Okay. I powered through the first half of the banned book, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States in preparation for our Speakeasy. Now I have questions for my history teachers.
To be fair, I’m sure they taught me what was taught to them. It just wasn’t true. The persons we called “settlers” were nothing of the kind, because there was nothing on the continent than needed settling. The land had been well cultivated by the people living here. Until “settlers” drove them out. Our “settlers,” our military, and bands of mercenaries burned villages and crops, drove people from their homes, and massacred civilians, young and old. The practice of scalping that our films associate with Indigenous peoples came to this continent from its practice in the British Isles.
These war crimes were prompted and supported by our founders, including Presidents Andrew Jackson and George Washington. The novelist James Fenimore Cooper was complicit, using his art to perpetuate the lie of the savage. In truth, our nation was born out of genocide. And the slave trade.
Well, all this makes me miserable. I believed—was taught to believe—better of our founders. Better of the pilgrims, the “settlers,” the military. And I’m miserable, because my ancestors came from the British Isles. Who knows what some of them may have done? Still, I don’t want to be complicit through willful ignorance. So now what?
Jesus promised, “the truth will set you free.” Another wise human added, “but first it will make you miserable.”
Rethinking our beliefs is a miserable business. What do we stand on when the ground is shifting beneath our feet?
We stand on Truth, however miserable it makes us. And we stand in the power we have to live as we ought: recognizing our worth and the equal worth of others. In this season of self-reflection, we can do just that: choosing to do our own thinking. Choosing to live by values that help us reach our human potential and to be human toward others.
Acknowledging our ignorance, our biases, our mistakes, our faults takes courage. It’s miserable. And worth it. So, let’s keep seeking Truth. Let’s keep strengthening our souls by doing our own thinking. Let’s set ourselves free!
How do you stay open to truth? How do you deal with misery? What practices help you be who you want to be in the world? Share your thoughts at contact@aspaciousplace.com.
Tag Archives: truth
Soul & Solace—Open Books…Open Minds
Summer days found school-aged me trolling library shelves for reads. Drawn to titles, authors, and book covers, I nabbed one after another, silently counting (it was a library, after all, SHHHH!) up to my check-out limit. I ferried the stack to the librarian’s desk, where each book was stamped with the return date, sorted by size—large to small—and slid across the desk into my waiting hands. Dropping the stash into my bike basket, I pedaled home, grabbed an apple and Book 1 on my “Must Read” list, and set out in search of a shade tree.
Those summers, leaning against a tree, I traveled the world, discovered folk takes and traditions of other cultures, dived sea depths and rocketed into space. I walked alongside history’s giants and stared up at a blade of grass through the eyes of an insect. I was free to choose and to read whatever peaked my interest. The only exception was when my mother nixed fairy tales for a time, because I was reading the Grimms brothers and Hans Christian Andersen’s more grisly tales and having nightmares. The magic of those tales stayed with me, however, and I revisited them, sans nightmares, in later years.
No question: child development and temperament must be considered in a child’s reading material. My mother served me well in saying, “not now.” But “not now” is a far cry from depriving the child of even knowing a book exists. The first choice comes from love and hope. The second from control and repression.
That’s why we’re hosting our Banned Book Speakeasy. Just as, during prohibition, legislators banned alcohol in an attempt to force their morality on others, now, across our country, laws are being passed to ban books that some people, and the politicians who wish to please them, find offensive. At A Spacious Place, we stand with authors speaking their truth in print, and with readers who open their minds to read that truth. Sometimes that truth connects with our personal story, and that is a gift. Sometimes that truth is not ours and gives us the opportunity to clarify what we believe and why. That, too, is a gift, though a grittier one.
We stand against laws that seek to rein in or destroy art; we stand for the freedom to read. We hope you’ll join us as we gather at the Speakeasy to open a book and open our minds.
What are your favorite reading memories? What are your thoughts on book freedom and book banning? Share your thoughts with us at contact@aspaciousplace.com.
Soul & Solace: Dark and Flat?
“In the Dark Ages, people believed the world was flat.” I first heard this concept in elementary school, and have seen it reiterated in film and on television often since. Dark ages belief in a flat earth a widely accepted “fact.”
