Komorebi: Ritual, Hildegard, Godspeed, Pumpkin

Oct 15, 2024

“Komorebi” is a Japanese word that means “sunlight filtered through trees.” This series contains errata, ephemera, et cetera.

Earlier this year, Ted Gioia shared a post called 13 Observations on Ritual at his Substack, The Honest Broker (which is not about finance but music btw). It’s worth a read. Gioia discusses the forces of technology, various media, capitalism, culture, as they appropriate ritual devoid of the transcendent.

Ritual is fundamental to anthropologic which means it is part of our Creator’s loving design for us creatures made in his image and destined for theosis. The ritual that sustains the world, the basal ritual of Christianity, occurs at the table of Eucharist. There are many other rituals–those particularly Christian and those of common grace to all people–that give our lives meaning and form and poetry. What does it do to us to live in a world in which this human and divine good of ritual is profaned and used to extract value from us?

I’d suggest taking a moment with each observation to really think about them. What comes up?

Ancient icon of the Eucharist being served.

Hildegard of Bingen is hard to describe. For now I’ll just say she was a German Christian mystic of the Benedictine order in the 12th century. She saw things. I imagine she looked like the German woman from whom I bought this picnic table I am sitting at: hands leathered from farm work, skin golden from a life in the sun, soulful eyes that have seen beauty and tragedy. Anyway, she was a nun so this may be way off.

I found this poem (prayer?) of hers, translated by Barbara Newman in a collection of spiritual verse and it has been running through my mind. The last three lines are like a nice packet of snus, stimulating; I keep rolling the words around in my mouth. Your power like a wheel around the world, whose circling never began and never slides to an end.

Song to the Creator
You, all-accomplishing
Word of the Father
are the light of primordial
daybreak over the spheres.
You, the foreknowing
mind of divinity,
foresaw all your works
as you willed them,
your prescience hidden
in the heart of your power,
your power like a wheel around the world,
whose circling never began
and never slides to an end.

WWIII! Solar flare! Elections! Scandal of the day! Economy-crushing strikes! Totalitarianism! And so on.

All these things matter. They matter to me and to you. I believe they matter to God. And I believe we can actually influence our reality through prayer and through our life. But it can be a little shall we say overstimulating/exhausting/nihilism-inducing/absurdifying to try and keep up and take it all in and, worst of all, to let the world tell us how to interpret and prioritize and respond to the facts of the world’s state. Instead, followers of The Way are called to live out the logic of a different world that we believe has arrived but is still arriving. Want to learn more about this logic? Well then, try this lovely little 36-minute movie called Godspeed: The Pace of Being Known (no not that Godspeed you crazy DC comics nerd you).

Summary: an American priest learns to encounter Jesus in the Other while serving in Scotland. This one is good for your soul. It is relevant to our time. You will encounter a wild, redheaded, elemental spirit of the Scottish braes who will make you want to change your life. Shout out to Patch, for the reminder.

The neighbor who lives behind me planted a garden this year. His pumpkin plant grew under our fence and has fruited a nice little pumpkin for us. We plan to harvest it soon. I’ve tried to write a poem about what this means to me but I cannot get the voices of Wendel Berry and Robert Frost out of my head so here I will simply tell you that I think it is a good omen. “Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down.” I welcome that something. The master is not a hard man and lets me reap where I did not sow.

Some good things:

I wrote this while drinking a Ghostfish Grapefruit GF IPA. As a gluten-challenged person I have missed the refreshing bitterness of a good IPA for a long time. Ghostfish has done the impossible and made a very good IPA with no gluten.
While I did not write this message by hand, I have been clicking my Japanese GS01 Ohto pen at every pause and with great satisfaction. It’s a wonderful little artifact that draws a fine line and fits nicely in a pocket so one can, for example, capture writerly thoughts at a mountain creek while your kids dash about.