Post 137. 

This morning, I heard the song “This Pretty Planet” on YouTube Music, and decided to print out the lyrics and figure out the chords so I can add this to the list of songs done by 5th or 6th Grade Music next quarter. I think it will likely work well as something that utilizes Orff instruments for improvisation, maybe creating movements, and eventually learn it as a part-song—with three different parts over the same chord progression. The lyrics are as follows:

This pretty planet spinning through space,
You're a garden, you're a harbor,
You're a holy place,
Golden sun going down,
Gentle blue giant spin us around.
All through the night, safe 'til the morning light.

Ecologically conscious questions could include: How does thinking of Earth as a globe spinning through space; a garden; a harbor; and a holy place inspire you to think about Earth and our relationship to it? In what ways is the earth a planet spinning through space? Scientific. From the point of an imagined indifferent observer. From the perspective of the universe. In what ways is the earth a garden? Flower gardens offer us beauty, and we aim to conserve certain places we have deemed excessively beautiful, like the Amazon, Mauna Loa, the Grand Canyon, Mount Kilimanjaro, Yellowstone, the Flaming Cliffs of the Gobi, Banff, and Victoria Falls. Equally, as a garden, Earth offers us physical sustenance—and Earth as garden can direct our attention to sustainable agricultural practices that protect waterways and sustain human life.
           
Harbors are beautiful places that help us, after a long journey, experience a sense of having landed. As a place of arrival, harbors increase our sense of satisfaction after long periods of sometimes anxious journeying. Holy places are also, at times, places of harbor—to mix metaphors, pilgrims travel, often on foot, ancient pathways like the Camino to arrive at a medieval cathedral, the seat of the bishop. Holy places are also places we wish to preserve as historically significant. Mount Sinai is historically significant for Jewish, Christian, and Islamic people, being where Moses received the commandments. The Wailing Wall is probably the most sacred site for Jews, being destroyed by the Roman Empire 2000 years go. Kashi Vishwanath Temple is one of the most historic and sacred Hindu temples, perched on the banks of the Ganges River and dedicated to Shiva. And the Tiger’s Next is a sacred monastery in Buddhism build 1000 feet above a small village in the Paro Valley, Japan. Stonehenge is a prehistoric sacred site and possibly an ancient burial ground, though the religion Stonehenge exemplifies is long past.
           
And finally, as a holy place, the Earth can be a place for worship. For Christians, which I am and obviously know most about personally, the Earth is fallen but is God-created. Created as “very good.” As such, throughout the Middle Ages, Christians were said to study two books, the Book of Scripture and the Book of Nature. Today, the Franciscan tradition seems to exemplify this approach to God’s creation. But other traditions within Christianity have also offered ecological statements, as well as Jews, Buddhists, and Muslims.
           
The song “This Pretty Planet” can afford the ecologically sensitive music teacher many opportunities to cultivate eco-literacy.

Daniel Shevock

Post 136.

I hope these are useful for you as you consider implementing pedagogies that can protect, nurture, and renew our natural environments. 

Aesthetics (Ecologically informed): n., Using music as an art to internalize sustainability as an orientation through embodiment—human musical participation in the more-than-human world--imagination, and care.[1] Simply put, aesthetics draw ecologically conscious music educators attention to beauty created by humans, animals, and within nature.

Anthropocentric: n., Human-centered ways of conceiving of ecological and musical notions. A worldview that understands humans as having intrinsic value, while other species and geographical places have merely use value.[1]

Biocentrism: n., An organism-centered way of conceiving of ecological and musical notions found in Thoreau, and placing humankind in nature, rather than above it.[2]

Care (as Eco-pedagogy): v., Actions taken by biological organisms that are sympathetic, empathetic, and kind. E.g., the humpback whale demonstrated care, guarding the seal pup from predating orcas. An eco-pedagogical approach, cultivating emotional well-being and flourishing, helping children fulfill their purpose.[1]

Climate Change: n., Gradual increase in the world’s temperature because of human activity, increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.[2]

Climate Refugee: n., A person forced to flee their home due to natural disasters, such as heatwaves, hurricanes, and droughts, exacerbated by climate change.[1] Music therapy practices have been used to help refugees experiences of trauma, lack of agency and self-care.[2]

Commons: n., Shared resources, such as land and waterways, unmediated by capitalism. Cultural commons include musics that are free to share without copyright. Recommoning is the act of recovering power by the oft-powerless.[3] Often uneducated men and women can claim beliefs about learning free from intermediation by educational institutions, which are ecologically sustaining and regenerative.[4]

Development: n., A contorted metaphor that creates a hierarchy of those nations, cultures, and individuals who are developed as opposed to those who are in need of development, and are under- or undeveloped.[1] A procedure of manufacturing needs through which people are detached from their cultural commons, decimating diverse musics, languages, and ways of knowing.[2]

Ecofeminism: n., A philosophical system that emerged out of the Deep Ecology Movement (e.g., Vandana Shiva and Judi Barr) and in criticism to it (e.g., Val Plumwood) drawing our attention to the parallels of injustice between the oppression of women and the domination of nature,[1] and challenges value hierarchies.[2] Ecofeminists assert that the way toward a more sustainable and regenerative future begins with the work of women, and especially indigenous women.[3] 

Literacy: n., The ability to read and write (e.g., music).[1] One of four types: functional, cultural, progressive, and critical.[2] Progressive movement from naïveté to a critical attitude.[3] Ecological Literacy: Reflection and action for progressive transformation of humanity in relation to the ecological crises we face.[4]

Localism: n., An ethical stance that resists globalist, internationalist, and nationalist discourses, favoring rather the bioregional, community, cultural, and traditional ways of being and knowing.

