What’s Up
Posted in Entropy on May 14th, 2009The fallen holy man - a concept that recently has attached itself to my imagination.
Why fallen? And to where?
I started thinking about him (or her) a year ago. He appears in a note from my moleskin among a list of potential plots for a radio play (none of which were made). Other contenders were: “Moth Wings and Monster Trees,” “Minor Characters at the Climactic Battle,” “and “The Boy’s Tale.”
The holy man appeared as a woman a few months later when I wrote a play, Freedom Summer, about Casey Hayden. There’s a thread which runs through her life, of losing faith (in any number of things). I’d love to speak with her one day. She’s real! She lives in Arizona and practices Zen.
Chris and I met a holy man in Jackson last January - Reverend Ed King. He taught people about Freedom in the Sixties, and he drove us around in his old Honda while teaching it to us. Sometimes he forgot to use his “preacher voice,” but what is a preacher voice? Or the difference between truth and decency? We drove for nearly five hours.
Then there’s Rumi. Do you know the poet, Rumi? He lived in the 13th Century, around modern-day Afghanistan. He was a sufi - a mystic, a teacher. I was given a book of his poetry by a dear friend in high school and never opened it until a few months ago. Which is astounding considering how well it speaks to the now-me (as opposed to the then-me). Rumi writes about ecstasy, Muhammed, Jesus, wine, sugar cane, but mostly about the Friend. As holy men go, he may not have fallen. Or he realized something about falling.