Douglas Tsoi

Chip’s Editorial Comment: Douglas Tsoi is one of my favorite spiritual thinkers and wise guides. I highly recommend him as a spiritual director for those of you looking for some non-denominational spiritual guidance. He’s helped me to see that often God is the blanket we use to give mystery some form.

I was listening to an interview of Franciscan mystic Richard Rohr (https://bit.ly/493V9pi), where he was describing one of his favorite ideas, Carl Jung’s two halves of life:

In my sessions as a spiritual director, I started noticing something: whenever someone described someone as “wise”, it was usually a sage or spiritual teacher of some sort: a Richard Rohr, a Ken Wilbur, a Ram Dass, a Tara Brach.

A few months ago, Chip wrote a wonderful piece called “What Should We Do About U.S. Longevity?” I couldn’t help but think of the stress related issues involved. Stress is related to obesity, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, depression, gastrointestinal problems, and asthma. Medical research estimates as much as 90 percent of illness and disease is stress-related.

In 2015, my Uncle (who raised me) died of ALS. One of the last things he told me was: “I have one piece of advice for you: don’t wait for anything. I waited my entire life to do things, and now I can’t.”

I read Chip’s post “Longevity is Becoming "Shortevity“ and couldn’t help but think that the problems shortening our longevity: overdoses, suicide, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, gun violence— are all problems of not belonging to one other.

One of Chip's favorite ideas is liminal space, between two states, betwixt and between worlds. It's the time when the old ways no longer serve, but the new spaces have yet to appear.

I have a lot of friends enraged and grieving this week: Dobbs, Congressional hearings on January 6, mass shootings. I wanted to offer something I read in journalist Oliver Burkeman’s newsletter:

“Leisure is only possible when we are at one with ourselves. We tend to overwork as a means of self-escape, as a way of trying to justify our existence.” ― Josef Pieper, Leisure: The Basis of Culture

Philosopher Albert Borgmann talks about the experience of being fully alive in the world as moments when: (1) There is no place I would rather be. (2) There is no one I would rather be with. (3) There is nothing I would rather be doing. (4) And this I will remember well