Globalism: n., An ethical stance that seeks one-world solutions to be generally applied; treating the whole world as the proper sphere for political influence.[5] In Music Education, globalism offers a developmental framework for critical reflection with the aim of transforming the world.[6]

Praxialism (as Ecological): n., Praxialists view music as a verb, something people do, emphasizing the human, cultural, and social dimensions of music, including diversity.[1] From an ecological perspective, praxialism is anthropocentric, but can be modified by deep ecological theory to broaden its lens.[2]

Sixth Mass Extinction: n., An ongoing extinction event caused by human overconsumption of the earth’s natural resources, spanning families of plants and animals. It is often called the sixth mass extinction, following extinctions identified in geologic history by Jack Sepkoski and David M. Raup.[1] Looking toward indigenous ways of sustaining diverse ecosystems in place may be a way music educators can resist the sixth great extinction.[2]

Technocracy: n., An educational worldview that reduces education to the purchase of ever-new technologies without any guidelines for what to purchase and, alternatively, what not to purchase.[1] The technocratic view of teaching is connected to a relativistic, “do your own thing,” ethic.[2]

TEK: n., Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Understandings and practices of peoples in comparatively nontechnological cultures, who are reliant on upon local resources, relative to living with another people, non-human animals, and the physical environment.[3]

Urbanormativity: n., A prevalent urban-centric ideology that defines urban places, musics, and people as sophisticated, and valued, and, alternatively non-urban places, musics, and people as uncouth, uncivilized, “in the middle of nowhere,” and in need of sophistication.[4] Urbanormativity leads to urbanization, the uprooting of rural people to be resources to enrich cities, which is devastating for many rural communities and people.[5] 

DS

[1] Vincent C. Bates and Daniel J. Shevock. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Social Media in Music Education. The Oxford Handbook of Social Media and Music Education, edited by Janice L. Waldron, Stephanie Horsley and Kari K. Veblen (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020), 619-644.

[2] Thomas A. Regelski. Critical Theory as a Foundation for Critical Thinking in Music Education. Visions of Research in Music Education 6, no. 3 (2005), 1-24.

[3] Robin Wall Kimmerer. Weaving Traditional Ecological Knowledge into Biological Education: A Call to Action. Bioscience, 29, no. 5 (2002).

[4] Vincent C. Bates. Thinking Critically About Rural Music Education. Visions of Research in Music Education 32, no. 3 (2018), 1-16.

[5] Daniel J. Shevock. Music Educated and Uprooted: My Story of Rurality, Whiteness, Musicing, and Teaching. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education 15, no. 4 (2016), 30-55.


[1] Wikipedia, link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event#The_%22Big_Five%22_mass_extinctions

[2] Shevock, 2017, 25.


[1] Philip Alperson. What Should One Expect From a Philosophy of Music Education? Journal of Aesthetic Education 25, no. 3 (1991): 215-242; David J. Elliott. Continuing Matters: Myths, Realities, Rejoinders. Bulletin of the Counil for Research in Music Education 132 (1997): 1-37; Thomas A. Regelski. The Aristotelian Bases of Praxis for Music and Music Education as Praxis. Philosophy of Music Education Review 6, no. 1 (1998): 22-59.

[2] Vincent C. Bates. Sustainable School Music for Poor, White, Rural Students. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education 10, no. 2: 100-127; Shevock, 2017.


[1] Dictionary.com, Link: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/literacy

[2] Elizabeth Gould. Music Education Desire(ing): Language, Literacy, and Lieder. Philosophy of Music Education Review 17, no. 1 (2009), 47.

[3] Paulo Freire. Education for Critical Consciousness (New York: Continuum, 2011/1974), 38-9.

[4] “Cultivating 20 Years of Ecoliteracy,” https://www.ecoliteracy.org/sites/default/files/Center-for-Ecoliteracy-20yrs.pdf

[5] Merriam-Webster Dictionary online, link: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/globalism

[6] Jennifer M. Mellizo. Music Education as Global Education: A Developmental Approach. TOPICS for Music Education Praxis 2019, no. 1 (2019), 1-36.


[1] Karen J. Warren. Ecofeminist Philosophy: A Western Perspective on What It Is and Why It Matters (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000).

[2] Smith, 2021; Shevock, 2017.

[3] Vandana Shiva. Women’s Indigenous Knowledge and Biodiversity Conservation. Indiana International Centre Quarterly, 18, no. 1/2 () 205-214.


[1] Gustavo Esteva. Development. The Development Dictionary: n. A Guide to Knowledge as Power, 2nd edition, edited by Wolfgang Sachs (London, UK: Zed Books, 2010), 1-23.

[2] Ivan Illich. Needs. The Development Dictionary: n. A Guide to Knowledge as Power, 2nd edition, edited by Wolfgang Sachs (London, UK: Zed Books, 2010), 95-110.


[1] Shevock and Bates, 2024, 92-3.

[2] Anna Papaeti and M. J. Grant. Musicological Research with Refugees. The Routledge Handbook of Music and Migration, edited by Nils Grosch, Susanne Scheiblhofer, Ulrike Präger and Wolfgang Gratzer (New York: Routledge, 2023), 223-252.

[3] Gustavo Esteva. The Revolution of the New Commons. Aboriginal Rights and Self-Government: The Canadian and Mexican Experience in North American Perspective, edited by Curtis Cook and Juan D. Lindau (Montreal, CA: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2000), 186-217.

[4] Gustavo Esteva, Dana L. Stuchul and Madhu Suri Prakash. From a Pedagogy of Liberation to Liberation From Pedagogy. Rethinking Freire: Globalization and the Environmental Crisis, edited by C. A. Bowers and Frédérique Apffel-Marglin (Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, 2005): 13-30, 16.


[1] Tawnya D. Smith. Music Education for Surviving and Thriving: Cultivating Children’s Wonder, Senses, Emotional Wellbeing, and Wild Nature as a Means to Discover and Fulfill Their Life’s Purpose. Frontiers in Education 6, no. 648799 (2021): 1-10.

