“One way you can help your own ‘unclean spirit’ might be to write a dialogue with it, having first invoked your own awareness of God’s healing presence by perhaps lighting a candle.
Like Ricoeur and little old me, Wink was (I think) resistant to the suggestion that symbols and metaphors are ever *mere.* Here's T.S. Eliot: "No symbol, I maintain, is ever a mere symbol, but is continuous with that which it symbolizes.” Coleridge says a symbol “always partakes of the Reality which it renders intelligible.” Wink stayed employed, but...I seem to recall being told that his work cost him something at Union Theological Seminary. Do you know anything about that?
- “oh, i just was thinking you looked sorta down.”
- “well of course i’m down, don’t you see what’s going on?”
- “um, maybe a little? i’m not certain.”
- “not certain? haven’t you been paying attention?”
- “while i can’t say i’ve been paying attention to everything, i have been to some.”
- “well, no one’s paying attention to me, and everyone’s so busy looking at themselves.”
- “what if we could look at each other?”
- “i don’t want you to look at me, there’s nothing here to look at. everyone looks and then leaves. i’m a commodity!”
- “how can we do things differently?”
- “i don’t believe that’s possible.”
- “what’s not possible?”
- “i know you. and i know what you speak of. i gave up on that a long time ago. it’s too heavy a burden. there’s no sense in being something you’re not.”
Clarification: did Wink think these entities were merely metaphors and such? (Ya know, so one can keep one's tenure and not be canceled?) Because the other traditions basically advise "don't engage in conversation" Mark 1:25; Luke 4:35. tangential - https://www.upra.org/en/corsi/programma/course-on-the-ministry-of-exorcism-and-deliverance/
Like Ricoeur and little old me, Wink was (I think) resistant to the suggestion that symbols and metaphors are ever *mere.* Here's T.S. Eliot: "No symbol, I maintain, is ever a mere symbol, but is continuous with that which it symbolizes.” Coleridge says a symbol “always partakes of the Reality which it renders intelligible.” Wink stayed employed, but...I seem to recall being told that his work cost him something at Union Theological Seminary. Do you know anything about that?
- “hello friend, how do you do?”
- “not well, why do you ask?”
- “oh, i just was thinking you looked sorta down.”
- “well of course i’m down, don’t you see what’s going on?”
- “um, maybe a little? i’m not certain.”
- “not certain? haven’t you been paying attention?”
- “while i can’t say i’ve been paying attention to everything, i have been to some.”
- “well, no one’s paying attention to me, and everyone’s so busy looking at themselves.”
- “what if we could look at each other?”
- “i don’t want you to look at me, there’s nothing here to look at. everyone looks and then leaves. i’m a commodity!”
- “how can we do things differently?”
- “i don’t believe that’s possible.”
- “what’s not possible?”
- “i know you. and i know what you speak of. i gave up on that a long time ago. it’s too heavy a burden. there’s no sense in being something you’re not.”
- “what if i told you you already are?”
- “well then i would tell you you’re a joke!”
- “i don’t believe you’re a joke.”
- “you…you’re wrong.”
Are you familiar with the Roger Waters-Thom Yorke situation? Tense times.