Re: The Need for Debate

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Cowan" <jcowan@...>



> It's not up to the offender to decide what is and what is not offensive,
> unfortunately.  Only the offended can forgive.
True, but it's a little up to the offender, especially if the offender sets
out to be offensive.  He or she might consider whether this is the wisest
course to take--offend.  Fortunately, I don't believe there are many people
on this list who are deliberately offensive.

> I was attending a lecture by Marion Woodman (Jungian psychoanalyst,
> author of many books, lecturer) on Friday night.  A man, a minister,
> asked her for her advice on the problem he was having talking to
> narrow-minded co-religionists, how angry they made him.  I spoke to him
> at the break and gave him two quotations, one from Pauline Oliveiros,
> "Speak your experience as your truth", and one from William Blake,
> "We become what we behold", or as Stephen R. Donaldson phrased it,
> "We become what we hate".
How beautifully put, and how absolutely true.  "We become what we behold,"
and "we become what we hate."

Kwe tobre omtso ke, uoantso etsa.
Kwe tobre omtso uaja, uoantso etsa.


It reminds me of the Gospel of Philip:

You saw the Spirit, you became Spirit.
You saw Christ, you became Christ.
You saw the Father, you shall become Father.
So here you see everything and not yourself,
But there you see yourself,
And what you see you will become.

I even translated it into Teonaht in my (now vanished) Wyrlorf story:

Il Ispro elfy ke uo il Ispro elfy uoan.
Il Kerresto elfy ke uo il Kerresto elfy uoan.
Il Pantor elfy ke uo il Pantor esfy uoan.
Harym pottywem omfy ke uo felletsa vera,
Ma hova felletsa esfy lumkke;
Send kwe tobre omfy ke, uoanfy etsa.

> "But what can I do in my persona as a teacher, when talking with my
> brother -- and these people?" he asked me.  I said, tentatively, "Mercy,
> pity, peace, and love?"  He tapped me on the shoulder, and I gave him
> a hug.
>
> I didn't see him at the second part of the lecture.  I wondered whether
> he had gone off somewhere to weep.
>
> --
> John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan
> www.reutershealth.com
> "In the sciences, we are now uniquely privileged to sit side by side
> with the giants on whose shoulders we stand."
>        --Gerald Holton
>