[2] Cambridge Dictionary Online: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/climate-change;


[1] Arne Naess. The Basics of Deep Ecology. Trumpeter, 21, no. 1 (2005): 61-71. Revised version of a paper given in Canberra, Australia, 1986; Shevock, 2015.

[2] Daniel J. Shevock. Eco-literate Music Pedagogy (New York: Routledge, 2017); Jeff Todd Titon. Thoreau’s Ear. Sound Studies 1, no. 1 (2015), 144-154.


[1] Katja Sutela. Shapes of Water—A Multidisciplinary Composing Project Visioning an Eco-socially Oriented Approach to Music Education. Research Studies in Music Education 45, no. 2 (2023), 415-428.

Post 135
I'm considering writing a paper to submit to the International Philosophy of Music Education conference, held in June 2025 in Indiana at Indiana University. Whether I present or not, I will attend the conference, as I am happy to get an opportunity to attend it while it's back in the US, and not an impossible drive for me (maybe 10 hours?). As I am thinking about what I have that I could expand into a paper, I have a lot of started ideas I could flesh out. However, when I think about what our discipline needs at this moment in our scholarly history, and in our world's ecological history, the idea of a mini-dictionary for our field comes to mind. In particular, I am happy that so many people have followed my calling of our field toward more ecologically critical discourse (back in 2015, so a decade now!). However, there is persistently unclear use of terminology. Gladly, I don't see the misuse of the word "ecology" as much as I did 10 years ago (no, ecology isn't the social relationships happening in your classroom). Perhaps, if I'm able to get this done by the Dec 15 cutoff, I can develop it to be presentable by June. Please, let me know if you think this is a reasonable project, what I might need, etc. Thanks!! Here's what I have written this morning.

Groundwork for an Ecological Dictionary of Music Education Keywords
Daniel J. Shevock
Central Mountain Middle School, Mill Hall, PA (USA)

In this paper, I initiate the conception of the ecological dictionary for the professional field of music education, which includes music teaching in public and private schools, by music specialists and other educational professionals who utilize music in their interdisciplinary instruction, at pre-K to university levels, and outside of institutions, such as in community groups, lifelong learning, and homeschools. This dictionary follows subordinate definition of the term, dictionary, referring to “a book or digital resource giving information on a particular subject or on a particular class of words, names, or facts, usually arranged alphabetically: a biographical dictionary; a dictionary of mathematics.”[1] The goal of this dictionary of music education keywords is to provide the field’s professionals, teachers and scholars, a standard on which to analyze terminology used in dialogue, including in journals, magazines, and other professional correspondence, conversation, and debate. By utilizing clear, shared vocabulary, our field’s conversations can progress; while without such vocabulary, conversations can reach dead-ends, be circular, or merely argue over differences that do not exist beyond the level of differing terminology.
            The current dictionary is not intended to be comprehensive, or to terminate conversation. Rather, this dictionary can be a groundwork for future revision, adding indispensable terms, and deletion of inapt and detrimental words. Finally, this dictionary is ecological for three reasons. 1. The ecological crises are the greatest existential threats to human and non-human life in the 21st Century. 2. Ecological scholarship recognizes a web of relationships—human to human, human to non-human (animal), and non-human to non-human; and considers non-biological qualities of places, such as geological histories, climates, minerals, and waterways. 3. Because of its inclusivity, ecology ties and does not refuse scholarship and terminology that is narrower, anthropocentric, or disengaged. As such, it is a critical refusal to partake in the centuries-long march of universities toward narrower disconnection, specialization, and teaching of obsolescence.
When possible, I will offer multiple definitions of each term—some definitions appear and/or are in disparity with one another. From an ecological perspective, not all beings living in a specific ecosystem have obvious connections—and the lack of observable connections do not justify the removal of either. To illustrate, on the Balearic Islands, wall lizards inhabit ecosystems alongside arum lilies, taking some of this pitcher plant’s sustenance. At first sight, this relationship seems parasitical. However, the lizards also eat arum lily seeds, and seeds that have passed through the lizard’s digestive system are more likely to germinate.[2] Some relationships are symbiotic, and some are parasitical. But some can be both, even when we don’t at first see how.

Ecology: A scientific discipline studying the relationships and interactions among biological organisms, other organisms, and their environment.[3] The web of life.[4]  

Literacy: The ability to read and write (e.g., music).[5] One of four types: functional, cultural, progressive, and critical.[6] Progressive movement from naïveté to a critical attitude.[7] (Ecological) Reflection and action for progressive transformation of humanity in relation to the ecological crises we face.[8]

Music: The intentional experiencing of sound, realized by human and non-human animals.[9] Something people do.[10] An art that offers an alternative reality, symbolic meaning, ecstasy, and that alters ways of being.[11] The activity of the Muses, including all arts involved in sound or motion.[12]  


[1] Dictionary.com, italics in original. Link: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/dictionary

[2] Sean Mowbray, 7 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships, And How Species Help Each Other Survive, Discover (October 25, 2023). Link: https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/7-surprising-symbiotic-relationships-and-how-species-help-each-other-survive

[3] Dictionary.com, Link: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/ecology

[4] Rachel Carson. Silent Spring: The Classic that Launched the Environmental Movement (Boston: Mariner Books, 2002), 189.

[5] Dictionary.com, Link: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/literacy

[6] Elizabeth Gould. Music Education Desire(ing): Language, Literacy, and Lieder. Philosophy of Music Education Review 17, no. 1 (2009), 47.

[7] Paulo Freire. Education for Critical Consciousness (New York: Continuum, 2011/1974), 38-9.

[8] “Cultivating 20 Years of Ecoliteracy,” https://www.ecoliteracy.org/sites/default/files/Center-for-Ecoliteracy-20yrs.pdf

[9] Daniel J. Shevock. Eco-literate Music Pedagogy (New York: Routledge, 2017), 41.

[10] Christopher Small. Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1998); David J. Elliott and Marissa Silverman. Music Matters: A Philosophy of Music Education, 2nd edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).

