The Beginning

The first blog entry.  I’ve resisted the temptation for years – it all seems a bit silly to me – yet I find myself in the incredibly lucky position of having a job that stokes both my creativity and my desire to share ideas with other people.  Community is an idea I value greatly so herein lies one more way to connect with the ideas and understandings of others – to risk my own ideas and invite others to do the same.  Sort of like a spiritual first date.  There’s a danger in putting your own ideas to paper even when you don’t share them with the world.  They stop being ideas, come down from the ether, and become part of your own very small history.  But the human experience is meant to be shared, so here we go.

 I wanted to call this thing the Irreverent Rev, as I’m a candidate in the PC (USA) church and hope to be ordained (and because I don’t take myself or much else too seriously), but this seemed like a better fit.  The nature of the butterfly has always fascinated me – so beautiful, so short-lived, strong, light, and free -- but what really tipped me to being a true lepidopterist is the last book I read before deciding to go to seminary:  In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez.  In it, the image of the butterfly becomes a symbol for the peril and grace involved in any great revolution – spiritual, political, personal or public.  The book is historical fiction about four sisters leading an increasingly dangerous revolution and their codename – la mariposa – the butterfly – becomes the speak-able acknowledgment of the danger and over-simplified perception of the beauty of those who would risk everything for what they believe is right.  The world loves a revolutionary, but most of us would rather take in a revolution from afar.

And yet, faith is a risk.  Pursuing call on a deep and honest level means taking great chances.  It is dangerous, but it is also a thing of incredible beauty.

Viva la mariposa!