Travis Poling

Anyone who knows me (who else reads this blog!?) knows I spent 2 weeks in Scotland a few weeks back. I spent a week on the island of Iona, a few days here in there in Edinburgh, and a couple days on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. The trip was a class for seminary focusing on Celtic practices of Christian worship. I've not really put a lot down on paper (virtual or otherwise) about the experience (I wrote a bunch of poems and prayers, but nothing specifically about what happened, until today when I started my sermon for this Sunday...more about that later, perhaps), but I have posted my pics here (Beware the album titles. They're numbered, but Picassa won't arrange them by album name, so they're out of order. If you wanna see my pics in the order I took them, pay attention to the album numbers). My brother's been bugging me to blog about my trip, so here goes.

The trip started out fast, as we zipped from Glasgow to Oban, the last town on the mainland of Britan before catching the ferry into the Hebrides.


In Oban, I saw this good omen:

I don't necessarily believe in omens, but a reminder of William Stafford can't ever hurt.

We took a ferry for 45 minutes from Oban to the Isle of Mull, a bus for two hours across Mull, then a second ferry to Iona.


It wasn't quite the coracle that the early Celtic saints were fabled to ride in, but a boat ride in unknown waters (to me) nonetheless. Here's a coracle in the parish church on Lindisfarne. I think the icon next to the boat is of Columba, though it could be of Aidan, who founded the monastic community on Holy Island.


We made it to the abbey, where we stayed for the week.

It was built around 1200 by the Benedictines. No buildings stand from the sixth century monastic community at Iona under Columba's leadership--they were wooden huts till the Benedictines came.

Near the abbey, and around the island, were standing crosses. Two of the ones I saw date back around a thousand years or more.

St. Martin's Cross is named for Martin of Tours, a soldier who left the service to become a monk (he happens to be patron saint of both soldiers and conscientious objectors). The cross was placed on Iona in his name for his work in forming monastic communities in ways that later inspired Celtic monasticism.


St. John's cross is named for the favorite evangelist of the Celts, who sought, as John had, to live in Christ's intimate presence continually.

To end this post, I'll show a picture of the abbey cat (sort of like an alley cat?), a pet of a local islander. The cat's name is Lilly. She was very popular with those of us who missed our own cats back home. And she was a nice presence, both calming and playful.



On a final note related to cats, the Benedictines clearly saw cats as symbolic for a part of their common life, most likely contemplation. The monkey, by contrast, symbolized that active side of faith. Where they found monkeys in Scotland is beyond me, but the Benedictines still managed to carve one, along with a cat, into the abbey church walls. I can't tell which is which, but here are the carvings.


Interestingly, Philip Newell, in his book, Listening for the Heartbeat of God, connects St. John with the contemplative (the cat), and Peter with the active faith. Another way to put it could be Mary and Martha of Bethany. Celts liked the mystic side of faith, but they also embraced the physical and actual--they had no choice, living in such harsh environs and economy. I happen to like cats and St. John, and I favor my John-Mary-Cat side, while needing to work on my Peter-Martha-Monkey side. If I can monkey around a bit, I'll get more on Iona onto this blog soon.

Here are some prayers & poems I wrote while I was on the island of Iona.


The journey is away from the need to get all the credit,
away from disgracing another from your own gain.
We are lifted over the chaos, in safe passage
through the sky of new beginnings, headed east, toward the sunrise.
Our light will come; in no time it will come,
for we are rocketing towards it.
Shine on us, light of ages, and bring us your new day every morning.

===

O Holy Preparer of the traveler, your servant,
Show me in my mind that I walk for you,
Reveal to my heart that walk close to you,
Remind my spirit that I walk in you,
as your Spirit walks in me.
Make me ready for my journey
by freeing my tongue to tell the world
what I am doing and for whom.
Remove any deceit from my speech
that I may confess my closeness to you
in a world that is distant from you.
Stop my lies to myself, show me
that pretending to take a step is only self serving
and has no business in your caravan.