Yet my daughter Arielle, a Medieval scholar, shared these insights about the time designated as the Dark Ages:
Not the dark ages:
- People in Medieval times had soap and took baths;
- Universities were founded in Europe during the High Middle Ages, and a lot of the learning came to them from Jewish and Muslim scholars, including ones who interpreted Greek texts into Latin (Aristotle, Plato, etc.);
- We think of “peasants” as poor, miserable, dirty, and fully dependent on their nobles; actually, the non-nobles and non-clergy population describes a large group of people (those who “work,” as opposed to those who fight—nobles, kings, knights—and those who pray—clergy) and they were not all in awe of their nobles—there were several uprisings in England (as one example); there were also craftspeople, wealthy merchants, and so on who would fall under this category;
- Women weren’t all oppressed (queens and ladies often defended their lands from attackers);
- They knew the world was round (the Norse “found” the Americas well before Columbus, and the orbs that you see kings and such holding when they were crowned or depicted in art are meant to represent the globe—a sphere);
- Oh, and witch trials in England—that’s a “Renaissance”/Early Modern thing.
So why all this misleading information about times gone by? I suspect our teachers and entertainers were, in good faith, sharing what was taught them, as I doubt there is a national conspiracy to disparage the pre-Renaissance era. They taught what they thought.
Which got me thinking about, well, thinking. A lot of what we do at A Spacious Place encourages choice: what color do you want? Which song do you choose to sing? Does the work feel finished to you? It not, what else do you want to do with it?
We encourage choice because each one of us deserves to know our own mind. Each one of us has the right—and the responsibility—to think for ourselves. To ask questions. To do our own research. Otherwise, we cheat ourselves of true selfhood, and we cheat the world of the persons we, alone, can be.
Someone somewhere did their own research and discovered that Medieval times weren’t so dark after all. Then that person shared the information with another, who, hopefully, verified with their own research, and so on.
Why this lengthy discourse inspired the earth’s rotundity and times not so dark? Because thinking for ourselves has never been more vital. We need faith leaders and government leaders who encourage free thinking. When either—or—both expect, instead, that we blindly choose their version of truth, we need to do our own thinking.
After reading this piece, I hope everyone double checks the flat-earth concept. And then, while we’re at it, let’s double check something else we’ve long assumed correct (with at least two credible sources, of course). Because, for each of us, the shape of our soul is ours to choose.
What practices help shape your faith? How do you understand truth, fact, and opinion? How important is choice to you? We would love to hear from you. Share your Soul & Solace thoughts at contact@aspaciousplace.com.
Soul & Solace: The Critic
The worst thing I can do when I sit down to write, is to open the door for The Critic. You know the guy: he strides in, wearing a superior expression, a bad mustache, and chewing on a cigar. In tones at once bored and superior, he launches in.
“What drivel.”
“Been done a thousand times. And better.”
“You USED to be a writer. Too bad…”
And the oldie but baddie: “Don’t you get it? You just can’t.”
In the sixteen years A Spacious Place has been providing creativity services, we’ve heard The Critic internalized and voiced by people we serve. Perhaps The Critic once spoke at them from an authority figure or someone they admired. Perhaps they just never got the chance to try, fail, and try again in a supportive environment. So, The Critic mouths off at them using their own voice.
“I’m not creative.”
“Been there, done that.”
“Creating’s for kids (or not for men, like me).”
“Waste of time—I need to be working.”
And the oldie but baddie: “I’m no good at this. I just can’t.”
We all can—and we need to—create. We’ve just been socialized by The Critic to believe we can’t. And that’s a tragedy, because creating, which feeds our souls, helps us reach our human potential, and connects us with our Creator, also boasts an abundance of fringe benefits. The risk-taking creating demands boosts our courage. Creating that doesn’t go to plan enhances our ability to deal with frustration, to problem solve, and to shift perspective. Creating opens our eyes to beauty and truth around us, which helps ease burnout and depression. And because, most of the time, we create to share a truth of ourselves with others, creating builds healthy community.
So, when The Critic strides on to our doorstep, we can silently point to the exit, press the door shut, and
plate an appetizing meal, or
plant a colorful garden, or
weave a basket, or
sing a song, or
embroider a pillow, or
paint a still life, or…
…whatever silences The Critic so we can hear the truth and beauty of our own voice.
How do you respond to The Critic? How do you express your creativity? We would love to hear from you. Share your Soul & Solace thoughts with us at contact@aspaciousplace.com.