TRAIN TICKET
Three women and three men are traveling by train to the football game. At the station, the three men each buy a ticket and watch as the three women buy just one ticket.
'How are the three of you going to travel on only one ticket?' asks one of the men.
'Watch and learn,' answers one of the women.
They all board the train. The three men take their respective seats but all three women cram into a toilet together and close the door.
Shortly after the train has departed , the conductor comes around collecting tickets. He knocks on the toilet door and says, 'Ticket, please.' The door opens just a crack, and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes it and moves on.
The men see this happen and agree it was quite a clever idea; so, after the game, they decide to do the same thing on the return trip and save some money.
When they get to the station they buy a single ticket for the return trip but see, to their astonishment, that the three women don't buy any ticket at all!!
'How are you going to travel without a ticket?' asks one perplexed man.
'Watch and learn,' answer the women.
When they board the train, the three men cram themselves into a toilet, and the three women cram into a toilet just down the way.
Shortly after the train is on its way, one of the women leaves her toilet and walks over to the toilet in which the men are hiding. She knocks on their door and says, 'Ticket please.'
I'm still trying to figure out why men think they are smarter than women.
This is the spirit of the Trickster, the spirit of Coyote, Raven, of Puck, of jesters and pranksters. And apparently Trickster spirit has inspired many a sign maker. Here are a few things actually printed on signs at various business locations.
¨ In the front yard of a funeral home, there was a sign that read:
"Drive carefully, we'll wait."
¨ On an electrician's truck, the sign said:
"Let us remove your shorts."
A sign outside a radiator repair shop, said:
"Best place in town to take a leak."
¨ In a non-smoking area, a sign read:
"If we see you smoking, we will assume you are on
fire and take appropriate action."
¨ On a maternity room door, a sign read:
"Push, Push, Push."
Yes the Trickster lives among us.
The Trickster is a character who plays tricks, jokes or refuses to follow the rules. He teaches us how to laugh at the ridiculousness of life, cut through the social foolishness, and reveals aspects of ourselves we would hide. The Trickster often causes transformation in himself or others. That is why we are calling on him as we participate in Earth Day.
Today is another combination sermon. I do love combination sermons. One time I combined Father's Day and June teenth to talk about liberating men from oppressive consciousness. In February I gave a sermon advocating for both sex or celibacy as two paths to spiritual growth. In March I said I would combine blessings and cursing.
Today I've combined Earth Day and Trickster Redemption. What was I thinking?! Each year in April I invite us to look to wisdom traditions of play and foolishness. This year I planned our Fool service on the Sunday closest to Earth Day. Now I ask you, what kind of fool would combine a serious subject like Earth Day, with the frivolity of the Trickster. Was I out of my mind?
Well actually that is the whole point of this sermon. I am here again today to remind us that if we want to have a good life, we have to go out of our minds. But the point of this sermon isn't just to warn us that we won't enjoy life if we are deadly serious. (That has a serious tone to it, doesn't it?!)
No, this is a sermon that says that it may take the wisdom of the Trickster to save the human race.
Scientist studying the land, the water and the air are issuing grave warnings to humanity. Global warming is but the latest and the greatest crisis caused by the impact of human population that is expanding exponentially. What could be more serious than the disregard and destruction of the health of the ecosystems that support life?!
Am I suggesting that we make a joke of this? Isn't it our job as UU 's to shout the message that people need to stop waiting for the second coming, get off our keesters and do something fast?! Isn't that our message of awakening? Aren't we the ones who give the empowering but sometimes sobering message that our fate is in our hands? That we have the power to create a living heaven or hell right here on Earth? Aren't we the ones, who insist that spirituality requires us to face real life situations?
So how can I take a serious subject like environmental threats and imply that we could make a joke of it?
"Al Gore said that global warming is more serious than terrorism.” Jay Leno adds: “Unless the terrorist is on your plane, then that extra half a degree doesn't bother you so much." Perhaps we need Trickster Redemption to remember that an appreciation of the absurd could help us get through the times ahead.
BTW, do you know how petroleum companies deal with oil spills? A: Slick lawyers.
“According to a new U.N. report, the global warming outlook is much worse than originally predicted. Which, is pretty bad when they originally predicted it would destroy the planet." (Thank you, Jay Leno)
One reason that we need to invoke the Trickster is that people don't want to listen to deadly serious people. We are living in the information age. A person can spend all her time watching, listening and reading new information. What gets heard is sometimes a factor of who and how the message is delivered. So let's ask ourselves: what is more important? being heard and being effective or just being right?
Most people can only handle so much negative information before they gloss over, zone out or choose to distract themselves. It's called information overload. We get overwhelmed. It's like: “Problems, problems, problems what do you want me to do about it?” “And how does humanity benefit when someone sits and reads article after article?!” Sometimes, we get stuck in a paralysis of analysis.
We need the Trickster to help us get out of our heads, because as Einstein said, “The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.” By making obvious the sham of our mental constructions, the Trickster goads us on toward freedom.
Trickster traditions acknowledge the limits of human ability to make sense of life. Tricksters encourage us to laugh at our attempts to try to force the great mystery of life into a neat little explanation. Indigenous American stories often take as their subject something essential to human life, such as fire, and attribute these to the pranks or even theft of various tricksters.
To some people, such explanations might seem to leave a lot to be desired. It might seem as if the stories suggest that our world has been arranged haphazardly. To some of us, Trickster stories may fail to offer assurance that there is a great Father figure watching over us. However, these stories don't seem to have that effect on Indigenous Americans. Native American cultures are steeped in faith of Creator. Such stories cultivate a humility and an acknowledgment that we are limited in our ability to understand the Creator's ways.
