Accomodation vs Fundamentalism

ACCOMODATION:
1.The act of accommodating or the state of being accommodated; adjustment.
2.Something that meets a need; a convenience.
3. Accommodations
1. Room and board; lodgings.
2. A seat, compartment, or room on a public vehicle.
3. Reconciliation or settlement of opposing views.
4. Physiology. The automatic adjustment in the focal length of the lens of the eye to permit retinal focus of images of objects at varying distances.


Accomodation is how life can continue. As they say in Spanish: Mierda Pasa. I'll let Egan tell us how it would be said in French. But I know each and every one of us can wax eloquent on how it is said in our hearts.

Bended and distended (yeah, I said bended), somehow we don't break. And interesting things happen. Sometimes accomodating hurts. Sometimes it doesn't. But it always involves change. It involves keeping an open mind. Morphing.

Borrowing on the Hegelian dialectic, let's say you need a place to stay for the night (thesis). But you don't have a place to stay for the night because you are not at home (antithesis). So you drive up to the Motel 6 and, yes indeed, they have gone and left the light on (synthesis). You get your accommodations.

Let's say you are a hesychast. A hesychast, you ask? What's a hesychast, Gawpo? A hesychast lives in the here and now, usually quite austerely, although that is not the focus of their life. Normally a hesychast is also an ascete. An ascete is an ascetic person, a person who "goes into their closet to pray." These people (by all means not just from the Christian tradition) do the most with the very least. They do without so that they can expand their mind through spiritual vigilance. They accommodate greatly through austere means.

Hesychasts are associated with the continuous (some, even when they sleep) repetition of a single prayer. In the Christian tradition, this is normally what is known as "the Jesus prayer," an ancient and simple formula whose Ethiopian tradition is rendered thus: "My Lord Jesus, have mercy; I bless you Lord Jesus, save me." To fully appreciate the prayer, one must exercise caution against an eisegetical (reading meaning INTO a text, based on a contemporary understanding of a word) approach, and take some pains toward an exegetical (reading a meaning from the perspective of the time contemporary to the author--reading meaning OUT of the text) approach. Take for instance the word "mercy." As reflected in the Ugaritic texts, the word "mercy" simply meant something like "wow!" We're talking old, people. Ugarit goes back to the 14th century B.C. Lord have mercy, then, meant something akin to "holy cow," or as I like to say it, "Coly How!" It did not mean, "Oh Lord, please don't hurt me." The other one I love (i.e., hate) to hear is: "Yes, God is a loving God. But he is also a JUST God!" Along with the word mercy, the word justice meant simply "to make things level."

Expressions such as "Lord have mercy!" are known to older Catholics as "ejaculations." True story. Other popular ejaculations were, "Mary mother of Jesus!" and "Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" These ejaculations just sort of.....yeah....spurted out of the mouth of the faithful.

The problem with fundamentalism in any form is that it focuses on a narrow interpretation of a broader Truth. Fundamentalism does not accommodate; it does not stretch beyond the stubbornness of its self-defined boundaries. And life is just not like that. The hesychast (being an ascete) is fundamentally open minded, able to accomodate to the moment. They are the ones whose ejaculations might include, "Just keeping it real!"

As fellow accommodators, it would behoove us to encourage each other in the industry of our bendage. Below are a few examples of what you can do when you set your mind to staying open....

So, happy morphing my dear friends. May we continue to bend with the best of them and make beautiful what other tendencies might attempt to thwart.











Have you seen these?