Rolla Lewis
Thanks to Charles, again, for adding to the resources for exploring creativity in Whitehead’s thought.
I loved that article.
Yes, it’s relationships all the way down, and back and forth.
These folks have a lot of accessible work about relationships: https://www.greatergood.berkeley.edu/
These folks are all about relationships:
Thomas, I can live with and love your God. Sounds pantheistic.
Charles, reflection is elegant. Beautiful, and lures me toward your pancreativist conversation. I can work with an image of the panentheistic God oozing over the edges of monistic pantheism becomes creativity. The image of the big God circle around the world becomes divine creativity. Such an image enables me to let go of the negative baggage I link to God-talk and the cosmic bully, liberating me to open up to the shimmering creative possibilities every moment offers.
It’s a long path for me. I’m just beginning my Whitehead walk.
I do encourage you to explore and write more deeply about pancreativism, if I can call it that. I’d love to hear more. In reading your piece, I think of Mark C. Taylor’s Refiguring the Spiritual, where he talks about specific artists who are exploring the spiritual via their contemporary artistic processes. I know my own spirituality is deepened by my creative activities, be those in my reciting poetry to trees, writing poetry, gardening, cooking, grandparenting, and partnering– although there are times when my wife would probably say, “you call that creative!” But that’s another story. Still for me, it is relationships, experience, and creativity all the way down and through.
I could really hang with and ponder pancretivist thinking much more. It fits with the everyday life I am creating. I should share, one source influencing my everyday life has been Don Cupitt’s The Meaning of Life in Everyday Speech (1999). In that book he talks about the shift to life as the sacred object in our everyday speech. God-talk has eroded and life-talk fills in the linguistic and culture space. That notion informs my everyday life, with me listening to how in our everyday conversations we express the sacredness of life. Life, not God as the sacred object…. For instance, I’m just trying to live life the best way I can. Live with gusto. Oh, Rolla, get a life!, etc. Listen to how “life” impacts everyday conversation. Obviously, Cupitt was influenced by the linguistic turn, but there is something there. What he needs is more Whitehead, and a connection to the process-relational. I’m sorry that I did not have any Whitehead when I met and talked to Don years ago… But, as he would say, That’s life.
Does the pancretivist call us to respond creatively to life? I would think so. Maybe in that creative response, Sartre’s notion of the life project (Zugmunt Bauman’s) too, shifts from the introspective consideration of and on life towards a more expressive and extroverted creative expression in living life with others, all of creation. Maybe our challenge and life question becomes: How do I respond (hopefully with others) in the most creative way to this life?
You have me flying off the rails writing in free association, Charles. Thanks. Also, sorry if it is mere noise. If not creative, it was fun and playful.
I love hanging around, listening to your reflective conversation. Thank you.
I’m reminded of Meister Eckhart who said something to the effect, “God rid me of God so that I may experience God,” meaning rid me of the various descriptions of God so that I may experience God. I always found that quote helpful. I am keenly aware that the God I have moved away from is the humanly constructed God of war, power, etc. After that God, we are free to let God in, maybe overflowing like the panentheists say and maybe closer to what the pantheists say or closer to the Dao. I’m just thankful that I can have a conversation with a person who is hanging on to the God thing without feeling that I’m with the grand inquisitor or someone who would feel obligated to save me from burning in hell, or want to burn me at the stake for my ideas.
After God, I’m liberated to recognize that life (all of it) is the sacred object. I can return or, as Don Cupitt says, simply open myself to the emptiness and brightness bursting forth in the moment. I’m not here to really say because I’m open to being a wayfarer having conversations and listening to as many stories as possible on my path to nowhere.
Thank you Thomas and Elizabeth for continuing the conversation a bit more, and Kent for your offering. I feel a warmth, compassion, and sense of adventure in the conversation and certainly embrace weaving the truth, good, and Beauty into the path I walk. What’s heart warming is the fact that others on their own paths are willing and open to sharing their wisdom with me as I stumble along.
Yes Thomas, AI is a treasure.
