Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Welcome, to the International Society for Awe, Wonder, Mystery, Gratitude, Love, and Laughter


“Would you rather listen to me or God?  I thought so. Well, at least I might be able to show you where God lives.”
    -Sky Schultz
Welcome, to the International Society for Awe, Wonder, Mystery, Gratitude, Love, and Laughter, of which I am the founder and CEO.   I am currently the only member, but you can become a member by just wishing and clicking to do so.  (Actually, we have almost double our membership in the last year…my mother, who has always been very supportive of me has joined…or she is considering joining.)

I remember in graduate school in psychology, my fellow students labeled me “the latent mystic” because I could not quite fit into the standard scientific paradigm.  I am afraid I am not latent anymore.  When I am at my best, I see a mysterious unnameable “Spirit” everywhere prevailing everything.  So this blog is for fellow travelers on this journey to find out what this whole show is about.

I have been a student of religious and spiritual traditions since grade school, so I will try to share the most profound, interesting, and sometimes funny things I have found in my seventy year journey into depth psychology ad  the mystical side traditions like Christianity, Buddhism, Sufism, Judaism.  I love to find and share the commonalities in all these traditions…the perennial philosophy.  This is not a hobby for me.  I collect the practical wisdom, which help people make it through life.  I especially love the poets like Whitman, Rumi, Hafiz, Gibran and I will share their gems with you. But I can’t leave out the wags, humorists with trenchant  insights and contrary opinions; my favorite is Mark Twain.

  By the way, I hope you have noticed, that I can’t seem to write about stuff like this without humor.  Religions and philosophies can go way wrong if they don’t have a good mix of humility, humor and humanity, so the path of the holy fool seems to be one I want to hop along on.  I am a student of the comic arts so I will try to turn you on to the most profound and funniest stuff I have found on my meanderings journey and I would like to hear what you are discovering on your journey.  We are all pretty much alike and simultaneously alone and together so your story has got to have points of contact with mine.