Tongues

I have some friends who have very profound and committed spiritual lives in non-Christian traditions. Of late I have been less guarded and careful in my language when speaking to them (perhaps an unforeseen consequence of OneGoodBook). What I mean by this is that I've said "the Lord", or "my Lord Jesus" and other specifically Judeo-Christian terms, said "God" rather than using the word "Universe" or referring to my own inner knowing. I have been speaking my own language without trying so hard to translate into theirs.

This is newish behavior for me. I love languages. I speak three: American English, British English, and French. There is nuance in French that does not translate into English, and I am sure this is true of every language. Languages are cultural melodies to me. Also it behooves a citizen of the world to try to honor another citizen's language. I remember being upset as a child - 10 or 11 - tofind out that what is called Firenze, Italia by the people who livethere is called Florence, Italy by us. I thought we were being veryrude, changing their home's name like that. I didn't like being called LauraMace, did I? Why didn't we call people what they wanted to be called?  Why couldn't the map in my schoolbook say Italia? So I have some Italian and Spanish, a few words of Arabic (hello, tea, coffee, water, thank you), and Hebrew (hello, and the sh'ma, and "let everything that has breath praise the Lord"), some Greek (good morning, good evening, thank you), a little Latin, and enough Cajun French to figure out song lyrics. I've also became familiar with terms from many spiritual/religious traditions, which stands me in good stead when teaching at Esalen and Omega and the New York Open Center, where some students for their own personal reasons are hostile to Christianity. If a word for God is upsetting, then we can find some other way of speaking.

But I am not leading such a workshop now, but rather talking with friends - friends who meditate, who chant, who put up pujas in their living rooms, or keep the solstice - and I would like to be able to speak freely of my own condition in my own language. I am not so worried anymore about being thought stupid if I "speak Christian" - thank you all for that. Your comments have been very freeing.   So when I speak godtalk with these deeply spiritual friends, who are devoted, and admirable, and following the promptings of their own spirits, I am a little shocked to find I am getting language corrections. And thinking corrections. Don't limit yourself, I am told. God is such a small word. Everything you need lies within, I am reminded, and why cling to outmoded language from a corrupt tradition? Jesus is a myth, a symbol.I must expand my thinking. I should read The Secret. I should study A Course in Miracles.

Here it gets noisy. Hear the moan of one who wonders why her friends seem unwilling to meet her halfway. Hear the exasperated groan of someone who wonders what exactly is limiting about these concepts of God, other than the limitations of our own human understanding, I mean? Has anybody read the Athanasian creed lately? Under that, catch a whisper of hurt. Ah. This is clearly an old feeling. I have felt this before. When did I first learn that it is not alright to be openly Christian, or not more than ceremonially so?  But under all this other noise, right now, hear the low throbbing hum of a spirit that does not want to be called by a name other than its own anymore.