Out and About
Care of the Soul: A Book and a Conference
“Where is the soul?” “What is it?” “Is it?” Socrates thought that the soul was a knowable, eternal reality and he willingly bet his life on its eternal existence. This is revealed in his conversations with friends just prior to his death, which are recorded by Plato in the “Crito” and the “Phaedo.” I have not been as certain as Socrates was about the nature of the soul; on an ordinary day, I have not been likely to use the word soul or to think about it.
So, when a person begins to speak about the “care of the soul,” it takes a while before he or she gets my attention. Thomas Moore is a case in point (in fact, my only case in point.) He is the author, as many readers know, of two best selling books: Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and sacredness in Everyday Life and Soulmates. Since writing these books, he has become a popular speaker and talk show guest. In December, I attended “Care of the Soul: A Conference Event with Thomas Moore” sponsored by the Samaritan Center for Pastoral Counseling and The College of St. Catherine at the Radisson South in Bloomington, Minnesota. What follows is a brief report and some thoughts on the conference and on the book, Care of the Soul.
It was Thomas Moore’s name that first caught my attention. Two of my heroes are named Thomas More: St. Thomas More (1478-1535), author of Utopia and Lord Chamberlain of England, who was beheaded for his opposition to King Henry VIII and Dr. Thomas More, a psychiatrist and the central character in two novels by Walker Percy: Love in the Ruins and The Thanatos Syndrome. So, after a time, I purchased the book people were talking about and read it with interest and profit. When I heard about the conference, I registered promptly.
I joined more than 1500 others at the Thursday evening opening of the conference. As I entered, I was immersed in the hum of people conversing around tables in the huge Grand Ballroom. Musicians passed among the tables playing bells, flutes, tambourines, shakers, and gourds. Others circulated among us, trailing brightly colored cloths that were six to eight feet in length. There was a platform in the middle of the room for speakers and performers.
Moore’s first words to this large, expectant audience were: “If I only had something to say.” After this relatively slow start, he quickly began to work at helping us understand what he meant by the soul. He raised and addressed the question: “What is the difference between the soul and the spirit?” They are, according to Moore, distinguishable realities. Spirit, he said, is striving, wanting to be something, improving, and doing things, such as, wanting to become healthy or wanting to get somewhere. The spirit brings the desire to climb, to go up the ladder. Soul, he said, is deeper. It is ordinary, negative, and often found in failure. The way of the soul is down the ladder and the care of the soul is an art, not a scientific task.
Knowledge is in the realm of the spirit according to Moore. Knowledge helps us to provide and survive, but it does not help us to love. Love is of the soul; the soul is common and everyday and makes us human. The soul makes connections and gives us conscience. We can lose our souls by a soul-less practice of spirituality in religion and education. “We don’t need information,” he said, “We need to get rid of it.” His role in this conference, he stated, was not to bring something, but to take things away. “Care of the soul is an art of doing nothing, clearing the decks, the fewer the better, a place for soul to come and to be accepted.”
Moore’s style was gentle and conversational. He acknowledged the irony of a sold-out conference in which he was stressing that, in the life of the soul, “the fewer the better.” Contrary to many critiques that claim that America lacks spirituality, Moore contends that the U.S. is too spiritual, too swamped by knowledge and improvement projects. The result is a lack of care of the soul. “Don’t get me wrong,” he cautioned. “I’m not here to speak against spirit; I am here to speak for soul.”
Moore sees little value in self-improvement projects and in therapies whose singular objective is relief from or elimination of symptoms. He thinks that, when we approach concerns in this way, we fail to appreciate their meanings and are led to deny those aspects of our lives that do not conform to the ideal. The chapter titles, “Jealousy and Envy: Healing Poisons” and “Gifts of Depression,” in Care of the Soul hint at what Moore means and how he has practiced as a counselor. For me, these chapters are wells of fresh understandings — wells from which come observations such as: “The only way out of jealousy is through it.” and “Melancholy thoughts carve out an interior space where wisdom can take up residence” (pp. 101 and. 141 respectively).
This passage from the section on envy is typical of Moore’s approach.
Although envy may appear to be filled with ego, it is not fundamentally an ego problem. Envy eats away at the heart. If anything, the ego is the object of envy’s corrosive power. No, it is not an excess of evil, it is an activity of the soul, a painful process in the soul’s alchemy. The ego problem is how to respond to envy, how to react to the sickening wishes it inspires. In the face of envy, our task — which should not surprise us by now — is to find out what it wants.” (p. 113)
It is usually good advice to be more open and accepting of ourselves as we are. But we find ourselves in paradoxical positions. On the one hand we say: “Don’t work yourself to death.” “Take time.” “Don’t be such a perfectionist.” On the other hand, we say: “Be responsible.” “Set goals.” “Accomplish something.” In Moore’s view, the first set of admonitions go the direction of the soul and the second, the direction of the spirit. If this were merely an academic or theoretical question, it would not be so tough; but not many people get paid for their soul work. Most of us find ourselves on the “spiritual” side of these options by necessity, or at least what appears to be necessity.
Moore readily admits that caring for the soul may reduce productivity. In light of this, businesses may be slow to take him on as a consultant. You never know though.
Moore provides an antidote, it seems to me, to the straight jackets of perfection, morality, and one-wayness.
Whether we are talking about religious stories or our own personal stories, the same problems often appear. What we too often hear are conclusions, a reduction of the rich details of a story to some overarching meaning or moral.
Bringing soul to a story entails de-moralizing our images, letting them speak for themselves rather than for an ideology that restricts and slants them from the beginning. p. 238
Since encountering Moore, I have frequently thought about the soul on an ordinary day. And, influenced by his concern about forcing conclusions, this account ends right here.
An International Wedding
The stained-glass chancel window of Bethlehem Covenant Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota was brilliant on the afternoon of January 28, 1995. Jesus stood, as always, with a lamb in his right arm and a long staff in his left hand. Light from the west-setting sun lent added brilliance to his blessing of the marriage of Laurie Lindberg and Toto Sugiarto. Laurie is the daughter of the long-time friends of many, Eunice and Elwood Lindberg. The groom is the son of Sumjar and Karyati Amadiharjo, who, though unable to attend the wedding in Minnesota, were having a special celebration in Cilacap, Indonesia.
The church was filled and the candles were lit when the groom came down the aisle carrying a standard on which hung a banner created by the bride and groom. On the banner were two doves on an olive branch and a heart on a field of blue.
The bride wore a gown that she had made from materials she had purchased in Hong Kong. As one of the ministers said, this couple had “gone beyond the boundaries of their cultures.”
Toto and Laurie met when Laurie was teaching in Yogyakarta. They are returning to Indonesia in the Spring to enable Toto to complete his degree in art at Institut Seni Indonesia.
The composition of the wedding congregation spanned the Pacific Ocean and the continents of Asia and North America. I sat next to a young man from China. Friends of the bride and groom were there from Indonesia to help the couple celebrate.
It was very enjoyable to be present in this gathering of East and West. The atmosphere was rich in diversity as the union of this couple was blessed and celebrated. We thank Laurie, a daughter of Bethlehem Covenant Church, for extending our connections and enriching our experience by bringing this wonderful new person and his friends into our lives. We thank Toto for opening a channel for us to his people and his land.
The ministers, Pastor Phil Stenberg and Dr. Robert Boehlke, responded beautifully to the challenge of this special event. Dr. Boehlke, who speaks Indonesian fluently, read scripture passages in both Laurie’s and Toto’s native tongues.
From the Wedding program:
Arise my love, my fair one, and come away!
Bangunlah manisku, jelitaku, marilah!Song of Songs 2:10
Blessings on you, Laurie and Toto. May God go with you as you go and come. — PJ