LECTURE NOTES: Not Enough about Einstein's god, too much about Tippett

*****In retrospect: IF I had read the book before attending the lecture I would not have had the following reaction to it, since I would have already heard what she had to say on Einstein.****

Krista Tippett who hosts the National Public Radio show "Speaking of Faith" gave a lecture on Eintstein's God in New Haven tonight.

$30 was way too much for the lecture - unless you went because you are a Tippett fan and most people there were by the sound of the thundering applause. I went hoping to hear a detailed lecture on Einstein's concept of god, (which Tippetts did at least say was an impersonal overarching nature) --  and I was very disappointed there wasn't more on that subject. Though I guess she had covered it already in her book. And it is my fault for going without having read it....

So unfortunately the talk wasn't just about Einstein, nor actually about god either. People fans, had submitted a bunch of questions about Tippett and she endeavored to answer them.

She also quoted a few scientists, including Einstein and Darwin, and kept saying that religion and science were compatible -- apparently through the mechanism of a sort of new age niceness with a little scientific awe thrown in for good measure. Compatible as long as you don't mention specific doctrines, as long as you are talking to the theologians, who prefer verbal fencing, to strap-on bombs. As long as you are alluding to passages in scientists writings that sound vaguely spiritual or that refer to beauty or infinity. Still I doubt many main stream theologians would count that as 'god' even with a little g.... Sure its all compatible as long as nobody talks details. The devil is in the details they say. For good reason they say that..

Of course asking people about their faith is what Tippett does for a living. She wants her guests on her NPR show to reveal their journey of belief - yet she did not welcome a question about her own belief during the Question and Answer session. Her reply referenced her need to get people to interview for her show. (I guess all these fair minded religious folks she chooses for her interviews might not talk to her if they thought she was really a non-theist.) So in the end -  it's about continuing her personal mission in life,  which she can't do without the other people, ( not a bad thing I guess all in all)  and maybe selling her book Einstein's God. Can't blame her for that I guess.

I thought she gave rather a too high regard for the scriptures of various religions, ascribed wisdom to them without any qualification. No mention of cutting off the hands of thieves. Or subjugating woman. Wonder how she defines wisdom.... and I wonder if it includes forbearance -- during the Q&A Tippett called Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins bigots.  Live, In the Shubert Theater . Hmmm. I guess niceness only goes so far.

NaPoWriMo #8 - Drifting

Drifting

A little heat rises
from a tube of dried leaves clenched
between my lips. The breath
is mine. The fire too.
The sad, distracted smoke?
All you.

-- Mar Walker, curmudgeon

Love is a figment. Figs are preferable. But I hate figs too.
The prompt was to find a metaphor for your current love. What current love I might ask....The photo was taken at a high school play. It's a little over exposed, sort of like love....  Just for the record, I don't smoke either.

NaPoWriMo #7 - Pointless

Pointless

Your picture still pricks like cactus
when an unread letter announces
your death -- five years ago.
Too late to slap you now. 
Damn it.

( i did have six lines. so now I have altered the lines breaks to make five lines)

-- Mar Walker
Unresolved hurt makes havoc with grief.

The PROMPT:  "Write and capture humorous incidents related to love in a 5-line love poem called a tanka."  I got the five line part, and the love part. I missed the humor and settled for irony.....   

NaPoWriMo #6 -- Today's menu

Today's Menu

Dog looking
Dog looking at me
Dog poised to do a happy doggie dance.

Me looking
Me looking at the mirror
at the back of dog's head
poised to take a picture.

The looker and the look-ee
both expectant, assessing
the possibilities, full of energy.
Dog wanting something,

an adventure of walking
sniffing, chasing, a car ride.
Me wanting a photo, showing
a doorway, a place of entry

for reflection, for life and its shadow
where the right and the left  are joined
in a lake of glass: this moment
whose surface shows

all the actual places
we could go from here.
Woof.

-- Mar Walker

My dog, pictured above, is named Oggi which means Today.The prompt was to write a poem from a picture. I am so very glad for this prompt. I have always liked this photo and was never sure why. I thought it held something unusual but I wasn't sure just what until now.

NaPoWriMo #5 -- Mr. Poetry

Mr. Poetry

Bubba might be neurotic
or worse, bites his nails, drinks
expresso with rum, counts cards
at the casino. Bubba's not welcome
because he notices things: the gum
in your car ashtray, scratches on your
shirt, holes in the wall board, flecks of hubris.
Dressed in his neon coveralls
and backwards baseball cap
he'll write you a repair estimate that will
drain all the blood from your face and
other extremities while you phone
your lawyer and make excuses.
Bubba's secret is this: if you slap him
he will screech like a dying hare.
When he is done, he will hunt you
with a Swiss Army knife and a pen
until you are furious and embarrassed
or until your liver lies in the middle
of the road under a semi hauling
a lifetime supply of Bondo and
metal-flake paint, in various colors..

-- Mar Walker

The Prompt was to personalize poetry....   (You know who you are....)

NaPoWriMo #4 - The Exhibitionist

The Exhibitionist

 

Here I am in my kaki waders
and No. 30 sunblock,
standing in a white  bathtub
with rolled edges and claw feet,

a white dingy beached
on a choppy cove of lawn.
Inside it floats an island of fat leaves

sheltering coy fish in the noon sun.

Here I am with my beach hat
and waving my scrub brush,
or perhaps a little square net
for fish or butterflies who pause
so  slowly folding and
unfolding their wings
and the coy fish slowly opening
then closing their mouths
and the sunlight slowly
moving among the tree shadows.
And those bashful neighbors
shutting out the thought
of my afternoon bath,
discreetly lowering binoculars
and closing their living room blinds...

--  Mar Walker

The prompt was to write something inside-out. The garden bathtub and fish belong to a friend in Hamden. No actual bathing took place.

NaPoWriMo #3 Forgotten in the drawer

Forgotten in the drawer 
"place the bulb in complete darkness for one week"

Long pale roots, white
strings of life reach
deep into the bulb vase
stretching down for the last
half inch of murky water.

Pale whitish leaves
bent over, twisted
longing for the sun. Worse:
the now dried lavender bloom
that no one ever saw.

-- Mar Walker

The prompt was to write a poem about something you fear. Right after reading the prompt, i found the hyacinth plants in the drawer. I don't even remember what month it was when I put the bulbs in there. they did their blooming-growing thing as best they could, entrely without witness, carried on without human intervention, as nature always does when we walk away.