Stone Garden

Kelly commented on my thoughts regarding spiritual evolution and recommended this book; i hopped over to amazon and bought it. got it yesterday.

finished it this morning. really a good read, and molly moynahan, the writer, packs some wisdom in there too. though i take issue with what i consider to be a not-fully-thought-out supposition that seems to be shared by a lot of people: that to have spirit, to believe in life after life, requires belief in god. not so. i've always believed in spirit, never could accept that when i died i'd just be all gone, and haven't believed in god for decades.

i like the phrase roethke uses in the waking: great nature. yeah, he refers to god too, and it is my understanding that roethke did believe in god...my point is that i cannot deny forces larger than myself. just try to stop the tide. just try to see to it that the sun won't come up tomorrow. what i do deny is the contention that "great nature" has cognizance or gives a rat's ass about me. there is too much random hurt. too many diseases, etcetera. it isn't necessary to belabor it. because there is so much wrong around here.

joseph heller argues persuasively and entertainingly against the existence of a cognizant god in catch 22, one of my favorite ever novels [i've said that if i ever had to be stranded on a desert island with only one book it would be catch 22...it ain't gonna happen, fortunately].

so anyhow in Stone Garden, one of the book titles dropped by moynahan, a high school creative writing teacher, is...yep. catch 22. she still seems to arrive at the conclusion that for there to be life after life there must be god. my grief counselor actually challenged me one day with that same assumption and i just punched holes in it. but i think i expressed it as well as i am able on bekah's 22nd birthday:There is no death but the shedding of mortality. Though you may say there is a god and I say there is not, don't think we're headed for separate eternities. Because I do perceive a plethora of souls on the other side. Souls who love me. And if god is not love, what's the point?

Love is god, love is why, love puts faith into my soul and brings Bekah into my dreams. Love will lead me back to life in time.
...
Love does not die. This is a statement often repeated to comfort the bereaved. This truth is the light I am beginning to perceive on the emerging side of the indescribably terrible place I was sent to when Bekah died.

anyway. thanks, kelly, for turning me on to the book. it was too good to put down until it was all read.
- posted by barbara @ 10/26/2003 11:22:00 AM