Dear old and new friends,

    Last week’s reflection mentioned that one of the major obligations of Islam was to give alms, to be charitable to the needy. Recall in motion pictures of the Near East seeing ragged beggars pleading, “Alms, for the love of Allah,” which surely reminded devoted Muslims of their obligation to be unselfishly charitable.

    I’m going to piggyback on that Islamic obligation to reflect on a secret, that of being unselfish. But first a bit of frivolous background on piggybacking. More correctly the term is “pickaback” that dates back to the 16th century and refers to carrying a child or a person on your back. It may have begun with “pitching something or someone on your shoulders.” Our present corruption of piggyback began to occur in the late 18th century.  Pitching part of another’s burden upon your back is ironically a good example of being unselfish.

    By generously helping to carry part of another’s heavy burden you make their life easier. If the mostly invisible heavy burdens of poverty were instead clearly visible we might be more generous in our charity. The Teacher of Galilee calls his disciples, as did the Prophet Mohammed, to be unselfishly kindhearted to whoever is in need. I began this reflection promising the secret of how to be truly unselfish, which paradoxically is by being selfish!

    Genuine generosity always comes from an overflowing heart, while less than true generosity comes from a guilty heart. An example of authentic giving, if I recall correctly, is a Jewish New Year’s custom where the host prays that the New Year will overflow with good things and blessings as he pours wine into a glass. He continues praying and pouring until the glass reaches brimful. Here any non-Jewish guests at the table gasp as the host continues pouring until the glass overflows and wine spreads out like a scarlet lake on the table cloth. Graceful, true unselfishness is always a joyously, vivacious overflowing of a brim, full heart.

    True unselfishness requires being selfish! It demands being self-centered by treating yourself to something unnecessary but pleasurable—a new article of clothing, an enjoyable self-indulgence, a small extravagance or imprudent expenditure. By gifting yourself, strangely you protect yourself from the hazardous shadowy side of unselfishness—an unholy, fake martyrdom! You know the type: “O poor me, I’m bone tired doing for others, always neglecting my own needs. I’m the saintly, tirelessly caring mother, the hardworking father, who never gets a moment for myself.”

    If you desire to escape counterfeit martyrdom and to experience holy joyous unselfishness, occasionally go out and do something nice just for yourself!

Dear old and new friends,

    Last week’s Haystack concluded with the Arabic phrase Insha’Allah, meaning “God willing.” While Arabs today are often maligned, I’m grateful for their gift of the Arabic numerical system of 0-9 that makes daily life so much easier. Thank God in the 10th century C.E. Europe began adopting the use of Arabic numbers from Islamic North Africa instead of continuing using the old Roman ones. Imagine the difficulties if we still used the Roman system for our dates, telephone numbers, zip codes, Social Security identification, credit cards and all the other numbers we use every day. More properly they are Hindu-Roman numbers that originated around 500 C.E in India. The Arabs adopted them as they brilliantly did any valuable creation. For example, the Chinese invention of paper that gave birth to Islamic books while Europe was still writing on parchment scrolls. Today’s news, however, isn’t of Islam creativity but sadly of ghastly car bombings and bloody violence among Muslims.

    Today’s Haystack reflection is the result of my personal attempts to understand the Sunni and Shiite Muslims who are continuously mentioned in the news. I offer my simple and inadequate summary of the issue with the hope it will be of some value to you. Both Shiites and Sunnis revere Allah as the only god and Mohammed as his Prophet, and they follow the main pillars of Islam: praying five times a day, fasting during Ramadan, giving to charity and making a pilgrimage to Mecca.

    The Prophet Mohammed’s death in 632 C.E. caused a conflict between his followers about should lead them—his father-in-law, Abu Bakr, or his son-in-law, Ali. Those who chose Ali his son-in-law became the Shiites, and those who simply followed the sayings of the Prophet became the Sunnis. The difference between them is similar to that of Protestants and Roman Catholics. The Shiites have a hierarchical clergy and are religiously obligated to follow the teachings of their clerics—the imams. The Sunnis, however, have no clerical hierarchy and believe Islam is accessible to anyone who faithfully studies the Koran. This Sunni belief allows from among them the rise of fringe religious groups of militant extremists like al Qaida. Shiites recently had created their own extremist militant group, Hezbollah.  

