CowPi Journal

Need a gift idea for a person who seems to have everything? How about this?

Come Spirit of God grant us
     the power to be gentle,
     the strength to be forgiving,
     the patience to be understanding,
     the endurance to accept the consequences
     of holding on to what is right.

Come Spirit of God help us to
     put our trust in the power of good
     to overcome evil,
     the power of love to overcome hatred.

Come Spirit of God enlighten us
     with the vision to see and the faith to believe in
     a world free from violence,
     a new world where fear will no longer lead us to
     commit injustices,
     nor selfishness cause us to bring suffering to others.

Come Spirit of Wisdom and Love,
     Source of all good teach us your truth and
     guide our actions in your way of peace.

— a prayer card from Prayers for Peacemakers

One more scene near the end of the movie Phenomenon (see previous entry) is a wonderful metaphor for what the right attitude should be about people that come and go in our lives.

George, played by John Travolta, tries to explain to the young boy that he should not be too upset about his impending “departure”:

If we were to put this apple down and leave it, it would be spoiled and gone within a few days. But if we were to take a bite of it, like this, it would become part of us. We take it with us, forever.

Everything is on its way to somewhere. Everything.

(Is this part of what the Christian mystics call detachment?)

I love to spot something spiritual in pop cultural. One of my favorite movies is Phenomenon, starring John Travolta, produced in 1996.

Everybody in the small town of Harmon knows George Malley as a nice guy, a good auto mechanic, and a dependable friend. But on his 37th birthday George begins to change. As a result of an extraordinary occurrence, George’s seemingly unremarkable life takes a mystifying and wonderous turn. George has a sudden insatiable appetite for learning, and begins to comprehend the beauty and intelligence of the universe. Suspicious about the new-found power of George’s mind, and apprehensive of the riddle he has become, George’s life-long friends begin to turn away from him. But with the love and support of the cautious, yet caring, Lace, George is able to see the larger picture of his place in the scheme of things, and to trust the remarkable path of his life.

Warning: If you have not seen the movie, I most highly recommend it. The rest of this journal entry contains a spoiler.

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