You normally have to let go of the old and go through a stage of unknowing or confusion, before you can move to another level of awareness. —Richard Rohr

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. — George Bernard Shaw

We don’t see the world as it is. We see the world as we are. – Anais Nin

I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be… This is the inter-related structure of reality. – MLK, Jr

This past Tuesday, February 1, was not only my birthday (thank you for all the celebrations, thoughts on gratitude, and unexpected joys you experienced that day, on my behalf – without knowing it), it was also the first day of the Lunar New Year!

It doesn’t fall on the same day every year, but begins on the second New Moon after the Winter Solstice (which for 2022 is February 1). The most celebrated day of the year for many different Asian countries and people, and Asian Americans in the US, there’s been a push for years to get Congress to designate it as a national holiday in the US in honor of our country’s growing Asian-American population. Of course, the annual celebration already takes place in larger cities like NYC, San Francisco, and Houston.

It is also the beginning of Black History Month, a time to bring more focus to the insights, accomplishments, influence, and history of African Americans. Here is a link to explore events and opportunities going on the DFW area this month HERE. You can also find some great resources HERE to explore ways to continue walking that bridge of racial reconciliation.

But these February hallmarks have given me a couple of things to think about on this rare “snow day” in North Texas – in fact, I’ve stumbled upon a transformative opportunity.

Today is the third day of the Lunar New Year, the “Day of the Red Mouth”, a day typically thought to be vulnerable to public conversations of a vitriolic nature (hence the name). So Lunar New Year celebrants tend to remain home to avoid just such inevitable, uncomfortable, encounters. But I stumbled on a helpful short video, featuring the ever wise and hilarious Kid President, to give us a few tips on how to disagree with one another. If you haven’t seen it, check it out HERE.

Finally, getting older has not always resulted in the proverbial “wiser” aspect of aging for me – well, maybe. Truth is, we don’t know what we don’t know. And maybe knowing that sheds some wisdom on the subject.

Be that as it may, since this is the year of the Tiger, I’m turning to my mentor of some 25 years, Hobbes, for a little insight into this next solar circumnavigation of mine.

In the first vignette I came across this morning, young Calvin and his striped buddy, Hobbes, are strolling through the woods …

So, one year older and I’m counting my blessings snowed in on the day we were to head to Colorado for a day or two of skiing and birthday celebration with friends we haven’t seen in a few years. But a head cold, a dog just diagnosed with heartworms, and other family illness issues have made that trip a wash (put on ice, as it were). And, well, it’s a nice day for a fire and some reflection on learning some more stuff I didn’t know. Maybe I can learn to see something I’ve never really seen before.

The story is told that when William Blake was asked about the inspiration behind his painting of Moses at the Burning Bush, he replied that it wasn’t that the bush was on fire but that Moses now saw the bush for what it truly was in all it’s “divine correspondence” (Blake quoting Emmanuel Swedenborg). It’s seeing something old as something new, second naivete as Paul Ricoeur called it.

Okay, enough intellectual references! No one says it better than the Tiger, in the parting words of cartoonist, Bill Waterston in 1995:

Enjoy the day and the weekend. And I hope to see you Sunday, at eleven:eleven. I’ll welcome guest speaker, and eleven:eleven member, Dr. Todd Kirk!

Rev. Tom McDermott
Associate Pastor of eleven:eleven