Thanks so much for exploring this topic. God-talk always spins me off in numerous directions, and I end up feeling like a traumatized child invited to talk about an abusive adult. I’m not sure. It may be experience all the way down and through, but as Andreas Weber says, it is feeling all the way down and through, too. When Kent talks about his practice, it sounds so liberating…. The feeling lures me….. Again, thank you.
Elizabeth, Thank you for your kind response. Sifu Fong Ha died in 2019, well after I had moved away from Berkeley to Portland. I only practiced with him seen years but I learned a lot from him, his students, and his wife, who was also a great teacher. I was able to bring him to Portland to teach a couple of times over the years. Though the grief remains, I carry whatever wisdom I can remember with the unique Yang style that was his.
I’m glad my “hopeless quest” reference to SMW was helpful. Whitehead has so many different levels and I am just learning.
I am ever thankful for the generous spirit that you and our fellow students have shown to one another.
Lu Wei-dong, thank you for this post. I have my own concerns about the “God” construct, mostly because I associate it with the Western cultural baggage that has resulted in God being linked to empire, oppression of other people, justification of slavery, genocide, war, workers, etc., and of course, movements to free slaves, confront racism, stand for peace, etc. A mixed bag to say the least.
Still, my exposure to Daoist thought and practice (tai chi, chi kung) evokes another image of the ultimate. I hear a different, much more naturalistic story. God does not leak over the edges like “he” does with panentheism. The Dao is it and we participate in and through the Dao, as I understand it.
Let me offer another God-talk example that I am lifting from Don Cupitt. Say I’m at a funeral for someone I know and they say, “She loved God.” I would look around and wonder, “Is that God the fire and brimstone one, the compassionate God, the one that is angry and coming back to wipe out the sinners, etc.” Or even, “She never told me.” On the other hand, if at the service they say, “She loved life.” I think I would reflect on the situation in another way and think to how she was passionate about in life, how she lived with gusto, what she loved to do, etc. In that, the sacred for me would move from God (the angry bully who I don’t know or the possible compassionate unknown force) to life. That is to say, life itself becomes (and is) the sacred object all the way down and through.
I’m still working on understanding Whitehead and Griffin. I’ll see where I end up in this, but at the very least, I am ever so thankful to the students in this class who have raised questions, offered quality thoughtful reflection, shown compassion, patience, and profound insight into Whitehead and Whiteheadian thinkers.
Thank you again.
Thank you for your kind words, both Dr. Davis and Elizabeth.
Elizabeth, “hopeless quest” is from SMW. The notion of the hopeless quest is rather humbling and helps ground me. When reflecting on “hopeless quest,” I think of Leonard Cohen and his capacity to capture life’s bitter sweetness– Beauty and Tragedy.
Yes, I have been practicing tai chi and chi kung for over 30 years; I integrate my practice into long walks in the forest where I recite poetry to the trees. When I was younger I loved push hands. My sifu, Fong Ha would say, “We sit, we stand, and we walk. Everything else is commentary.” He would talk about the “empty force” and move as gracefully as a cat. I loved to watch him at 5′ 6″ push a 225 pound, 6’3″ fellow across the room; he’d do the same to me but the lesson was not about power. It was about being grounded and centered. Tai chi is a lovely practice…. I’ll leave it there. Thanks for prompting the connection.
Thanks, Charles.
There’s not much for me to say. I am slack-jawed just listening to the conversation– thoughtful, empathic, and filled with what I call mindful wonderment. Just listening is a gift…. Thought I’d share because I was feeling like the guy at the table next to you listening in. Thanks.
Charles, What can I say. That was beautiful. You capture what lures me to Whitehead and process with elegance, grace, and compassion, helping me recognize again that I am on a wonderful adventure with fellow wanderers. Once again, thank you for your insight, perspective, and wisdom.
Thanks. This is very helpful. You are helping to sharpen my understanding and appreciation of Whitehead’s thought and impact on an evolving discourse.
Thank you, Thomas! This is helpful.