My Swan Song

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http://jeanetteblonigenclancy.com/

It’s time to write my swan song—this is my last post, but this blog with its Blog Index on the left will remain available. 

I look back with nostalgia on heady blog discussions in years past with readers from every corner of the country.

My posts were primarily essays on religions and spirituality involving research and careful thought rather than quick impressions of the moment. I like to provoke thinking, to challenge conventional beliefs and question accustomed patterns of thought.

 Comments from readers show the same love of ideas. Intriguing statements came from atheists. Besides mocking foolish literal beliefs, they seem to share my yen for thinking about large, metaphysical questions—Where does everything come from? What is life about? Who and what are we? Why do we exist? 

Various brands of religion and spiritual systems have grappled with these questions, and my posts reflect on them. In them I repudiate Christian teaching that violates science and rational thought, and I also repudiate materialist science that denies the inner soul world. 

I started this blog in 2007 after publishing God Is Not Three Guys in the Sky: Cherishing Christianity without Its Exclusive Claims. It seemed dangerously radical in the late 1980s, but Franciscan friar Richard Rohr teaches the same interpretations of doctrine in popular talks today.

Rohr does not share my anger at sexist God-talk, but in his talks, “the Father,” “Christ,” “Trinity,” “myth,” and “scripture” carry the non-patriarchal understandings expressed in this blog. 

While I align myself with Richard Rohr’s teachings on spiritual matters, I turn to physicist David Bohm to give scientific backing for my understanding of the importance of consciousness in quantum mechanics. 

My most recent post, “Scientists Teilhard and Bohm,” shows Bohm focused on the connection between spirituality and science, a recurring theme of my writing. I bring mind and matter together intuitively, but Bohm presented scientific evidence of the inner realm impacting the outer world. 

Lately I have blogged on political subjects because politics involves spirituality. It’s all about power, and that’s a moral issue. Injustice—unfair power—upsets me.

But politics is the reason I haven’t blogged for weeks. The election with its volume of lies, disinformation, and suspense took priority in my life, and I didn’t want politics to take over this blog.

I will probably still send letters to publications that occasionally print letters or op-eds of mine. I’m on Facebook but not often. My blog posts will remain available to explore by scrolling down to recent posts here and by clicking on titles in the Blog Index left for posts in the past. 

For information about my books or to contact me, visit http://jeanetteblonigenclancy.com/

I expect to continue forwarding articles and notes of interest to my email lists, because I enjoy thoughtful email exchanges. 

Readers and dialogue partners, you propelled my writing. Mysteries continue to swirl but I can be at peace—that’s just life for those of us who like thinking about ideas. We will continue exchanging views in some fashion to whatever extent you want.

Thank you, all.

 

P.S. I’m fond of this, which I wrote while Ruth Bader Ginsburg was lying in state in the U.S. Capitol

I love her brain.

I love her tiny, sturdy frame.

I love her fights for the rights of women and thus all human rights.

I love her slow, thoughtful choice of words to challenge centuries of conditioned beliefs.

I love her wily strategies to break down recalcitrant jurists.

I love her incompetence in the kitchen, a perfect complement to her legal brilliance.

Comments

Unknown said…
Thank you, Jeanette, for all your great thought-provoking work - both in your blogs and your books. You are an inspiration for many people to think more deeply about the deepest issues. Thank you. I hope you enjoy your "retirement." Vincent Smiles
November 24, 2020 at 12:29 PM
Warren said…
Your writing has been and is a meaningful commentary on our world. I thank you for your good work, "God's work, your (our) hands". How appropriate that the message I read before yours was from Richard Rohr and his focus for these days, Thomas Merton. Good wishes for wellness, gratitude, peace on this Thanksgiving and as Advent approaches. I am grateful for you, Jeanette. Warren
November 25, 2020 at 11:44 AM
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