Air travel, the 12 steps, and Thomas Aquinas.
Air travel over long distances is an exercise in powerlessness. We place ourselves entirely in the hands of strangers, as if we were all passengers in a giant metal womb. While we doze and watch silly in-flight movies our mother the airplane takes a running start and leaps over the Atlantic Ocean. We surrender to her cramped but competant control until she slams down onto the tarmac in this ancient city, the impact of her descent having removed any illusions of her being anything but a hunk of unwieldy machinery.
Believe it or not, I woke up thinking about Thomas Aquinas, except from a "12 Step" perspective. instead of an "Uncaused causer" or an "Uncontingent =-Being-Without-Whom-Contingent-Beings-Could-Not-Exist-But-They-Do-So-Ya-Da-Ya-Da-Ya-Da" I am contemplating "The-One-Who-To-An-Ultimate-Extent-Is-Uncontrolable-By-Us-Or-Anything- Else."
I am not advocating for "God as the uncontroled controler." I don't know how or if God controls anything. I am sticking with the airplane landing and the Step 2 feeling of "Sanity Restored" as we emerge from the Heathrowian birth-canal into bright sunshine and an opportunity to stretch out in our hotel room and take a nap. Is this what we mean by grace?
Or maybe its just jet lag. If the plane had crashed, maybe I could be putting these questions directly to the Source. But then again, that is something over which I have little or no control.
From 2013 holy island pilgrimage.
Believe it or not, I woke up thinking about Thomas Aquinas, except from a "12 Step" perspective. instead of an "Uncaused causer" or an "Uncontingent =-Being-Without-Whom-Contingent-Beings-Could-Not-Exist-But-They-Do-So-Ya-Da-Ya-Da-Ya-Da" I am contemplating "The-One-Who-To-An-Ultimate-Extent-Is-Uncontrolable-By-Us-Or-Anything- Else."
I am not advocating for "God as the uncontroled controler." I don't know how or if God controls anything. I am sticking with the airplane landing and the Step 2 feeling of "Sanity Restored" as we emerge from the Heathrowian birth-canal into bright sunshine and an opportunity to stretch out in our hotel room and take a nap. Is this what we mean by grace?
Or maybe its just jet lag. If the plane had crashed, maybe I could be putting these questions directly to the Source. But then again, that is something over which I have little or no control.
From 2013 holy island pilgrimage.
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