Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Anchoress

Home
Catholic
A & Q: Connected in the Muck & Magma

A & Q: Connected in the Muck & Magma

Last updated on: March 16, 2017 at 10:57 pm by Elizabeth Scalia

A & Q: Connected in the Muck & Magma 2017-03-16T22:57:58+00:00 Elizabeth Scalia

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Q: First off, I have to ask, what is it with the Sarah Jessica Parker worship? What is it that fascinates?

A: You’re asking the wrong girl. I don’t get it. She’s moderately attractive, sometimes wears interesting things…I don’t know why week after week after week she is everywhere I look, and has been for several years, now. But then, I’ve never seen that show, Sex and the City. I don’t know who any of those women are. And I’m sure they’re all broken up about it, too.

Q: Yesterday we wondered if all the bad news, earthquakes, natural disasters (now there is a threat to wheat) volcanos going swoosh and boom were reminding anyone of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Now this idiot is threatening Israel again…doesn’t it all seem like scary end-times stuff, to you?

A: No, but I can understand why it is rattling some of us. Obviously something is going on below us that has plates shifting and magma moving (at least it can’t be blamed on “manmade global warming” or “climate change” although all that ash shooting skyward may help make it a milder summer) but as I said yesterday, none of this means that the “end times” are upon us. Those days will be signaled, I’m sure, by Al Gore getting back into the White House. Yes, I’m joking, but we should be praying everyday, anyway, because it’s good for us! The rest of it, the rumbling from China to Minnesota, the volcanos, while certainly frightening and tragic…it’s all actually a humbling reminder to us about everything we don’t know, and how at our very depths all things are so mysteriously connected, even humanity.

Q: Humanity has never seemed more at odds, how can you say we’re connected?

A: Well, we are; our synapses fire, our consciousness awakes and we blip along with each other almost the way information blips along on the internets. Fer instance, below I linked to this great find by Rick at Brutally Honest. In the comments section, someone discoursed on internal and external knowledge and then reinforced his point by linking to a prime example via another blogger. Which reminded me that once upon a time, I had actually offered to mother the inarticulato being roasted.

Q: So, like, Anchoress, are you saying, like, you know…bloggers are smarter than other people?

A: No, I’m saying there is a whole subterranean world of thoughts, arguments, theses, expositions and manifestos that we never begin to glean, because the internets are so vast, our time is limited and – most importantly – we spend a lot of time online just clicking away and admiring genius. Or at least I do. But we connect in small ways, all day long.

Q: So blogging is about finding genius elsewhere?

A: Well, not always, but in my case, yes. I’m always awestruck by what others can do, and how their minds trip from one issue to another. Here is Sissy Willis, jumping off of one of my pieces but then adding her own twist to it, and – in doing so – throwing into all of our paths this piece by Maggie’s Farm in which they discuss John Leo’s exposition of Robert D. Putnam’s fascinating study on immigration and ethnic diversity, and how Putnam moved to suppress his own study, rather than deal with it’s un-PC results. Fascinating. And the links just keep on coming.

Q: They move on to trust cues and tribalism?

A: Like I said, we’re all connected. And so is the whole world. Below us the plates are shifting, hot magma is flowing, moving, looking for release. Within humanity, things are shifting, politically things are shifting, spiritually things are shifting. Maybe it is as random as it seems, but maybe it’s not. It’s like I always say; nothing is static, things turn on a dime, and everything we think we know today can be wiped off the table tomorrow and there is a new reality and we’re all in it.

Q: Oh, brother, that’s reassuring.

A: Yes, in a way it is. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” The internets are wonderous, but they’re also full of fuss and botheration and it is easy to get all caught up in things. That’s where prayer is handy. Prayer helps you to take the long view of things and not get caught up in a moment – it reminds us that the moments are fleeting – but that there is One Eternity. Nothing teaches us that like the psalms, btw, which in prayer reveals the entire human condition and also the way of the Christ.

Q: So, you’re so holy and you pray everyday?

A: I’m not so holy, but yes I do pray everyday; if I did not, I would barely manage to be human – I would be some sort of feral creature rolling about in the teeming muck. All I can tell you is that prayer is a force; it has real power to transform, beginning with oneself, and then externally. Whether praying liturgically or devotionally, scripturally or privately, it moves and shifts our own psychological and spiritual plate tectonics. Deep below our consciousness, it turns our muck into magma and drives us toward constant change, constant growth and even renewal, even if things don’t always look hopeful or promising as it does so.

So, don’t fear the earthquakes or the volcanos, either external or internal. Yes, they’re destructive, yes, they’re alarmingly powerful and they change everything in their path. But they are mere moments in eternity, and after they rattle and scorch, things get quiet, and then life begins again – new growth, new structure, new maps.

Without the great, seemingly catastrophic events, the earth would stagnate, and so would we.

And then we’d have nothing but Sarah Jessica Parker movies in our lives.

Previous Post

May 13, 2008

This guy is like...so right, you know?