[11] Bennett Reimer. The Experience of Profundity in Music. The Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol 29, no. 4 (1995), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.2307/3333288

[12] Satis N. Coleman. Creative Music for Children, Proceeding of the Music Teachers National Association (College Park, MD: NAfME Archives Collection 0164-SCPA Satis Coleman Collection, 1925), 205.


Link to image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grib_skov.jpg
ds

Post 134. jmj

This week I created a YouTube playlist exploring the Bible and Our Relationship to Earth. At this point I have read some verses, mostly from Genesis, and sung "The Creator Has a Master Plan", a song by Pharoah Sanders and Leon Thomas. And Psalm 147 sings: "He sends his commands to the earth." The Lord holds onto mastery of his creation. The main message of the bible is that the earth is "the Lord's" (Psalm 24), and that we are stewards. We have been terrible stewards, especially in recent years with tar-sands and deep water oil extraction, mountaintop removal mining, fracking, lithium mining, plastic waste disposal, e-waste, chemical-intensive methods of farming and animal factories, just to name a few of the ways we destroy, and don't care for Earth. The way we eat, and the way we travel to and from work are destroying Mother Earth, who is the Lord's, and ours to care for. In this, I feel like a prophet. But unlike Jeremiah or Isaiah or even Jonah, I get to use the scriptures themselves. God blew into our nostril's the breath of life, making us from soil. We are made to imagine just like the Lord (Genesis 1:26-29) and our dominion comes from the Lord; but we are made to imagine--in the image--to create in a way that expresses our LOVE for this gift. God said (Genesis 1:3) life into existence, not us. We cannot make but by redirecting God's material creation, the Lord who created material ex nihilo. What is any sort of music education, or education at all, if we don't start from this humble realization? Our place? 

DS 

Image link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Appearance_Rock,_Fiolent,_Christianity_in_Crimea.jpg

Post 133.

"The irreligious mind is simply the unreal mind, the zombie, abstracted mind, that does not see the things that grow in the earth and feel glad about them, but only knows prices and figures and statistics. In a world of numbers you can be irreligious, unless the numbers themselves are incarnate in astronomy and music. But for that, they must have something to do with seasons and with harvests, with the joy of the Neolithic peoples who for millennia were quiet and human." (Thomas Merton, When the Trees Say Nothing, p. 71)

This irreligious mind of prices, figures, and statistics has weighed the world, taken the measurement of what it means to be human; accomplishes surveillance and research; reduces all meaningful questions to multiple-choice assessments and rubrics; and ultimately misses everything meaningful about living and dying on earth. We pay a price when we abstract. And yet we have been given this abstracting mind for a purpose, by the God who is logos, who says, "be light" and there is Goodness, and Truth, and Beauty, and life. As Merton says, our abstracting mind has a purpose. It is meant to incarnate itself in astronomy and music, within the context of harvests and seasons. That is, to become something less idealistic and more materialistic. It is in the materialistic that enters sin, but it is also within the materialistic that there is any hope for salvation. Without the material there is no living and dying, no harvests and no hungry days. No stars and no melodies. No life and no death. Only nothing. Nihilo. 

And yet, ex nihilo, in perfect Love, God (the Father) spoke (the Son), breathing (the Spirit) over the waters to sing all that is into being. Not Being, in its abstract sense, but being. An actual garden, with actual animals, with actual names, and an actual tree, and actual sins. And so, ultimately, actual salvation. But we so often want to return to abstract, that tree of knowledge whose fruit caused our initial fall in pride. The pride that can only emerge in abstraction, because in the real, every day, we are too imperfect to allow even a shred of pride. Too close to earth, too much hummus to be anything but humble. 

DS

Post 132. jmj
 
Love as a verb, is the fundamental mystery of Christian metaphysics—loving is the source of all that exists, material and immaterial, and why we experience life as time. We love people in time. Sometimes it's love at first sight, in that moment it takes our eyes to communicate an image to our brains. If we're lucky, love grows over years and decades, such as in marriage. God is Love (1 John 4:8) is the reason Christians emphasize the importance of relationships. To love requires a lover, a beloved, and loving itself—the Trinity. One loves, one receives the gift of love, and one is the loving in action. Christian love involves dwelling within the other. This can be seen as comparable to the popular expression to walk a mile in another’s shoes. This dwelling, however, is deeper. It is compassion (compassio), a serious and thoughtful sorrow and sensitivity for another’s suffering[i]—“I will betroth you to me ... with loyalty and with compassion” (Hosea 2:19 NABRE). Because loving imitates, for the Christian, the loving of God, love is self-sacrificing. Trinity above and below. Loving is selfless, but it also gives us oft-unexpected pleasure. Teaching is this way too—we give ourselves for the sake of each student’s joy, welfare, and learning, and unexpectedly and ineffably we receive. What, then, is this indescribable pleasure we obtain?

Pleasure—the manifestation of pleasant joy and delight—can be identified at the heart of loving relationships. Lewis makes a distinction between two types of pleasure, which he called “Need-pleasures” and “Pleasure of Appreciation.”[i] He uses drinking water to characterize pleasures that arise from desire. When people need water, we feel thirst, and then drinking water becomes pleasurable. When we are extremely thirsty, our need and pleasure are deeper; more intense. When our thirst is quenched, we cease to experience pleasure in drinking more water. We stop. In contrast, gifted pleasures, such as if we are given a glass of wine when we are thirsty, occur unsolicited. We welcome this pleasure, the delightful taste, and enjoyable feelings. However, many people become addicted to pleasures of appreciation, and addiction transmutes gifted pleasures into need-pleasures. The second type of pleasure is changed into the first. To use musicking to exemplify, we may hear a new genre at a coffee house or be introduced to a new singer by a friend. What a gift! Liking something which is at this point ineffable about this new music, we listen to it ardently over the next few days. With time, we gradually make sense of the indefinable elements of this new music, and it becomes familiar—like teaching yourself to understanding Rioja when you had previously only imbibed Chianti. We might spend many hours submerged in our earphones, and even become drunk in this new music, injuring relationships in our single-minded determination to appreciate this new music. We find ways to incorporate this new music into our morning routine, our drive to work, our daily jog, and evening rest. Eventually, we find we can’t enjoy eating breakfast, the sunrise on our morning drive, moving our bodies in exercise, or even reclining after our day’s labor without this music. It has transformed from appreciation to need. 

