A Conclave of Writers!

I just returned from a great weekend in Huntsville, Ala., where the Alabama Writers’ Conclave  met. The Alabama Writers’ Conclave is one of the oldest writing organizations in the country, and is the body which nominates the state’s poet laureate.  The annual meeting always focuses on providing workshops led by expert faculty for writers who work in all genres of the field. This year we had workshops in fiction, memoir, and poetry. My greatest excitement was that Rabbi Rami Shapiro  was there to lead a workshop session as well as to deliver the keynote address.

I discovered Rabbi Rami a couple of years ago when I noticed his column, “Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler" in Spirituality and Health magazine. I have also recently begun following his blog, Beyond Religion with Rabbi Rami.  I knew he had a sense of humor from reading his blog, but this guy is hilarious! He encouraged us writers to be subversives to the status quo by puncturing the cultural norms that aren’t working by using humor. He gave us examples of what he does on Twitter to send out aphorisms that question some of our status quo assumptions.

Rabbinical wisdom

Rabbi Rami, in his keynote address had us all laughing but also shared some useful wisdom for anyone interested in spirituality and religion. He talked about how in the Jewish tradition, the old biblical stories are seen as just that – stories, not facts or history. This allows those in the rabbinic tradition to discuss and debate many different views of what a story means. He used the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden as an example. He shared many different ways that Jews have interpreted that story, but never has it been taken as factual, and never has it been used to blame women for sin entering the world as many Christians have done.  Ideas about the serpent, what the exit from Eden meant, and what the angel at the entrance of the garden symbolized – all take on new meaning that those of us in the Christian tradition are not usually exposed to.

For example, did you know that, according to one interpretation, Eve passed by the forbidden tree in the garden three times? The first time she saw it looked good to eat, but did not give in to that base appetite. The second time she saw that it was beautiful to look at, but resisted the urge to take it just to have it for its beauty. The third time she realized that it was a means of gaining knowledge of good and evil, so this was why she ate the fruit (and it was an acceptable reason to partake). When she offered it to Adam, however, he asked no questions, gave no consideration, he just took it and ate it because it was food for the stomach. As a result, it was Adam who was sent out from the garden because he was not yet ready to make a new advancement in life and development. He was still guided only by his base appetites. Eve went along with him to help until such time that he could grow and advance in his development to the point that he was capable of the higher level of knowledge and life that is be found in Eden. The angel with the flaming sword was not to keep people out, but to show the way back when mankind is ready.

The rabbi also touched upon the idea that the serpent in the garden is sometimes seen as identical with the messiah figure in Jewish thought in that his role was to guide humankind out of a dependent protected existence as children in Eden to a more mature consciousness. Fascinating concepts! It can be invigorating to take a step away from our traditionally held views, which is one reason I love interfaith dialogue.

Philosophical Views of God

Rabbi Rami offered as an aside the five basic views of God. However you think of God, it will fall into one of these five categories:     
        1. Theism

        2. Atheism

  3. Agnosticism

  4. Pantheism

  5. Panentheism

Theism holds the view that God is “out there” somewhere. Away from us, separate from creation. Atheism holds the exact same view of God as theism – except that is denies Gods existence – but the God that it denies has the same traits as the God the theists affirm. Agnosticism says it is just not sure, so why go to all that bother with religion if we can’t be sure anyway? Pantheism sees God as equal to creation/nature.  What you see of creation is equal to God. Panentheism holds that God is indeed in all of creation (not separate from it). Creation (the universe) is God, but God is more than creation.

Those were just a couple of philosophical asides that the rabbi shared as he gave his keynote address.  I found out in conversation with Rabbi Rami that his rabbi is the renown Zalman Schacter-Shalomi of the Hasidic tradition. No wonder he has such a grasp on spiritual approaches to life and can so readily share those in the course of conversation. A project he is working on is to use children’s letters to God as a means of using humor to puncture some of the narrow cultural views of religious fanaticism.

An Inspiring Weekend

Let me hasten to say, lest anyone think that this was a weekend of Hasidic spirituality, there was a variety of educational offerings for writers with a wide range of interests. We were privileged to have an excellent faculty to lead the workshops. At night we were able to hear from many of our gifted colleagues as they read portions of their work. We meet all kinds of people at these gatherings. It is always fascinating to hear from other writers, to find out what they write, and why they write. I left the conclave today with new ideas for writing, new contacts, and renewed inspiration. For anyone interested in attending future conclaves or joining the AWC, be sure to visit their website at http://www.alabamawritersconclave.org/index.html.

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