It's the season, isn't it? But the season for what? For the first time ever I headed out into the woods on Quadra Island, found a little Douglas Fir (unlike its 200 foot high brothers all around it), said a silent word of thanks and then cut the tree and brought it into the house to decorate. Decorations, stockings, presents, roast duck and Joyeux Noël to all. Not a bad Christmas for a nice Jewish boy. The Christmas story was around in the music we listened to. Not so much in the Doctor Who Christmas specials we were watching or the presents. So where was the spirituality? Perhaps when we went for a walk among the falling snow and lacy white branches of the trees. In the deep rich mosses covering the cliffs, in the birdsong and eagle cries in the sky. In the peaceful meditation as I cross country skied in the alpine meadows and through the still forests. Mounds of snow falling ominously from the treetops and whiskey jacks flitting around me.
Contrast that with the wedding I attended yesterday. A former student, whom I taught when she was in grade 2, all of 15 years ago perhaps, now a young woman, a writer and a student, a wife and a Christian. A devout Christian finding meaning in this our troubling world. The service was most traditional, and I felt very much an outsider. At the reception commenting with my neighbour on the role of faith for our friend, in the day's events. The groom's parents praying since he was a boy that he would find a wife. A neighbour at our table talking of his plans to teach overseas, spreading the gospel. And us, feeling like this was another world. I am very glad that my ex-student has found love, a soulmate, a community; that she has found her place in the world. It is not my place, my faith, my idea of a partnership, in which the groom pledged to "protect" and the bride to "submit." Really? Submit? What century is this? What place does this sort of traditional religion have in 2013? I know it is more common than I see in my own community, among my circle of colleagues and friends, but it scares me. Absolutely we need the spiritual in our lives, and western society is lessened somewhat because many people do not feel the spiritual. But a blind faith, a belief that there is only one path to salvation, that not following Jesus, or any particular spiritual path, no matter which one, makes one less human, less blessed, less good, is erroneous. It has led, still leads, to conflict around the world and in our community's. It leads to division, to intolerance, to a world we hoped to have left in the Middle Ages, in the 19th century.
We need the spiritual in our lives, more than the materialism and commercialism that has brought human and environmental degradation to the planet, but we need the spiritual that connects us all, regardless of religion, race or culture. I find that more in the snowy forest, rather than the house of worship.
