MORGAN'S MOMENT...
“Let’s go home on back roads…”
    I suggested to Jean
    after 1100 miles on the freeway.
I suffer from “destinationitis…”
    a genetic disease from my dad
    who was in a hurry to “get there.”
He learned late, as I am trying to do,
    that being on the journey
    is destination enough.
So we left the freeway
    to find our way the last 200 miles
    on the blue highways.
You need a good map…
    and a good navigator partner
    and careful attention to signs.
For the two extra driving hours
    and 25 extra miles
    we had a wonderful payoff.
Small villages we’d never seen…
    winding traffic-free roads…
    rural views you don’t whiz by.
We followed a river
    as it also took the long way
    from the mountains to the sea.
Life is not a straight road…
    for even the winding side roads
    can lead you home…beautifully.
— Art Morgan 

BOOK CORNER
“Dead Heat” by Dick Francis and his son, Felix. A non-theological read.
I’ve read most of Dick Francis’ books, but none in the last five years or so. I thought he might have died. Then comes “Dead Heat,” another book centered in English horse racing. In this case the focus is more on a chef and kitchens and food than on horses and jockeys and races. A bit of terrorism makes the plot contemporary. At any rate, the story is done well and worth reading. I’m still waiting to get back to Einstein!
•
MOMENT MINISTRIES
November 9, 2007
home address:  25921 SW Airport Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333   541-753-3942
email at a-morgan@peak.org
REPORT(S)
We finally got some of our local constituents together. I’m sure those in regular churches will think November 1 is rather late for starting a fall program. We did all our announcing by email and filled the house with lots of catch-up talk. Our potluck menu encouraged local produce and foods grown within 100 miles of Corvallis. It was one of our best potlucks. Chicken, bread, vegetables, wine and water were some of the recognized items.
It was “All Saints Day.” We’re not “high church” or possibly not any church at all. But we observed All Saints Day by remembering those we knew that had died during recent months. Everyone named someone. Then Paul led us in singing just about all the songs we could think of with the word “saint.” It was a good moment.
Next Thursday Night Moment is set for November 15. We’ll send out email information next week.
Jean and Art traveled to Berkeley to represent Seattle and University Christian Church at the Memorial service for Robert Lemon. His wife, Adelle (Ringstrom), was a Seattle girl we knew through that church. It was a lifting tribute to a great colleague and friend. More than 200 of his friends and colleagues were present.
Updating the mailing list is a fall chore. We hope we have the changes correct by this mailing. No promises. If you think you have missed a mailing (there have only been two prior to this) you can find it on our web page. Bill Gilbert keeps each Blue Sheet posted. We are always happy to add names of any who are interested.
The Annual Pre-Christmas Sunday Brunch is December 2. Barbara Ross and Joe Omelchuck have once again invited us to their home for this happy event.
We drove past the Veteran’s Hospital on the Crater Lake Highway as we were leaving Medford. I’ve visited those hospitals and seen the wounded in body and mind. I read with some anger about difficulty some have getting well-deserved treatment. It seems easy to vote billions for more war-fare but so difficult to come up with funds to offer education, jobs, and care for the only ones who actually do any sacrificing for this “war” on terror. Mortimer Zuckerman, Editor in Chief of U.S News and World Report wrote on September 10, 2007:
“We live in a culture where neither the Republicans nor the Democrats wish to ask Americans to make sacrifices.”
Most of us won’t observe Veteran’s Day except for enjoying a day off. The few parades I remember were more feel good patriotic events than reflection on the awful consequences of war to human beings on both sides. We applaud the sacrifices of our troops without making any personal sacrifices. If we’re going to send people off to war then lets take care of them to the utmost when the come home.

 
                                                                                     (back page)

FOOLISH FAITH
“A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth.” (Albert Einstein)
       Boy, do I miss my afternoons on the boat. I always kept my book out there. I would carry my dinghy to the edge of the water, then row out to where the boat was anchored. My book was waiting inside and down below. That is where I last left my reading of Albert Einstein, on page 218. Alas, summer came to an end, the boat was brought on to the trailer and parked in its shed and Einstein was returned to the library.
       Meanwhile my writings have included some reports of books that challenged the notion of religious belief and practice. God was not merely doubted, but dismissed. In my reporting I have been pretty matter-of-fact without trying to encourage or discourage any particular belief or disbelief. There’s not much good in arguing.
       I’ve always assumed that most people have their doubts and big time questions about the whole idea of God. Mine began early. Our mother taught us childhood bedtime prayers and always closed the door saying, “Say your prayers.” Maybe it was saying prayers for a bicycle for more than 5 years and never getting one that caused me to question. I had cosmic thoughts some nights. For instance, how could a God give much attention to us on this one little planet in the Milky Way. For some reason I likened my little life to the small white marking I noted on my toenail. Don’t laugh. I had a sense of my insignificance. But I reminded myself that the white spot was part of my toenail that was part of my toe that was connected to a whole system of life that the spot could never understand.
       When I tell people things like this I see eyes rolling. My point in telling it is that if an 8 or 10 year-old boy can think these thoughts, then what thoughts are others thinking? The theological outcome for me was a decision to be part of the harmony of existence on the side of being a positive participant in life whatever it was all about. The whole idea of God seemed far beyond anything any human could possibly comprehend.
       As I was reading the story of Einstein’s life I realized that he was also thinking far thoughts during his early childhood. He began to question and distrust authority as a young boy. He later traced his innovative breakthrough of ages old ideas of physics to this trait. I wrote down his words from page 22:
“A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth.”
       This runs a bit counter to what the church authorities try to teach. Faith is one of the mainstays of religion. It doesn’t come easy, except to those who never think about the big questions. Religion works best if you just trust the authority of priest, preacher or bible. It gets complicated if you think for yourself.
       As a boy Einstein rejected traditional teaching.
“Through the reading of popular scientific books, I soon reached the conclusion that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true.” (p.20)
       He did this 100 years before the recent arguments against belief and religion were written. He was saying what all sorts of people both inside and outside the church were saying as well: “We need a different idea of God.”
       I know that preachers are supposed to weigh in on the side of belief and faith and stand against all doubt. My thought is that doubt is the pathway to meaningful faith. I agree with Einstein that foolish faith is an obstacle to growth and a truthful view of what is and how things work. Preachers ought to be made to back up their assertions about what God is and does without being allowed to pull up Bible texts.
       Einstein dumped notions of belief from his childhood. After years with a mind full of equations and quantum physics and a universe beyond knowing, he said:
“A spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe ─ a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort.”
       His biographer concludes:
“Einstein considered this feeling of reverence, this cosmic religion, to be the true wellspring of all true art and science. It was what guided him…It is also what graced him with his beautiful mix of confidence and awe.” (p.551)
       Psalm 14 (among others) says: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God…’” I’d say, let’s not be too quick to shut him up. Maybe he’s a boy like Einstein with a cosmic view of things, or maybe he’s a boy looking at his toenail and seeing his place in the cosmos. When was the last time you pondered your toenail?
─ Art Morgan, November 2007
(EINSTEIN: His Life and Universe, Walter Isaacson)