Next Post

May 13, 2008 Huckabee and End-Times Advocates

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category "Remaking" Ourselves 'Remaking' America 9/10 Mindset 9/11 trials Abortion ACORN Adoration Advent Advent 2008 Advent 2009 Advent 2010 Alternative Energy Alternative Media America American Catholic Church American Church American Genius Ameridolatry ANCHORESS BOOKSHELF Anglican-Roman Reconciliation Answers & Questions Anti_Semitism Archbishop Hilarion Ayn Rand Bad Mass Barack Obama Baseball Benedict Benedict & Islam Benedict in UK Benedict XVI Benedictine Bill Whittle Birth Control Blogs and Blogging Blogs and Blogging Bloodless Coup Bobby Jindal Bookchat Breitbart Bride at every wedding... Bride at every wedding... Buckley Bullies Bush Bad? Bush Good Buster Capitalism Catholic Fiction Catholic Vocations Catholicism Celibacy Chaput Charitable Stuff Chesterton Chile Chris Christie Christians in Exile Christine O' Donnell Christmas Christmas Gift Ideas Church Hates Science? Church hates women Communion of Saints Compline Conclave 2013 Confession Constitutional Stuff Conversion Crisis & Opportunity Critical Thinking Crooks and Liars Crucible of Faith Cuba Culture of Life Culture of Life/Death Culture of Treason? Dancing Death Dialogue re Islam Dick Meyer Divorce and Remarriage DOJ Domestic Terrorism Dominican Order Don't try me too high Dowd Dumb Democrat moves Dumb GOP moves Economic woe Education Egregious Harry Reid Elder Son Elder Son's Sweet Girlfriend Elderly Election '10 Election '12 Election '16 Election 2004 Election 2006 Election 2008 Election 2010 Election 2016 Elena Kagan Elitism Embryonic Stem Cell Research End Times? English language Enhanced Interrogation Erosion of Rights Eucharist Euthanasia Exorcism Extraordinary Synod Facebook Faith Faith and Reason Faith Friday Faith Perspective Faithful Friday Fascism Again Fascism in America Fatima FCC Feminism Film First Things Forgiveness Fr. James Martin Francis and Islam Francis in America Frassati Fred Thompson Free Speech? Freedom of Worship FutureChurch Global Pandemic GOP Congress Haiti Head Covering Health Care Here and Queer Hermits Heroes Hitchens Holy Spirit Holy Week '09 Holy Week '10 Hoo-Hah & BS Hoo-Hah & BS Icons Illegal Immigration In The Arena Interviews Interwebz Iran Uprising Iraqi Christians ISIL ISIS Islamic State Islamification/Islamofascism Islamification/Islamofascism Isra-El It's all about me! Me! ME! James Burke Jerry Lewis Jesus Christ Joblessness John Boehner John McCain John Paul II John XXIII Juan Williams Just Words Katrina/Rita King is a Fink Latin Mass Leadership Lectio Divina Lent Lent '08 Lent '09 Lent 2010 Lent 2011 Limbaugh Listen to Lizzie Litigious Society Liturgy Liturgy of the Hours Mainstream Media Manliness Marriage Mary Media Excess Medical Merton Michelle Obama Mighty John O' Connor Misc. Miss Ella Missionaries Mitt Romney Monasticism My brother S My Irish Aunties Mystic Monks Nanny Statism Nature NEA Neri New Media Newman Noonan Notre Dame NPR Stuff Nun News Obama Bad? Obama Good? Obama White House Oil Spill Online Retreat '08 Online Retreat Days Oratory Orthodoxy Our Hillary! Parenting Passionists Patheos Patheos Book Club Patrons Paul Ryan Penance Penn Jillette Philosophy PJTV Podcasts Poetry Politics-free zone Pop Culture Pope Emeritus Pope Francis Prayer Predictions Priesthood Pro-Life Public Sector Unions Purgatory Questions about Catholicism Quotes of the Day Quoting the News Race in America rants Recipes Remarried Catholics Reposts by request Retreat thoughts Rome Rudy Giuliani Russia Saints Sarah Palin Scandal Scott Brown SCOTUS Scriptural stuff Secularism Send in the clowns Serving up hot links Sexuality Sherrod Shroud of Turin Sisters and Nuns Social Entrepreneurship Social Media Social Security Socialism doesn't work Sports and Faith Stem Cells Strange Gods Suffering Synod Tea Parties Tea Party Terri Schiavo The 9/11 Commission The Catholic Answer The Constitution The Desert The Fourth Estate The Pelosi The Perpetual Adolescents The Rosary Third Party? Timothy Dolan Touch of evil TSA Tsunami TV/Pop Culture/Music TV/Pop Culture/Music Twitter Uncategorized Unemployment Unintended Consequences US Military Vaginal Musings Vatican Vespers video faves Vile Joe Biden Voter Fraud War by Litigation War on Terror War, What it good for? Why can't weeee be ... World Youth Days Year of Faith Year of the Priest

Select a Month August 2016 July 2016 April 2016 March 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who led a rebellion called "the men of Belial" against David near his end?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Amasa Sheba son of Bichri Adonijah Absalom