===

In Front of Iona Abbey

Swallows and blackbirds circle
in pairs over the slight bowls in the earth
covered in grass, then they fly away and
another blackbird joins them,
launching in a slant from behind the stone fence
that surrounds the cemetery. A large gull soars
between them and they are gone. People pass
on the road from the pottery shop speaking
in various accents—Scottish, American, English.
The abbey bell rings and one swallow swoops down
over the grass again following an arc as old as this island.

Being from a noncreedal tradition, I've always been suspicious of concise statements of faith. Their conciseness usually means something is left out. Additionally, being from a Christocentric tradition, I usually find that I have trouble with many of the creeds because they leave out the life of Jesus. They're usually good about the death, but that's it. So I was delighted to find the Jesus Creed on Brian McLaren's blog. The creed seems to be written by McLaren himself. I don't know if it counts as a creed because it's not been used for centuries by a community of followers of Christ I tend to give more credence to tradition then something someone just made up yesterday. At the same time, as an artist, I recognize the divine inspiration that can come to one person with a pen or keyboard. And new things can serve as correctives to what the old left out or got wrong. This creed seems to help with that. Of course there are parts left out--like the Creator and Holy Spirit, but this is the Jesus Creed, so I can give it a good bit of slack. So, for what it's worth--and I think it's worth a good deal--here's the Jesus Creed:

We have confidence in Jesus
Who healed the sick, the blind, and the paralyzed.
And even raised the dead.

He cast out evil powers and
Confronted corrupt leaders.
He cleansed the temple.
He favored the poor.
He turned water into wine,
Walked on water, calmed storms.

He died for the sins of the world,
Rose from the dead, and ascended to the Father,
Sent the Holy Spirit.

We have confidence in Jesus
Who taught in word and example,
Sign and wonder.
He preached parables of the kingdom of God
On hillsides, from boats, in the temple, in homes,
At banquets and parties, along the road, on beaches, in towns,
By day and by night.

He taught the way of love for God and neighbor,
For stranger and enemy, for outcast and alien.

We have confidence in Jesus,
Who called disciples, led them,
Gave them new names and new purpose
And sent them out to preach good news.
He washed their feet as a servant.
He walked with them, ate with them,
Called them friends,
Rebuked them, encouraged them,
Promised to leave and then return,
And promised to be with them always.

He taught them to pray.
He rose early to pray, stole away to desolate places,
Fasted and faced agonizing temptations,
Wept in a garden,
And prayed, “Not my will but your will be done.”
He rejoiced, he sang, he feasted, he wept.

We have confidence in Jesus,
So we follow him, learn his ways,
Seek to obey his teaching and live by his example.
We walk with him, walk in him, abide in him,
As a branch in a vine.

We have not seen him, but we love him.
His words are to us words of life eternal,
And to know him is to know the true and living God.
We do not see him now, but we have confidence in Jesus.

Amen.

On April 15, a cougar--likely wild and wandered from its more typical western habitat--tragically ended its trek in Chicago. A careful city police force decided to shoot to kill, and the young male cat was killed. The Cougar Fund, an organization dedicated to scientifically sound methods of preserving mountain lions--which does not include lethal force, except in extreme circumstances-- sensibly criticized the police's decision, giving an example of situations where tranquilizing and relocating worked just as well--if not better: to pose an alternative scenario, when cougars are seen in California, a state with healthy cougar populations that does not allow sport hunting, local authorities work with the state game agency and trained professionals such as local vets and animal control to remove the cougar from the area by tranquilizing and relocating it. The numerous sightings and reports to local Chicago authorities in the hours leading up to the cougar's death, suggest that there was time to weigh alternatives that would have avoided ending the cougar's life. With so many police officers available to offer protection to themselves and those around them, tranquilizing the cat should have been considered first, lethal force second. They also point out the relatively low chance of a cougar related death: The greatest cause of mortality amongst cougars is human-related. Only 18 people have been killed by cougars since 1900. Compare this with a statistic from the National Safety Council which averages around 50 deaths each year by contact with "wasps, bees, and hornets" or the over 5,500 pedestrian-automobile deaths each year.One thing Chicago might have on its side is the relatively low chance that a cougar would even show up in their city. A story from the Chicago Tribune notes:The unexpected visit fascinated researchers and put police officers in the unusual dilemma of balancing public safety with the beauty of an animal not seen in Chicago since the city's founding in the 19th Century. Unfortunately--for the cougar (and the wilderness that will miss his crucial predatory presence)--the police seemed to not worry so much about his beauty, nor even his place as a predator who belongs in his habitat, but has likely been forced out due to...you guessed it--human intervention! This attitude of disregard--for respect for creation and for hard science--is evidenced by the following portion of the Tribune's article:Most wildlife experts who have dealt with the potentially dangerous animal, also known as a mountain lion, said it's difficult to criticize the Chicago Police Department's decision to shoot the cougar Monday evening, saying that such animals pose a threat to humans and are difficult to effectively tranquilize. "Determining what you have to do for public safety can be a gray area," said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for California's Department of Fish and Game. "Mountain lions can be very difficult to tranquilize and then move."

