Posted by Lurker on June 7, 2000, at 16:07:36
In reply to Stone Games..., posted by dj on June 7, 2000, at 15:24:53
I went to jamocha.com and there is no try it page. Whassup?
> Back in March, after I had taken leave from this board I copied an article I had written a couple of years ago, to Dr. Bob as well as other folks whom I know off-line. It was an re-affirmation of some of my core beliefs.
>
> Dr. Bob encouraged me to post it here but I decided to focus on cleaning up my home and mental space, a never-ending task, before considering posting it.
>
> Instead I've decided to post another piece I wrote, even earlier when I was grappling with various issues, including my father's (who was very Catholic, a faith I rejected) impending death and the meaning of humanity Christianity and other faiths. And though I may return for a brief visit this is basically just another step in my own going house-cleaning and airing out...as I move on to whatever is next, one step and breath at a time. Make of it and do with it as you shall...
>
> As T.S. Eliot elegantly wrote in Four Quartets:
> "We shall never cease from exploration and the end of your exploring will be to arrive back where we first started and know the place for the first time."
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> Date sent: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 14:27:33
> Subject: Stone Games...
>
>
>
> > The Stone People Stirred
> >
> > "Where the earth shows its bones of windbroken stone and the sea and
> > the sky are one. I'm caught out of time. My blood sings with wine. And
> > I'm running naked in the sun. There's God in the trees. I'm weak in
> > the knees and the sky is a painful blue. I'd like to look around but
> > honey, all I see is you." -- Stan Rogers *Forty-five years* from
> > *Fogarty's Cove*
> >
> > They call them the stone people --- grandmother and grandfather rock.
> > Here long before the First Nations. They preside at the centre of the
> > earth -- a place to truly feel the heat and the heart. Just like the
> > stone people's lodges, which is what native north americans called
> > them before we came up with our name for them -- sweat lodges.
> > Changed it on them. Change happens though, doesn't it. And still there
> > remains the spirit. The spirit of the lodges. The spirit of the stone
> > people, who endure these many years and indignities. They stand firm
> > and solid at the centre of the earth. And here in the fire because
> > this too must pass. And that's the point isn't it, whether you wield a
> > feather, a crucifix, a star of David or whatever. Suffering is not the
> > point. Letting go of suffering is the point. And that's the lesson of
> > the stone people. This too can we endure, with patience, acceptance,
> > acknowledgment and time. Rather than holding on to our suffering let
> > us toss it into the flames and let it go. The embers may glow and be
> > painful for a time but it is only when we attempt to hold on that we
> > suffer, because we make that choice. And we can choose again.
> >
> > Stones can communicate many things, if we let them. They have many
> > tales to tell. About the Christians who they pulverized in the past,
> > and the Jews, Iranians and others today. Stones have long been weapons
> > of abuse across many cultures, continents and centuries. Just like
> > words. Both can break your bones and your heart, if you let them. Some
> > do, some don't. Saint Paul and other Christains were stoned many times
> > and kept on their paths, preaching their message by their actions as
> > well as their words. And their descendants doubtless used these same
> > weapons to injure and abuse the natives, of many places. Christian but
> > not Christ-like, these abusers. If they were, they would have followed
> > St. Paul's example. But he started by persecuting the Christians too.
> > Coversions do happen, on the road to Damascus and elsewhere. Amazing
> > Grace was written by a former enslaver of Africans who saw the light
> > as have others. But first they have to open to the darkness. And let
> > it go...
> >
> > And conversions happen through the stones too. Through stone games.
> > Like the one that Joseph organized between the Sikhs from Newton and
> > the Legionairres that had banned them from there. Long after that
> > story was national news Joe brought them together to play the stone
> > game (www.jamocha.com. -- the "Try it" page links to Joe's intro.
> > pages) and to communicate with each other. On a human level. To see
> > beyond the turbans, skin colours, narrow view points and pre-judgments
> > to the shared joys and sorrows, to the shared humanity. And that's
> > what can happen in the stone people's lodges too. Humans being,
> > sharing and caring. Opening up, e-moting, letting go and surrendering.
> > Surrendering their fears and fatigues to the recognition that they are
> > not unique. That they are shared, along with higher emotions. That
> > others too have been here and will be again. And many have survived
> > and many have thrived. But first they had to surrender to the stones
> > and themselves. And the stones blessed them and they blessed the
> > stones. And Jesus wept. And rejoiced, for he was not alone. He was
> > joined.
> > ------- End of forwarded message -------
> >
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > The mere athlete is brutal and philistine, the mere
> > intellectual unstable and spiritless. The right
> > education must tune the strings of the body and
> > mind to perfect spiritual harmony. -- Plato
> > ><
poster:Lurker
thread:36460
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000603/msgs/36465.html