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BY MIKE THOMAS What the heck was I thinking? New Agey places make me tense. It's not their fault, of course. (I take full responsibility for my feelings.) Probably traces back to all those years I spent working in natural foods markets and catering to folks who fervently believe that consuming organic breakfast cereal is a morally courageous act. The experience left permanent scars. At any rate, by the time Mickey's minute hand made a couple of revolutions around my watch dial last Friday evening, I wanted to be anywhere on earth but Open Secret Bookstore & Cultural Center in San Rafael. But there I was, caught in a cross fire of herbal aromas, amplified chanting, rampant hugging and egregiously earnest greetings along the lines of. "Meadow, I've been thinking about you and your playful energy." Mayday! So what the heck was I thinking, the columnist repeats rather sheepishly. Well, Friday's guest speaker at Open Secret was renegade clergyman Matthew Fox, a guy who's famous for getting booted out of the Catholic Church, starting his own university and hanging around with Jerry Brown. (Two out of three ain't too shabby.) I guess I kind of hoped he'd cut a brawny figure not unlike the priest Karl Malden played in On the Waterfront. You know, swagger in with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, order a bee r and clock the first smart ass heretic who gave him any lip. Now that would be some playful energy. No such luck, though. The good news is that Fox did have some very interesting thoughts to share. Believe it or not, the Overheard Guy occasionally ruminates on topics other than babes, baseball and bebop a lula. How often isn't important. Just last week I started devouring Anne Lamott's Travelling Mercenaries: Some Thoughts on Faith, a provocative hoot of a read. Spiritual themes and spiritually motivated people have always intrigued me, although for the most part I've remained a thoughtful observer rather than a hands on participant Which made Fox's in your face appeal to action all the more direct. Even though he didn't haul off and cold cock anyone, the man is an unmistakably forceful presence. Since getting the heave ho from the Vatican for his controversial. ideas about "creation spirituality," Fox, now an Episcopal priest, has forged ahead undaunted. Creation spirituality, a movement that combines Western religious teachings with the wisdom of indigenous peoples, ecology, feminism, modem science and whatever else you've got lying around, is taught at Fox's University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland. (The school also houses a new campus of Boulder, Colorado's renowned Naropa University.) The founding father's new book, One River, Many Wells, expands the discussion. "These beautiful traditions have a consensus. It’s time to stop beating up on each other in the name of our gods," Fox declared. Amen. In a world that's hurtling ass over teakettle toward a rude environmental awakening, the book maintains, we need to dig beneath surface religious differences and discover common spiritual roots. And not in a Sunday school, well isn't that special kind of way. Fox talked a lot about service, social activism and rebuilding our educational system with an emphasis on wonder and creativity instead of conformity and consumption. Feed the heart, not just the head. Never take a single breath for granted. Get back in touch with the miracle of all life. Onward spiritual warriors! Quit smirking, all you cynics. Fox's message deserves to be heard. We're talking about one of the distinguished originators of the Techno Cosmic Mass, a combination rave and wildly eclectic worship wing ding. This reverend rocks. Hey, you don't think I'd spend an hour and a half with all those vegetarians just to be served chopped liver, do, ya? |
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