Police defended the shooting Tuesday, saying that the decision to shoot the animal protected bystanders and was not out of line with their usual response to threatening animals.

"There's no time to waste when you have a predator, an animal like this," police spokeswoman Monique Bond said. "We shoot pit bulls who charge [at officers], so [would it make sense] to let the cougar charge?"

Mayor Richard Daley supported the police use of lethal force in a news conference Tuesday morning.

"Now, I just want to tell you, if the cougar attacked a child, they'd sue the city because the police officer didn't do their job," Daley said"I didn't see a neighbor run out and grab it and say, 'Oh I love you' and bring it in the house." The fact that this creature was no one's beloved pet is hardly an excuse; it does not make the life any less important. In fact, it could be argued that it's life is therefore even more important. The natural world will sustain itself just fine if a pet is killed. The same is not true of a wild predator at the top of the food chain. Further, that the cougar wandered so far from home--possibly South Dakota!--it is highly likely it was displaced by a number of factors, of which human destruction of habitat played a very large part. So an animal forced out of its home by humans enters the domain of humans (where else can it go when we are everywhere nowadays?) only to be killed by humans. I'm waiting for the day when it will reverse--people will be forced out by nature, and will have to wander in the wilderness to find sustenance. Only we will be wandering into big cat country--which will by then be everywhere. I'll be waiting to see what happens.

Watch "Bible History # 1" in the following playlist:

I will be hosting and facilitating a writing conference in on April 26. It will be ,y first time leading a workshop. Here's the info:

Traveler, Robber, Priest, Samaritan: A Creative Writing Workshop, exploring the crossroads of creativity and Christian activism.

Through the narrative of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37), we will craft a space for writing our stories and reflecting on the active life of faith.

+++
1:00 - 4:00 pm, Saturday April 26, 2008
Nicary Chapel, Bethany Theological Seminary
+++

SCHEDULE
1:00 "Do this, and you will live."- Service of worship grounding creativity & activism in the stories and life of Jesus.

1:30 Jesus tells the story :: Writing Workshop: Memoir - Invoking your personal spiritual autobiography, and hearing those of others.

2:30 The poem by the side of the road :: Writing Workshop: Poetry - Creating and hearing poems based on our life stories.

3:30 "Go and do likewise." - Closing remarks & discussion of how to incorporate creativity into our daily lives.

+++
Workshop facilitator:
Travis Poling - M. Div. student at Bethany Theological Seminary studying writing as ministry
+++

Free of charge

*Writers, and non-writers, of all levels of experience, are welcome to attend*

RSVP encouraged, but not required

The awsomest movie I've seen in forever? Paris, Texas.

Besides the main character being named after me (I was technically born six years before this film came out), it is a wonderfully ironic story (which for some reason, I find myself attracted to...).

Here are some key clips. Thank you, internets!

Here's the opening sequence. Does this seem familiar?







A true prophet for our times:






Read his diatribe here




The greatest love scene ever filmed? You decide:






Continued in this clip:





Read along with Travis and Jane!