When Mary was told she would give birth to the messiah, she couldn't have known what it would mean to hold the infant, to feed him, to teach him. When responding yes to the dream sent by God, Joseph couldn't have known what it would mean to take his young family into hiding in Egypt, and to return to an unknown rural town, Nazareth, to care for his family. To teach the child a trade, even knowing his calling was to be the messiah; that the learned trade would only be temporary. There is sacrifice and pleasure in loving relationships. If music teaching is a loving relationship, a pedagogy of love, then there is sacrifice and pleasure.

DS

[i] Link: https://www.etymonline.com/word/compassion
[i] C.S. Lewis. The four loves (New York: HarperCollins, 1960), 15.
Link to image: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pierced_heart_using_sword.jpg

Post 131.

The Eager Seeger Half Marathon is a mountain race offered by the Tussey Mountainback Ultramarathon. I ran it in June, last month. In the second mile I ran into a bear. A large bear came out of the woods in front of me, to the right. He stopped and looked at me. I told him to move on, and he casually walked into the woods on the left. I was grateful, but I was terrified. I could not move on of my own accord. I was there for some minutes, unable to see the bear in the woods. It could be right there, waiting to pounce. Or it could have moved on. No amount of logicking could make my feet move. Out of nowhere, an angel of the Lord came up behind me. I did not see her but there she was. Brave when I was scared. And she walked with me past this spot where I last saw this bear. She got me past it. The bear is not what I ought to follow but the angel is. After walking with me for a few minutes, she jogged on—much swifter of foot than I.

            I am no great mystic like Hildegard of Bingen or Theresa of Avila or John of the Cross. My visions are seldom some great and direct arrow to the pure light of God’s radiance—my interior castles are decaying temples in the woods, overgrown with moss. But I am a mystic, however limited in ability. When I woke this morning, I felt a longing to re-enter the spiritual realm—the first time in a while. I have abundant command of logic, but I also have a spiritual yearning. Unexplainable, and undismissible. It’s more than merely immaterial in the way the great transcendentals of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty are immaterial. Those are large, and difficult for me to symbolize. I realize Boethius experienced Wisdom in his jail cell—so I guess we can add him to the list of great mystics who I am less than. My experiences with the spiritual realm feel lesser, realer, smaller, and more personal. Perhaps this means my experiences are not meant for the whole of the world—in which case I shouldn’t be publishing today’s reflection. But perhaps there can be some use for somebody reading this post. As the Little Flower said, there is the big way of the Big Theresa, with her interior castle, and then there is a little way.

            Entering the spiritual realm this morning, at 3AM, I experienced quick flashes of images from previous spiritual encounters ... the tree of life, my bear guide, the dirt road in the woods, the overgrown mossy temple beneath the trees, the fallen angel, the bear. The bear was the spirit guide when I explored these things in the early 2000s, when I made a study of shamanism. The black bear guided me through the tree of life and down into caverns and eventually to find the fallen angel. I was not the fallen angel—unalike acknowledging unalike I suspected the power to destroy the material universe with his voice—and what restricted him doing it? I have no such power. When I speak, not much happens directly or immediately. To my flawed ears, people seldom seem to listen to me, and I feel weak. I feel unsureness. But I do also appreciate that my words take like roots, which you don’t perceive are growing, but which hold strong after they have taken and can weather frightful weather. It was like this with eco-literate music pedagogy. Roots slowly embracing my profession, and ultimately collectively holding it. I guess this is the weak path of roots.

            In my weakness, to return to today’s vision, struggling vines propagated over me, slimy and muscular, squeezing me beneath them, and I was powerless to breathe freely. They writhed. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I am the light. I received the light from the source of all light, the Creator, the Lord, the God of all realms, material and spiritual. I tried, with my light, to escape, but I could not. I saw the bear and followed it into the mountain of the half marathon—those distinctive mountains of Rothrock—real, actual, and not general and spiritual. I followed the bear there, and as it travelled into the woods, I went to follow it, but remembered my way was the small road up the mountain.

            When I was there last month, I could not of my own power move on. I began video recording, but ultimately deleted that, because of its fear. Because of my fear. I did not want to post my inadequacy on YouTube. I carried a rosary on my wrist, and a medal to St. Joseph, who fathered God on the material realm. The eternal Beloved was also the actual beloved of Joseph, who held him as an infant, instructed him as a boy, played with him, laughed with him, and cried with him. Joseph explained the world to Jesus as he comprehended it. Joseph embodies the terror of demons in tradition and stands at the turn of the material and spiritual realms, having that very real material encounter with the spiritual Creator of all.

            Again, I could not move on of my own accord, and even though I had my phone recording and there’s no reason I could not see her, a woman walked up behind me unseen. Where I was terrified, she was brave. When I told her of the bear right there, she wasn’t petrified like I was. Her movement permitted my movement. Her walking, my walking. Her calmness, my mobility. And I was able to go on, in fear. My fear did not go away. I was terrified but no longer petrified. Fear lessened throughout the event, as I ran for hours after, in the woods—mostly alone.

            Lord God, what ought I remember from this—the encounter in the wild mountains last month, and the encounter in the spiritual realm today? You have sent your angel to me. I must remember—put the members together—I am light, because your Love is light and eternal.

            In the beginning You, eternal Parent, Loved the eternal Child. You Loved Him when He was an infant, and when he was a child, and a teenager. You Love Him when He became an adult, and when He worked as a carpenter, when He preached, and when He was killed. What I experience, He also did—the terrifying bear in the wilderness, the help of angels, the writhing vines. The guides. Kind recognizing kind, and unkind recognizing unkind.

