Thursday, September 17, 2009

Fractured Life


Yesterday one of my professors, new to me this year, asked me, "Are you the woman who lost her son last year?" And then he said, "In the face of such loss, it is so difficult, impossible, for those of us who are pastors to know what to say."

"That's because there is nothing that you can say," I responded. "Silence is better than whatever painful and inadequate words you have."

I realize that it sound as if I have changed my tune. But I don't mean that ignoring a loss is better than not; I mean that some things can be honored only in the silence.

Even, or finally, by me.

Also yesterday, one of my friends told me that last year in one of his classes, another classmate said that he thought that death by suicide was a matter of laziness.

I suppose that in such a situation I would have things to say. I suppose that by the time I finished saying them, I would no longer be contemplating a future in ministry.

I used to say that I was one of those who experienced God more in God's absence than presence.

But this absence is so vast, this void so immense . . .

Some would say that God seems absent because God invisibly fills the wild dark void.

Perhaps.

One of my best friends told me tonight that he cannot imagine me, after the past year, engaged in any form of traditional church ministry.

That would seem to me to be the case.

I walked six miles today. I think sometimes that I must be trying to walk to Pluto, or to another galaxy entirely, in the hope that from there I would have the perspective needed to see ~ what, exactly?

In my dreams we talk and talk, but I know that I am alive and he is dead.

For a long time, my idea of the afterlife was that it was where we would find things out. Why did the dinosaurs go extinct? How far does the universe extend? Do we have company on other planets somewhere? What is a black hole, exactly? Death as encyclopedia.

We used to take our children to Florida every year, and late on each last night, I would go out to the beach to say good-bye to the ocean. I would wade into the water and marvel at how black it was at night. The waves would roll in and recede, just as they did in the daylight, and sometimes the path of the moon shimmered across the sea. But the water swirling around my feet was always enigmatically opaque.

The silence is vast and empty, the gravitational pull of a black hole prevents the escape of light, and the sea is dark.

That is my report.

8 comments:

Gberger said...

"Yes" to all that you said. Thank you for saying it.

Mike Farley said...

Praying for you, GG, always. Truly.

Daisy said...

"I mean that some things can be honored only in the silence."

Yes. We attempt to stand beside you, on that beach, those of us who come here.

Mich

August said...

I haven't commented before - but I've been reading and finding inspiration from your blog for sometime. As a person who's (sort of, kind of, i like to think not that seriously, really...) contemplated suicide, I have to tell you that your writing has given me pause. It's a very, very good thing. Thank you.

Jennifer said...

Thank you for the guidance you always provide. We will stand beside you, silently, with full hearts.

Lori said...

Yeah, I don't think traditional ministry will be your path. But I believe there will be another call for you.

I had the same questions for the afterlife, but somewhere along the way I started thinking that by then we probably won't care to know any more.

I now find thinking of existence in a 4th dimensional world as a 3 dimensional creature to be strangely comforting.

Still praying alongside and for you GG.

Rev SS said...

Yes thanks for sharing yet another meaningful "report" I agree: no traditional church ministry ... and Mich said it well: we attempt to stand beeside you on that beach

christine said...

touching through words--feeling your heart. you are dear.

you are treasured.