August 21, 2007
Piety
Piety has never been my long suit. At least not the kind once said of a 19th-century prelate that “makes of religion a tragedy and the movements of one’s muscles a solemn ceremony.” I suppose neither has religion for me ever been an end in itself, rather a means not to be taken too seriously, and a variable one at that, for the occasional attempt to move and shake spirituality’s unmovable and unshakeable freight.
But the Daily Office, a product of religion, is a case in point. If I don’t read it daily, the usual and familiar collage of experience in me comes unglued. I’m not sure what this is about, but something maybe spiritual and bamming around looking for a circuit.
It’s like this. There’s wake-up, surprise and latent gratitude at another new day, ablutions, coffee, slump, especially slump. At this point, when the slump is over, could come any number of things. Dressing. Shaving. The New York Times. The cybermail which is rarely for me and is mostly lists with endless threads about whether Macs or PCs, Albs or Surplices. Then Breakfast, the movable feast. And somewhere in that geriatric olympiad, the Office — and, of course, writing.
The snag comes along about here. Will it be writing or will it be the Office? If the Office has been regular at some point in this mini-saga for the past few days or weeks, writing, with a bit of prompting like staring at a blank screen and fiddling with settings and throwing in a game or two of solitaire, comes along fairly well. If I’ve been an off-again-on-again liturgical slacker for a time, the muse says forget it, Buster. And I come up with something like about right now.
But then, I read the Office and my daily dose of Buechner this morning, and I haven’t read them for two weeks. I’ve been off-line and grousing, instead, grousing over the way internet service providers and their damnable Please-Hold-While-We-Entertain-You-With-Another-Of-Our-Endless-Kenny-G-Off-Pitch-Soprano-Saxophone Serenades have their way with me. Interruptions like this get me out of the habit when the habit is what I need most. And, of course, I should remember that if you play more than one note on a soprano saxophone, the second or third one will more than likely be out of tune, anyway.
No Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
| TrackBack URI
You can also bookmark
this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos