Ep. 114 Father-to-be as in Priest, Nietzsche, Jedi Knights and Egoism

Okay, the Moron doesn’t seem so moronic in this episode… well, I do, but we really have some divine inspirations in this episode.  My guest is a real live Seminarian in the Catholic Church.  Yes, THE Catholic church, not one of the knock offs.  He’s been pursuing his coronation… that’s not right… ordination!  That’s what I was looking for… 

This conversation is all over the place, and I have to take responsibility for that.  If I get him back I really need to try and keep my questions more focused.  And because we are so all over the place, this guy drops some people and terms this Moron had to look up, especially if you’re not Catholic or are a heathen moron like myself.  Among them:

1. Exegesis - not exit, Jesus - this is e-x-e-g-e-s-i-s and it’s a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. Traditionally, for work with religious texts, especially the Bible
2. St. Ignatius of Loyola - who was a Spanish Catholic Priest and theologian that was one of the founders of the Society of Jesus otherwise known as… the Jesuits.  We might have to do a separate episode on those guys.
3. A St. Paul Moment - which is explained in the episode, but it’s basically an epiphany or a “moment of awakening”... I don’t like to gossip but apparently he heard the voice of Jesus and was immediately blinded for three days until a guy named a-nan-ias restored his sight and he was baptized.
4. The 14 Discernments of Spirits - no it’s not a way to make bourbon, it is the path to living a holy life.  is the interpretation of what St. Ignatius of Loyola called the “motions of the soul.” These interior movements consist of thoughts, imaginings, emotions, inclinations, desires, feelings, repulsions, and attractions, what the Buddha might call cravings and aversions.  Spiritual discernment of spirits involves becoming sensitive to these movements, reflecting on them, and understanding where they come from and where they lead us.  Yes, I plagiarized this from a site called IgnatianSpirituality.com and there is a link at the bottom of the episode description.

Towards the beginning of our conversation there is the mention of a code blue.  A code blue at a hospital Usually means cardiac arrest (when the heart stops) or respiratory arrest (when breathing stops).  You may say, what the hell is a chaplain doing anywhere near a patient experiencing cardiac arrest?  Usually they are on the sidelines, staying out of the way.  However if family members are present, we will get with them and suggest they stay out of the way and perhaps go to a more quiet area while the team does there work.  It can be very traumatizing to watch a loved one receive treatment for cardiac arrest and while we can’t make a family member leave, it’s usually best to just get out of the way and let them do what they were trained to do.

Our guest entered the seminary straight out of high school and mentions leaving the Central Valley, that would be the Central Valley of California which is comprised of a LOT of farmland and ranching.  You hear about how much of our country’s Fruits and veggies are grown here under normal circumstances so for all of the approximately 18,000 square miles of that valley, a lot of that are the same folks you’d meet in the Midwest.  It looks like the Midwest and it has a lot of the same values as the Midwest despite the libby-McLibberson label that California has.  So, that’s what he’s referring to when he mentions the Central Valley.  

Towards the end of our conversation we end up talking about Star Wars as my friend the Father-to-be is a science fiction fan and loves Star Wars.  I ask about the possible parallels between the Jedi Knights and the path of a priest which he disagrees with completely and being that he has also studied Philosophy as part of a Priest’s curriculum,  I had to get out the dictionary again as he compares priests to stoicism.  Stoicism is from the Greeks and was the belief that we don’t react to events; we react to our judgments about them, and the judgments are up to us. They would advise that we should not worry about things beyond our control as everything in life can be divided into two categories – things that are up to us and things that are not.

Then…THEN he brings up philosopher Nietzsche.  Look, I can barely pronounce his name let alone discuss his philosophy.  So Nietzsche is this fatalist philosopher that thinks in the end nothing matters and everything is pointless, like they teach on Sesame Street!  

So Nietzsche had this concept called The Will To Power, that our Seminarian brings up which is according to Wikipedia like self-determination, the concept of actualizing one's will onto one's self or one's surroundings, and coincides heavily with egoism.  Egoism!  There’s something I get get behind.  

 

We begin our conversation as I ask him how his last overnight shift went at the hospital. 

So, I hope you find this conversation interesting and do not try to look up words while you’re driving.  Let me handle stuff like that.  

CLOSE - Wow… that did not sound like your typical conversation between two morons, right?  A lot of very interesting stuff there, and sometimes I have to just lean hard on the old “God is Love” bumper sticker.  Either I am in acceptance of that ideology, tweaked allover the place to make it fit for me, I’m not and if you’re not, then best of luck to you and may your blood pressure remain forever low.  But scientifically speaking, I think you might find that having a faith in something, you could use the word God for the sake of convenience, but not the baggage that you might believe that word comes with… having that sense of faith and finding comfort in it, will actually lower your blood pressure and can relieve stress.  Not necessarily clinically proven, but there are studies that show benefits.  There are two articles at the bottom of the description on this point from North Dakota State University and from Psychology Today Magazine.  There is a benefit.  Just try not to get hung up on nomenclature.  Don’t like the word God, don’t use it.  Don’t like meditation?  Try silent prayer.  

Many thanks and all the best to my guest, more to come and hopefully we will speak with him again!  Take care, stay cool if you’re where its hot, stay dry if you’re where it’s flooding, may the road rise to meet you rather than the ocean and thank you for listening to the Modern Moron.

Discernment of Spirits - IgnatianSpirituality.com 

What Is Stoicism? 

Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche - Wikipedia

Nihilism - Wikipedia  

Process theology - Wikipedia  

The Health Benefits of Spirituality — North Dakota State University  

The Surprising Health Benefits of Spirituality | Psychology Today