I don't want to write about the election results...

Jim's Musings from Paris November 2024

Jardin de la Folie Titon, Paris 11. Photo by James Slowiak.

I don’t want to write about the election results…

At our house on Overwood in Akron, we planted a red leaf maple tree in the front yard. In the back yard, there were something like 28 other kinds of trees. Jairo counted them once. A cherry tree, Kentucky coffee trees, and other maples, not red leaf. Across the street from our Rue Titon apartment in Paris, there are a group of three red leaf maples in the park. They remind us of those cold and colorful autumn days, raking leaves, raking leaves, November elections, and raking more leaves.

But I don’t want to write about the election results…

I came home from my chorus rehearsal on Wednesday night, ate a bowl of the delicious minestrone I had made for dinner the day before, and was suddenly struck by the most violent flu bug I have experienced in a long while. Between frequent trips to the toilet, I lay in bed and my whole body trembled with muscle aches as long, deep, uncontrolled, moans emerged from the depths of my abdomen. It was a purging. Eventually, I slid into a fitful sleep. Twenty-four hours later it was over.

The next day, I read theologian and activist Matthew Fox’s description of a simple grieving ritual, taught to him by a shaman. He suggests beating a drum for 15 minutes while letting unedited sounds come out of your gut. In some way, my body had led me through this ritual on its own. I thought I was feeling better—and then on Thursday night terror and chaos struck the streets of Amsterdam in an antisemitic nightmare that seemed all too familiar for Europe. Where are we? What kind of time warp is this?

But I don’t want to write about the election results…

Matthew Fox continues his meditation for November 8 by quoting a poem. In his introduction to the poem, he mentions medieval Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart (a favorite of Grotowski’s), and his practice of Letting Go and the via negativa. I offer the poem here now, followed by the link to Fox’s complete meditation commentary.

Recently, this wonderful poem came my way written by Leon Wieseltier, from his book, Kaddish and scanned by Meg Wheatley to read as a poem.  It speaks to the practice of Letting Go that Meister Eckhart is so fond of advising, the Via Negativa.  He tells us, “we sink eternally from letting go to letting go into the One.”

Sink, So As To Rise

There are circumstances that must shatter you; 
And if you are not shattered, then you have not understood your circumstances.
In such circumstances, it is a failure for your heart not to break. 
And it is pointless to put up a fight, for a fight will blind you to the opportunity that has been presented by your misfortune. 
Do you wish to persevere pridefully in the old life? 
Of course you do: the old life was a good life. 
But it is no longer available to you. It has been carried away, irreversibly. 
So there is only one thing to be done. 
Transformation must be met with transformation. 
Where there was the old life, let there be the new life. 
Do not persevere. 
Dignify the shock. 
Sink, so as to rise. 

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Read Matthew Fox’s complete meditation here.

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I’m going to take Fox’s advice to practice art as meditation and go now and work on the songs for MéloMen’s 30th anniversary concert…

Tickets available here.

…and begin to plan our Paris Thanksgiving dinner. It will be a time this year to really give thanks for family, friends, love, and well-being. We will celebrate on Sunday, November 24.

I don’t want to write about the election results, but one of the songs that MéloMen is singing in the upcoming concert is “Can We Sing the Darkness to Light?” by Kyle Pederson. Here is a video of the Las Vegas Men’s Chorus singing the same song:

Have we reached the bottom yet? Let’s meet there soon so we can begin the trip back up. Until the next time.