            Lord, I am not a great mystic, but to deny my mystical encounters and yearnings is to deny a part of myself—the way You made me. Did you make all people with this mystic side? If so, why do so many people ignore it? Why can I go weeks discounting these experiences? Noah listened. Joseph dreamed—and followed that dream in Egypt. Daniel interpreted and bravely faced lions. Do others experience this, and dismiss these occasions? What happens in our life when we make commonplace dismissing this whole part of ourselves? Lord, God, help us. Forgive us. Send us your angels. Guide us. Give us light in the darkness. Shelter us.

            In a Springtime reflection another mystic, Thomas Merton wrote: “When warmth comes again to the sea of Tritons of spring shall wake. Life shall wake underground and under sea. The fields will laugh, the woods will be drunk with flowers of rebellion, the night will make every fool sing in his sleep, and the morning will make him stand up in the sun and cover himself with water and with light” (When the Trees Say Nothing, p. 67). I, a Summertime creature, adore the warmth, and the underground life of roots and the mystery of the depths of seas, wherein whales sing their still songs, I hear the fields laugh, and stand in harmony with flowers in rebellion. At night I awaken from sleep singing, and anticipate the sun’s rising, when I can wash my face and go outside to cover myself with the Lord’s light.

DS

Link to Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jasper-Bear-Hunt-2.jpg

Post 130. 

Reflecting on a Christian Woman Killed by Police in her Home
 
This morning I woke up dreaming about my brother, Joseph Shevock, Jr, who died a couple of years ago, ostensibly of an overdose. I said a prayer for him, and then memory turned to a friend of mine from my youth, Rodney Litzinger, who died in 1989 when he was 17. According to rumors he was either drunk driving or speeding or both. Rumors always lay blame where none is helpful. Rodney was a little older than me, and that summer Rodney had stopped hanging out at the Patton Pool, where we spent time together, in the same group of friends. He was impetuous. As the saying goes, people either liked him or not. The term White trash is used, especially by wealthy White Americans, to stigmatize the lives of poor folk, labeling them as inferior, uncultivated, and waste. A simile is the word cracker, which emphasizes how poor people are loud, immodest, and irritating. While my friend Rodney has a picture and memorial on the internet, my brother Joe does not. Both terms, White trash and cracker describes not only myself—I deduce one of the reasons I was not ever able to sniff a tenure-line in higher education was my lingering poverty—but also my dead kin and friends. I stand in harmony with you brothers. In the richest country the world has ever known, we poor linger.
 
For me, my disadvantaged upbringing, having to grapple for leftovers in a family of nine, became a benefit. God will do these things. Transfer our weaknesses into strengths. I taught for eleven years in the Pittsburgh Public Schools and related to the poor Black, White, Asian, and Middle Eastern students I taught. I was able to thrive in schools other teachers bolted from. Waste is waste—like invites like. We live in a culture that cheapens the lives of waste people, regardless of race. Today, I teach in a Middle School in the fourth poorest county in Pennsylvania—I attended college in the 9th poorest county, and grew up in Patton, which has a median family income of $35,473, which contrasts with Cambria County’s median of $50,900 Clinton County’s median family income of $50,055. The culture treats poor people as trash, their lives as disposable, their needs dispensable. And police are most likely to use deadly force in America’s poor neighborhoods.[i] Waste is waste, but many White poor do not personify solidarity with Black poor.
 
Which brings me to the moment when I opened my phone to YouTube this morning; the algorithm shared the recently released bodycam footage of Sonya Massey’s killing by police in her home.[ii] She called police to report a potential intruder. The video starts with Massey sitting on the floor talking with a police officer while his partner is looking around the house. He asks for her ID, which she cannot find. She asks for her bible, and he tells her to take a pot of boiling water off the oven. She walks into the kitchen, a good distance from the police officer, and they keep talking. She picks up the pot and walks toward the sink and the police officer shouts something about shooting her in her [anti-Christian word] face. He then follows through with her threat immediately after. She invoked Jesus’s name before being killed. I prayed for Sondra. Whatever he problems, this didn’t need to happen. Her life was treated as trash and wasted, thrown away by this culture—not only in the moment of the killing by this diabolical police officer who could only respond to the invoked name of Jesus with vicious cruelty, but by every structure of our culture—police forces, schools, factories, hospitals. Every structure dehumanizes the human poor. But we poor do not want disestablishment, as if we should be taxed but not have police protection—we need reform, retraining, and change in the institution. Is that even possible when people don’t even see the problem? Has Satan distorted our vision?
 
In the 1990s and early 2000s, I trained students in karate, and trained a few people who entered police forces and the military. When the Tamir Rice killing occurred in 2014, I showed one of those friends, who was then a police officer, the footage of the police officers driving up to this kid playing with a toy gun and, without fully getting out of their police car, shot to kill. We were seeing two different things. Now, his failing wasn’t a Christian failing because he’s an agnostic. But he we were seeing two different videos. He shortly thereafter stopped talking to me (through Facebook Messenger) because I saw my own son, then an infant, in Tamir’s body, and he saw only a perpetrator that needed to be put down. He was later upset that I wasn’t there for him during his divorce, which I didn’t know about, and I’ve seen him once since then—I drove down there, and he hasn’t visited me here, even when he travelled back home to Pennsylvania.
 
