Might As Well Be Here Now

Have you ever daydreamed through a Christian Christmas church service? I have daydreamed through many. Sometimes I daydream the sermon that I would like to be hearing instead of the one that is going on. The following fictional Christmas sermon is the result of one of those daydreams. This does not necessarily reflect what I believe. It is, however, a fictional perspective on Christmas that I would understand and respect. ________________________________________________________________________ Good morning and Merry Christmas brothers and sisters. Here we are again. Right now... on this beautiful morning where we have gathered to celebrate together the birth of Jesus Christ. Let’s begin today by taking a deep breath… and then releasing it very slowly. Let’s pause and notice the space we are sharing with each other right now…in this sacred moment. Before our Christmas celebration begins I want to share with you some unusual questions I am asking myself this year. Thi...

I recently watched a movie on Netflix called, Dying to Know . It is a documentary film narrated by Robert Redford about the lives of Timothy Leary and Ram Dass, aka, Richard Alpert. Much of the film is footage of a conversation between the two men that occurred a few months prior to Timothy Leary’s death. I think the movie does a great job of telling the story of how these two men influenced the culture in obvious and in subtle ways. I cannot describe how I felt watching the film. I first heard the story of Timothy Leary and Ram Dass, in 1971. Someone gave me a reel-to-reel audiotape and just said, “You will want to listen to this.” I listened to it and then listened to it again…and again. It was a three hour talk by Ram Dass describing his experience with Timothy Leary and psychedelic drugs that lead to his eventual pilgrimage to India. The audiotape preceded the soon-to-be released book, Be Here Now . While watching the movie, Dying to Know, I was swept with my...

When my son, Wes, was about 12 years old he decided to learn karate. This decision was a little surprising because Wes was not really interested in sports as a kid. In those days Wes was more interested in sulking around and listening to loud music in his bedroom. His favorite sport was shooting stuff, mostly tin cans, with a .22 rifle or a BB gun. I worried about Wes in those days because he seemed quietly angry. I assumed his quiet anger was related to the turmoil that his mother and I had created in his life. When he was six years old he watched us co-facilitate an extremely nasty divorce. As part of “the process” we paid lawyers to create a clumsy joint custody agreement and a chaotic back-and-forth schedule that had less to do with Wes’s needs for structure and stability and more to do with his parents’ mutual resentment and distrust.   In those turbulent days Wes put up with us and tried not to rock the boat any more than necessary.   But I think our foolishness m...