    Until the recent Arab spring, strong dictators maintained order among these two groups. Dictators of Islamic nations belong to one or the other of these two religious groups and their governments are of members of their religious faction, while the opposing religious group is kept subjected. This is the case in Syria which is ruled by Alawites, a sect of Shiites, though they are only 13% of the population (Saudi Arabia’s stability may be due to the Al Saud Dynasty making its religious expression Wahhabism, a very puritanical form of Sunni Islam). The present bloody religious war in Syria may be only a viciously blood-spattered overture to a religious war of Sunni and Shiite Muslims that could encompass the entire Middle East. It would be a modern repeat of the prolonged religious Thirty Years War (1618-48) between Protestants and Catholics that ravaged much of Europe.

    This religious conflict within Islam calls each of us to examine our own religious prejudices and to remove them. Should we pray for peace in Islam or that God heal our religious biases? The answer to both may be in the words of the Prophet Mohammed: “God changes not what is in a people, until they change what is in themselves.” (Koran 13: 11)

Dear old and new friends,

    I’m glad you dropped by as I wanted to share my reflection on visiting; an activity that I’m sure is as ancient as our cave dwelling days. This primeval pleasure, because of the rapid spread electronic communication, along with our overly busy lives, may soon become an artifact in the Humanoid Museum of Ancient Practices. When I began to write my Haystack reflections my hope was that they might be a way by which I could come to chat with you over the back fence of the Internet. However, this intention had a major problem—it’s a one way visit. Lacking a secretary, I knew I wouldn’t be able to respond to every visitor’s comment and still have the solitude time to create new Haystack reflections. So, for those of you who have left a comment, know of my gratitude…and I thank each of you who grace me with your time and presence each week at the Haystack.

    My desire that the Haystack reflections could be a way to visit you was to my delight recently affirmed by Rudolf Dietrich of Bozeman, Montana. Rudi is an unmet friend and a reader of my books who wrote me a letter about the Haystack, “Reading your thoughts is also like being with you, in your presence….” Would that each of you who visit this blog share that experience of Rudi’s, even if the message isn’t personally sent to your mailing address…which reminds me of Mark Twain story. It seems that one night a group of Twain’s friends in New York City, remembering it was his birthday, resolved to send him greetings. The globe-traveling Twain was away at the time on one of his many trips, and none of his friends knew his address. So they addressed their envelope to: “Mark Twain, God knows where.” Some weeks later they received this simple reply, “He did!”  

    “To my good friend, God knows where,” is how I’d like to address each Haystack and then through the miraculous wonder of the Internet I could come to visit you. As I previously said, electronic e-mails and texting are turning us into a letter-less people.  Letters are tangible, personal experiences of the writer, so I encourage you to visit others by writing a letter. To accentuate it’s a visit, perhaps do not begin with the traditional “Dear…etc. etc,” but rather start in the same way as if you were appearing at their door: “Hello (name), I thought I’d drop by for a visit.” Then continue in a chatty friendly style instead of that of writing a document. Frequently visualize the face of the receiver of your letter, smiling as you write to them, and amazingly your letter can become a personalized visit. Actually, physically holding the paper on which the letter is written as a tangible object, instead of reading if off an electronic screen, increases its ancient power.

    Well, I see it’s time I should go. Thanks for the visit, and God willing, or as our Muslim brothers and sisters say, “Insha’Allah,” I’ll drop by next week for a visit.

Dear old and new friends,

    Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s holiday greetings of happiness each had an invisible expiration date! Today, two days after the 12th Day of Christmas, they become null and void as we enter into the Hollowdays. These coming weeks are hollow, empty of lively fun parties, receiving gifts, of homes festively decorated with twinkling lights and of strangers exchanging cheery happy wishes with each other.