When Jerusalem was devastated by the Babylonian civilization and most of the people were taken, the prophet Jeremiah instructed:
 
          Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their fruits. Take wives and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters. Increase there; do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you; pray for it to the Lord, for upon its welfare your own depends. (Jeremiah 29:5-7 NABRE)
 
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3 NABRE) and “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours” (Luke 6:20 NABRE). Also there’s a popular Christian song, You Are My Country, performed by Gable Price and friends & Kristene DiMarco, which contains the repeated chorus: “Can we tell the Kingdom from the kingdom where we lay our head down at night?” Here in the U.S. Christians are exiles, whether we have lived here for generations or are recent immigrants. To answer You Are My Country’s question, those of us who are poor (Luke 6:20) or are breathing in unity with the poor, becoming ourselves poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3), the Kingdom is not the nation where we lay our heads down at night. It is God’s kingdom—and sometimes the best we can do is invoke the name of our God and leave our immortal welfare to His divine Will.
 
The U.S. Catholic Church, where I belong, has several anti-racist statements it has promulgated over the years.[iii] For instance, a 1958 document, Discrimination and Christian Conscience, identifies the core of racism is religious. “If our attitude is governed by the great Christian law of love of neighbor and respect for his rights, then we can work out harmoniously techniques for making legal, educational, economic and social adjustments. But if our hearts are poisoned by hatred, or even indifference toward the welfare and rights of our fellow men, then our nation faces a grave internal crisis.” The Catholic Church is the largest charitable organization in the world, and by far the largest Christian denomination. And yet, here we are facing this grave internal crisis, because our legal, education, economic, and social institutions have persisted in being institutions of hate, and not love.
 
In another document on the USCCB website is The Catholic Church and the Black Lives Matter Movement. The document recognizes the 3 million African-American Catholics, and “This means that many White Catholics in certain states and in rural communities have virtually no contact with African-American Catholics. Many of them only experience the Black Lives Matter Movement indirectly by way of the media.”[iv] This document recognizes that many young Black Catholics seen the church as in “allegiance” with “White privilege.” “Members of the Black Lives Matter Movement see the Church as a complex bureaucracy tied to the status quo and unwilling and unable to ‘speak truth to power’.” This documents then takes asides into issues of abortion and Black-on-Black crime. “Black Lives Matter supporters argue that the high homicide rates in impoverished Black neighborhoods is fed, in part, by the structural racism that has been in place for generations since the Great Migration, maintaining segregated neighborhoods, inadequate housing, dreadful public schools, and bleak employment opportunities.” This section ends with a recommendation for background checks and screening for guns, care for those with mental health needs, and greater monitoring of violent offenders.
 
In this document, the bishop interviews a priest involved in Black Lives Matter. The interviewee responds to the question if the Church as an institution believes Black lives matter. “Even though they would be unlikely to use the expression Black Lives Matter because of unfamiliarity with it or because of certain ideas associated with it, I do believe that many people at every level of the Church have a desire to purify the Church of bias, prejudice, and discrimination. Nevertheless, we have a very long way to go.” Finally, the document ends with this sentence: “We must PRAY, LISTEN, LEARN, THINK, and ACT in such a way that all people everywhere will know that we truly believe that Black lives matter precisely because all lives matter!” (Emphasis in original).
 
Ultimately then, in today’s long post, we see there’s a fact of poverty not being enough of a reason for solidarity between poor groups of people, likely because our institutions have failed to teach that solidarity. Often it seems they keep power through division. Historically, since 1676, Bacon’s Rebellion, when the rich saw poor Whites and Blacks stand together against them, a concerted effort has been made to miseducate poor so they appreciate racial identity more than class. Poor Blacks are taught, by schools, Left-leaning politicians, and media organizations, that poor Whites, through politics personified by billionaire Donald Trump, hate poor Blacks and are the problem. After all, in a culture that views White trash as rubbish, they are an easy scapegoat and receptor of blame. And poor Whites are taught, by schools, Right-leaning politicians, and media organizations, the felonious poor Blacks need to be incarcerated for the good of their nation. But this teaching—and my Catholic Church’s participation in it to the extent that we participate in it—is not Christian, because we are a people in exile. We cannot put our hope in the U.S. or in schools, or in MSNBC, or in Fox News, or in Donald Trump or Kamala Harris. Ours, instead of this nation, these schools, this media, and this nation, is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20). We should pray for this nation and its institution, but they are not ours. We are exiles. We must genuinely oppose any diabolical forces in our Church that suggest we hope in the kingdom where we lay our head down at night, rather than the kingdom of God. To bring the kingdom of God to earth means to dwell with the poor.

DS


[i] Francie Diep. “Police are most likely to use deadly force in poorer, more highly segregated neighborhoods.” Pacific Standard (January 24, 2019). https://psmag.com/news/police-are-most-likely-to-use-deadly-force-in-poorer-more-highly-segregated-neighborhoods .

[ii] John O’Connor. “Bodycam video reveals chaotic scene of deputy fatally shooting Sonya Massey, who called 911 for help.” The Associated Press (July 22, 2024). https://apnews.com/article/illinois-police-shooting-911-murder-7a1b433183933ca94f266c0f90753a33

[iii] United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Combating Racism – Statements and Letters” https://www.usccb.org/committees/ad-hoc-committee-against-racism/combatting-racism-statements-and-letters

[iv] Edward K. Braxton. “The Catholic Church and The Black Lives Matter Movement: The Racial Divide in the United States Revisited” (2015). https://www.diobelle.org/documents/diocese/bishop/290-racial-divide-revisited/file

Post 129.