***
The Trickster, especially as found in Native American traditions, does not likely lead to an overly tidy or mechanistic worldview. Trickster demonstrates the dynamic and interdependent nature of existence. He suggests to us that we must change our consciousness if we wish to gain an appreciation of the Great Mystery. It recognizes that our serious mental frameworks do not deliver us reality.
Probably it is for this reason that many indigenous cultures incorporate clowns and clowning play as part of their sacred ceremonies. Many indigenous American cultures teach that before one could pray in the best way, one has to laugh. There is a realization that our beliefs, our mental constructs are puny compared to the Ultimate Reality. By laughing we can break free of our mental containers and enter into the boundless realm of our hearts.
In the West is we have grown with religious traditions that have tried to suggest that all of the answers to life's questions have already been given to us in a neat little package. The traditions that have taught us our values, have maintained an “of course we have all the answers” attitude. It long ago struck me that religions often encourage worship not of the boundless and namelessness of creator-creation but of allegiance to a particular culture. Rabbi Israel Dresner, my rabbi when I was growing up stated that fundamentalists were “biblio-idolaters,” He said that Judaism had never tended to be fundamentalist. Instead discussion, a degree of questioning and uncertainty were expected. However, many people insist that their scripture and doctrines are absolute truth. Mystics of every tradition have recongnized such as blasphemy. We mortals can not capture that which is immortal. We can not contain that which is infinite.
My studies of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures suggest to me that the bible is full of contradictions and paradox. I do not assume these to be mistakes, or flaws. By giving numerous, diverse and even contradictory portrayals of God, or explanations for why things are the way they are, scripture asks us to remain in discussion, to live with questions. It discourages the tendency to claim an absolute understanding of God or life.
The story of Brer rabbit that we heard today encourages such a humility. Brer rabbit cautions any who would think they can dominate or control creation. Brer Rabbit would caution us to question our motivations before we take action that is likely to harm future generations.
Trickster stories speak to us of the great power of make-believe, of play and magic. They also demonstrate that no one character is in charge of the whole story. I come away from these with an encouragement to live with uncertainty.
Sometimes when there is uncertainty, it seems best to delay or avoid action. With salesmen for example, I have used the principle of “when in doubt, don't,” and it has served me well. I have probably missed a few great deals, but I have saved myself from buying thousands of things that I didn't need.
But sometimes we can't let uncertainty deter us from action. The majority of Americans now express a desire for leadership to help us to act to curb global warming. Although we might doubt any particular dire prediction, most have seen enough evidence to decide it's time to take action.
However, I can appreciate not wanting to be bullied into action by the threat of danger. History is filled with examples of rulers who instigated wars and such by insisting there was an urgent need to act. Can you say “Iraq?”
There are many gloom and doomsday scenarios and we don't know which ones are true. Who wants to live in a panic mode? Right?
When it comes to theology, we we have rejected the coercive tactics of salvation salesmen. We heard their impassioned pleas that they were only trying to save us from the fires of hell. They argued that we should play it safe and come over to their side. Yet we chose instead to follow in the tradtion of the Universalists. We rejected the notion that the source of all creation is an angry man-god who would just as soon toss into an eternal fire. We have come instead to consider that we are beloved by all creation, that we are held in the embrace of an interdependent web of existence.
Since we aren't certain of the ultimate truth, we are left making it up. We are left with make believe. It seems to me that there are two ways to proceed. The first is to question our beliefs. Since we know that we don't know, we question our beliefs. We proceed as scientists. We test, we examine, we explore. This is our religion. We swear off idiologies, and dare to lean into a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. That search for many of us leads us to the conclusion that it's time we looked at the conditions we are creating on Earth.
But how do we proceed? What is our attitude when we explore or act? Are we panicked, cynical, skeptical, broken hearted, certain that all sacred stories turn out only to be myths? What kind of tricksters are we? Are we joyful pranksters, are we loveable roques rebelling against needless rules and championing freedom, or are we isolated kermudgeons who can't be given reasons to have faith?
The second way to proceed is to accept the power we have to make it up. Realizing that we live in illusion, in stories that we tell ourselves, why not make it up in a way that is satisfying. After Trickster has shown us that life is bigger than our puny story, what do we do? We could ask ourselves; “what do I want to believe.”
Some would argue this is the ultimate folly. Global warming won't just go away by pretending it isn't there. Racism won't go away by ignoring it. Would I have us avoid the hardship that can sometimes come with gaining knowledge? Obviously not.
For me, though, I have increasingly realized and appreciated the power that I have to make it up. What world do I want to live in? What possibilities do I want to explore? If I am miserable, anxious or depressed, I like to check in with myself and ask: What is the story that I am telling myself?
Some people would have us banish all stories. Asserting that the stories that we tell are illusion, they tell us that freedom can only be had when we extricate ourselves from all stories about life.
It seems to me that this is what anti-religious people have done. They decide that the stories of their childhood religion are false. They swear off religion and stories. They pride themselves as being in the reality based camp rather than the faith based camp. To me this is just another form of idolatry and arrogance.
We have chosen a different path. We are learning to wear our stories like loose fitting garments. We are learning to shapeshift. We are learning the power we have not just to be dragged along in life, not just to be subjects in someone else's story or in someone else's experiment. We are learning to write our own experiments. We are learning to tell our own stories.
When we awoke this morning, did we become neutral observers of life? Nonsense! Nor were we created as such. The question I leave you with is whose story are we living in? What realities do we wish to create? And what stories do we wish to create together?
Long live the Trickster! Long live Earth! May our days be filled as good stories. May we learn to laugh at the ridiculousness of life, cut through the social foolishness, and reveal aspects of ourselves that we have hidden. May we become heroes rather than villians in our own minds and in reality. Whatever that means!
So be it!
