Steve

Playing in the Wild Garden of Childhood

Steve · January 25, 2019 · 12 Comments

FOD BAll — At the "Field of Dreams," Dyersville, Iowa. SJG photo.

I recently came across this line of poetry from the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda: “Everything is ceremony in the wild garden of childhood.” And, of course, that’s right.

Take, for example, the pick-up games of some variation of baseball (fuzz ball, Indian ball, Wiffle® ball, cork ball, kickball, step ball) of my childhood in North St. Louis in the early ‘70s. These were “wild gardens” in the very best sense, meaning they required no adults, no official field dimensions, no uniforms and very few rules, other than the ever-evolving ones that existed only in our collective consciousness as 12-year-olds.

Life and Death on Display: Midwinter at the Missouri Botanical Garden

Steve · January 11, 2019 · 6 Comments

climatron — The iconic Climatron and its reflecting pools. Opened in 1960, the Climatron was the first geodesic dome to be used as a plant conservatory. It was built following the principles of R. Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic system and has no interior support and no columns from floor to ceiling. It rises to 70 feet in the center, spans 175 feet in diameter at the base, has 1.3 million cubic feet, and encloses approximately 24,000 square feet, according to the Garden’s website. SJG photo.

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” – John Muir

As I write this, St. Louis is in the midst of a winter snowfall that could leave somewhere between 6-12 inches of snow on the ground. It’s beautiful and all that, but I’m not amused.

Just a week ago, I spent several hours of an unseasonably warm day walking the grounds of one of our region’s storied treasures — the Missouri Botanical Garden, better and forever known to long-time St. Louisans as Shaw’s Garden. Named for the merchant and botanical enthusiast Henry Shaw, an Englishman who came to St. Louis in 1819 as an 18-year-old in search of customers for his hardware and cutlery business on the edge of the American wilderness, the “Garden” is today world renowned for its botanical richness and beauty, its architecture and the botanical knowledge its scientists continue to uncover on the grounds and at sites throughout the world.

In a season of giving, remember not to steal…

Steve · December 26, 2018 · 1 Comment

Holy Family Grotto, by Bro. Mel Meyer, SM. Marianist Retreat & Conference Center, Wildwood, Mo.

My next “Faith Perspectives” column for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch appeared just in time for Christmas, a reminder (quoting Pope Francis) that “Thou Shall Not Steal” is about more than just not taking what doesn’t belong to us. You can read my column below or online here: http://bit.ly/2rQMm6U [Read more…] about In a season of giving, remember not to steal…

A (Very) Short Story: The Question

Steve · November 24, 2018 · 6 Comments

Path — Mallard Lake Trail. Creve Coeur Lake. SJG photo.

He was walking through the autumn-thinned woods, a carpet of fallen yellow beneath his feet. He put one foot in front of the other, the walk more of an obligation to himself than anything else. Sometimes, he thought, he prayed while he walked, but today he could not gather the will. The woods were silent and empty, as was he.

He walked on, stepping over fallen logs and zagging around occasional puddles from yesterday’s rain. Light cut through the upper reaches of oaks and hickories, casting both beams and shadows on the ground before him. A breeze lifted gently off the stream to his left, and he caught a whiff of dead leaves and rotting logs.

And out of nowhere he asked: “Where are you, God, in all of this?”

And a choir responded.

All he had learned from poetry sang out, “God is in the light and shadow.”

All he had learned from music intoned, “listen to the wind blowing through the trees. God is there.”

From study and reading he heard, “God is in everything. Pay attention.”

From his beating heart he knew that God was deep inside him.

He knew all this and yet could not find God. He could not summon a prayer.

Then a still, small voice said, “I am in your question.”

And he smiled and walked on and, knowing that was right, he whispered, “well, amen then.”

Choosing joy, despite the facts

Steve · October 29, 2018 · 2 Comments

My next “Faith Perspectives” column for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is a re-write of an earlier post from here back in February. Some of the details have changed but the theme hasn’t…My column went online this past Friday and was in the print edition Saturday morning. You can read my column below or online here: http://bit.ly/2PYGdQf

Pompano Beach — Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, sunrise walk today. SJG photo.

Kentucky novelist, poet, cultural critic and farmer Wendell Berry once entreated his readers to “Be joyful, though you have considered all the facts.”

As Catholics, that can be a tough idea to get our heads around in the current state of uncertainty and doubt surrounding the abuse scandal and the subsequent divisiveness in some quarters of the institutional Church, for it requires openness of mind and heart on our part. Like in all aspects of our lives, choosing joy requires a willingness to accept what life hands us with gratitude for what we have already received. It is, for example, looking death in the face and being thankful for life.

Choosing joy is an inclination to see the beautiful despite the ugly, and it is an invitation to see the dignity of human life despite those who would have us denigrate people and ideas we don’t agree with or understand. It is a chance to find the very best in others when all the cultural mores and signs direct us to find their faults and take advantage of them.

Perhaps especially within the Catholic Church right now, joy is a choice we must be prepared to make, even though the facts can be a bit disheartening and hope for deep and real change seems distant. Despite the facts, joy can still be found because we can still allow ourselves to be formed by our faith in Jesus Christ and his teachings of love, peace, justice, service to others, forgiveness and salvation.

Choosing joy means deciding to embrace the beauty of the church, its liturgy and traditions, and the searing truth of the Gospel while we wait for the many, many good priests and honorable leaders of the Church to find a way forward through the dark of the current moment. There have been many such moments in the history of the Church and these dark moments will not be the last. We are an imperfect church filled with imperfect people and we will continue to falter. What we must not ever be is a church that looks the other way when injustice occurs. Our foundation in the love of Christ tells us we are and must be better than that.

For me, choosing joy over the facts means continuing to seek the peace and communal unity that flows from bringing myself before the altar each week, from kneeling before my still-creating and ever-creative God, from immersing myself in words of scripture, music of worship and fellowship of other Catholics.

For there is joy to be found in the midst of our ordinary days if we only look a little harder and more closely, if we only remind ourselves more frequently to be aware of the gifts that constantly flood our lives, if we remain diligent and committed to improving the lives of those around us who are not as fortunate, if we embrace justice for all instead of prosperity for a few as the guiding principle of our faith and life.

Choosing joy is not a call to blindness, to ignoring those things we would rather not see. Rather, it is a call to see our lives and world with new and joyful eyes of faith and then set out to help bring about real change, whether serving one person or helping to reform an institution in need of healing from the inside out.