    The paradox of Hollowdays is that they are not empty, and can easily be full of listlessness, gloomy feelings and low grade depression. This sluggishness quickly turns to shock, however, when payment now comes due for the credit card charges from your Christmas shopping! In folk jargon the name of this time between now and Valentine’s Day is, “Down in the dumps days.” Vacant of colorful parades and the gaiety of parties they can leave us in a melancholy state. Even our once rewarding prayer now becomes monotonously dull. Could all this be some mysterious undiagnosed sickness?

    Undeniably, January is a time of sickness when we can suffer from colds, the Flu, and Acedia. That last and unfamiliar affliction’s name is from the Greek word for listlessness. Beware of Acedia! It is one of the seven deadly sins; a kissing cousin to sloth. Originally viewed as an affliction of monks, St. Benedict in his Rule gives monastic instructions on how to deal with a monk displaying lethargic signs like lack of attention to his duties, dozing off while praying, boredom and overall dissatisfaction with life. The guilty monk, Benedict says in his Rule, “should be reprimanded a first and second time, and if he does not amend then he must be punished as an example to the other monks.”

    January is Acedia Season not just for monks and nuns as the winter weather forces all of us to live in-doors, making us vulnerable to the cabin-fever’s depressive blues. So if you find your daily life is lackluster, your Sunday worship and prayer dull and tiresome, you may be suffering from Acedia! Take heart, this affliction that’s as old as leprosy has a cure. A simple rendition of the medieval scholar and saintly monk Thomas Aquinas’ theory is that since Acedia is a flight from the world and the joys of the spirit, the remedy is to plunge back into both of them! Escape from this gloomy downhearted demon’s grip by being busy doing things for others, being kind and helpful in making others happy and striving daily yourself to truly enjoy being alive.  

    A brief crisp cure for Acedia: Be busy loving others with a joyful, uplifted heart and you won’t be despondently downhearted.

Dear old and new friends,

    My first letter-reflection to you for 2014 is on January 1st. On this day in 1892, Ellis Island opened as an immigrant reception station for the United States. Let this 122nd anniversary remind us that we are all descendants of immigrants. We imitated them on December 31st as we set with sparkling fireworks from the old world of 2013 for the bright new world of 2014, so filled with promise and dreams.

    But the next morning when opening our eyes on January 1st we discovered to our disappointment the new world looked exactly like the old one! Our bedroom was the same and our world was just as full of brutal wars, fighting, homeless people, famine, hatred, and racial, religious and sexual discrimination as the old one!

    Wait a moment, you say! It’s romantically naive to think beginning a New Year is entering a new world! Let’s be realistic—other than the new date of 2014 on calendars there’s nothing new about us or anything else.

    You’re correct, but shouldn’t a truly new year be fresh and we be new and different? The Greek philosopher Heraclitus (500 B.C. or B.C.E) taught that everything was ever-new and changing. Plato twice quoted this theory in his writings. Heraclitus maintained that the world—creation—was constantly changing and summed up this reality in his phrase, “You can’t step into the same river twice!” Twenty-five thousand years later, science confirms that Heraclitus was right. For beneath the unchanging exterior world there is a sub-atomic world where atoms are always in constant flux (we know this intellectually but do not experience it). This newness includes you and me, all of us, and astonishingly—God.

    The Jewish prophet Isaiah, who lived about the same time as Heraclitus, along with the author of the Book of Revelation, quote God as saying, “See, I make all things new!” All things! That would include us—if we choose to be new! To choose, however, requires repeatedly redesigning yourself anew in imitation of the on-going originality of God. It means seeing your surroundings with new eyes, freshening up your vocabulary with new idioms, and that truly thorny task of redesigning your prayers so they are more personally original! But why change them when I know them by heart? Because the Mysterious Holy One to whom you pray is hourly, minute by minute, ever new and changing.

    To paraphrase Heraclitus, “You can’t step into the same year twice!” So begin this New Year joyously as an immigrant striving to find beneath your and the earth’s skin the wonder of Eden’s fresh newness. Indispensable for living in a new world is loving those you’ve loved for years differently, including God, now with the passion of a young lover newly fallen in love.