well, most of us.

And that’s why I always seem to end up talking about religion, loosely defined as that which is our Ultimate Concern. It seems to me that simple exposure to facts, or rational analysis, or vague notions of good citizenship, are failing to keep people motivated. No; I believe people will be fickle in our attentions unless our core worldviews and/or self-interest are deeply engaged. In other words, if we want to to initiate and then sustain our efforts to save ourselves, we need to realize that these efforts emerge from the realm of our Ultimate Concern.

Simply put, we need some G*D up in here.

That’s if we are God-people, of course. I’ll get to the others in a minute.

First, I want to clarify that I’m not talking about having all the theists sit back and recite prayers of petition for some kind of last-minute divine intervention, to save it all. Believers know that we have already had divine interventions — many of them, in fact. Isn’t that what makes a believer? In one way or another, a believer with a mature faith understands that the Divine has invited them, by extraordinary means, to aspire to that Divinity by living lives of reverence and love and sacrifice for others. Ideally, our personal encounters with the Divine, if we are fortunate enough to have them, will mark us indelibly as people who seek to do justice, give in charity, and love our neighbors. And today would be a good moment in time to understand that G*D did not put borders on these directives. We have been given global awareness, and with it the knowledge that we have global responsibility.

Non-theists are not off the hook, either.

If we are “spiritual but not religious,” our personal spiritual enlightenment may seem like a perfectly adequate goal. We know this because so many newly enlightened people want to describe it to us, in infinite detail, to prove how profound it was. Sorry (not sorry), but I’m not convinced by those breathless assertions. I believe that if someone has truly grown in spirituality, I will be able to see it, without being told. If their “spiritual growth” doesn’t change their behavior, their relationships, their reality, then I think they just wasted the $450 they spent on that weekend seminar.

Look at the classic non-theistic paths. For example, when Buddhists or students of Buddhism begin to internalize those Four Noble Truths, they soon realize that the Truths are, in a sense, only the qualifying rounds for entry to that Eightfold Path. And that Path requires action, mindfulness, stamina, and courage. It requires so much action that we should probably be working it with some good project management software.

The Eightfold Path starts with the requirements to practice Right Understanding, Right Thinking, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. So far, so good; we can do this head work seated comfortably on a mat in a climate-controlled environment. But then we are required to get up off the mat and do things — specifically, exercise Right Effort that spurs us to Right Speech, Right Livelihood, and Right Conduct. And “Right Conduct” is not open for interpretation. It means practicing “self-less conduct that reflects the highest statement of the life you want to live.” And if the life you want to live includes a habitable planet, then… you know what you have to do.

And humanists will want to really read the latest Manifesto.

The third Humanist Manifesto, which you can read here, does an admirable job of outlining a progressive viewpoint that eschews mystery and contradiction. Most humanists will assert that we really don’t need an outside “G*D” to run things, so long as we understand and revere humanity; view all humans with respect; adhere to certain other fine values; and, of course, acknowledge our “planetary duty to protect nature’s integrity, diversity, and beauty in a secure, sustainable manner.”

But anyone who has been simply skimming these humanist principles, as if they were merely the “Terms of Service,” as it were, should probably stop and really read this blunt closing statement: “The responsibility for our lives and the kind of world in which we live is ours and ours alone.”

If humanism is our religion, then the human habitat is our responsibility: our Ultimate Concern.

Finding our real/igion

So riffs like these are what I seem to have been doing, this past year, here in the Medium space. I look for ways to translate the abstract propositions of faith into more user-friendly ideas about how to live the faith we are trying to articulate. That’s all, really. No systematic theology; no expert assessments of the world; no advice on what you should be doing; just reflections upon what we all could be doing, as we seek a life of deepest meaning and highest purpose. I call it my “real/igion” to remind me to stay on the ground and out of the clouds.

Writing these posts is one of my real/igious practices; a small way of contributing to others. I do other things, of course, and I try to walk the walk. But I like to offer a warm word; an irreverent observation; a bath of compassion; a gentle poke in the ego, to encourage our true selves to flower instead. And on a good day, I might mention a practical application for your faith and your work that you might not have thought of — for surely faith and works are the baking soda and vinegar of the cosmic kitchen. They really can do amazing things.

In the “tough love” category, I call us all out for our hypocrisy, selfishness, and fecklessness. I include myself. Our world will irrevocably suffer if we, as conscientious people, just go our own way, playing word games with our doctrines, parroting talking points from politicians, gurus, or talking heads, or languidly sitting around in comfort, surfeited with our highly-prized “sense of wonder.”

I write to remind us all that no good solutions will ever succeed unless we ALL up our game.

And this game — this intricate scrum of spiritual, religious, philosophical, moral, psychological, and existential ways of knowing and striving, loving and doing— may not be the only game in town.

But it’s the best game in town.