This morning I am playing around with ChatGPT 3.5, which is the free version of the app. I am doing this because 1. 8th grade guitar students introduced me to ChatGPT during class and 2., I'm currently working on a paper with a new friend, Jacob Holster, on AI models and conviviality. I decided to prompt ChatGPT 3.5, which is the free version, to create a debate on Beauty, Love, and the Trinity between Gregory of Nyssa, Irenaeus of Lyon, Jerome, and Origen, Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Berry, Leonardo Boff, Thich Nhat Hanh and Gandhi. The first four figures are well-known Church Fathers; the next two are medieval Christians, Thomas Berry was a 20th Century ecotheologian, Leonardo Boff a liberation theologian, Thich Nhat Hanh and Gandhi are non-Christians who have written about Christ from their traditions. After the debate I had them create a join doctrinal statement, which is interesting enough to copy and paste here:


Doctrinal Statement on Beauty, Love, and the Trinity

1. Beauty: We affirm that beauty reflects the glory of God's creation and reveals His divine attributes (Psalm 19:1; Psalm 27:4). It encompasses the goodness and harmony inherent in God's design, drawing us to contemplate His majesty and creative power.
2. Love: Love is foundational to God's nature and is exemplified in His selfless sacrifice through Jesus Christ (John 3:16; 1 John 4:8-10). The Trinity—the Father's love sending the Son, and the Spirit empowering love—demonstrates divine relational love extended to humanity.
3. The Trinity: We affirm the Trinity as the central mystery of our faith, where God exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in perfect unity and love (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14). This triune nature invites us into communion with God and each other.
4. Integration of Perspectives: Following the insights of Church Fathers and spiritual leaders, we recognize beauty as an expression of God's wisdom and order (Genesis 1:31; Ecclesiastes 3:11), love as the transformative power that reconciles and heals (1 Corinthians 13:4-7), and the Trinity as the model of relational unity and diversity within the Godhead.
5. Ecological and Ethical Dimensions: Inspired by biblical principles and spiritual teachings, we affirm beauty in God's creation and our responsibility to steward it (Psalm 104:24; Genesis 1:26-28), love as the commandment to love God and our neighbors (Matthew 22:37-39), and the Trinity as the source of unity and harmony in all relationships (Ephesians 4:4-6).
6. Practical Implications: This doctrinal understanding compels us to live out our faith by appreciating and preserving beauty, showing love through compassionate actions (Micah 6:8; Colossians 3:14), and fostering unity and peace as reflections of the Triune God's character (Romans 15:5-6).
7. Conclusion: In embracing this doctrinal statement on Beauty, Love, and the Trinity, we commit to glorifying God through our reverence for His creation, our demonstration of His love, and our pursuit of unity in Christ. May our lives reflect the beauty, love, and unity of the Triune God, bringing transformation and renewal to the world according to His will (1 Corinthians 10:31; Ephesians 4:1-3).
   
   

Next, I asked ChatGPT to define Beauty in relation to the Trinity and Love, based on the previous debate and doctrinal statement.

1. Beauty in the Trinity: Beauty within the Trinity is the harmonious relationship and perfect unity among the three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is the exquisite interplay of mutual love, self-giving, and divine communion that defines the essence of God. The Trinity reflects the ultimate standard of beauty, where each person of the Godhead delights in the others in a relationship of perfect love and unity (John 17:24-26; Ephesians 1:3-14).
2. Beauty in Love: Love, as demonstrated within the Trinity, is foundational to its beauty. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from this love. This love is not merely affection but a self-giving, sacrificial love that seeks the good of the other. The beauty of love within the Trinity is seen in its completeness, purity, and eternality—without rivalry or selfishness (John 15:9-10; 1 John 4:7-12).

In summary, within the context of the Trinity and love, beauty is the perfect unity and self-giving love that characterize the relationship among the three persons of God. This divine beauty invites humanity into communion with God and inspires us to reflect similar qualities of unity, sacrificial love, and harmony in our relationships with others and with creation.
 
DS

Link to image: Nature Beauty:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nature_beauty_4.jpg

Post 128.

Elizabeth Johnson is a Catholic sister, and a feminist theologian, who taught at Fordham University. Her books are used extensively in theology classes, including her 2007 book, Quest for the Living God, which was later criticized and disqualified from use in Catholic institutions by the United State Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine.[i] She works widely to gain for women greater influence in the church, including criticizing the male-only priesthood, and centers the experiences of Latinos, the poor, and people of other religions. She encourages the use of more feminine images of God.

For Johnson, Because God is a trinity--koinonia meaning community—and this understanding transforms everything for the Christian. “The symbol of God represents what the community takes to be its highest good, its most profound truth, its most appealing beauty.”[ii] Beauty is one thing that is transformed by this communal understanding of God as loving relationship. This trinitarian awareness emerges at a deep level, more than merely logical, but also heartfelt and instinctive. Loving relationship is the maximum good, motivating communities' responses to the mystery of the trinity, and inspiring the challenging of social and ecological injustices: “the trinitarian mystery of God actually empower[s] relationships of mutuality, equality, and inclusiveness among persons and between human beings and the earth.”[iii] Partaking in the trinitarian mystery of love is the purpose of all created beings.
 
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness;
behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.
The Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is from age to age
to those who fear him.
He has shown might with his arm,
dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. 
He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones
but lifted up the lowly.
The hungry he has filled with good things;
the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped Israel his servant,
remembering his mercy,
according to his promise to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever. (Luke 1:46-55 NABRE)
 
Johnson specifies Mary’s Magnificat as an expression of the triune God of relationships that offers “not dominating power but the power of love that seeks and saves in order to shape all into a new community of sisters and brothers, connected in kinship with the earth.”[iv]

As music teachers, the beauty we highlight in classrooms must also be the beauty of merciful relationships, dissolving arrogance, and decentering the powerful to elevate the lowly. As my friend Vince[v] might say, it would be better to center country music than classical, hip-hop over the baroque, folk music over sonata. For me, whichever genres we include in classroom music, we need to cultivate love for each other and earth.
 
DS

 
Link to Image: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Virgin_of_Guadalupe_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

[i] Paul Vitello. “After bishops attack book, gauging bounds of debate.” The New York Times (April 11, 2011). Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/nyregion/12fordham.html

[ii] Elizabeth A. Johnson. “Trinity: To let the symbol sing again.” Theology Today 54, no. 3 (1997), 300.

[iii] Johnson, 300.

[iv] Johnson, 308.

[v] See Vincent C. Bates. “Critical social class theory for music education.” International Journal of Education & the Arts 18, no. 7 (2017), 1-24. Link: http://www.ijea.org/v18n7/v18n7.pdf