Stating that the root cause of today’s violence is unhealthy masculinity exposes one to all sort of critiques. One-sidedness, over-simplification, insufficient proofs. But how can the USA be run by such a cruel toddler as it is, unless there is enough patriarchal thinking in the country to back him up? Unless Trump is the manifestation and the epitome of a mindset that is much wider and rooted than liberals have considered?
The book by Matthew Fox and Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation, ends with an extended reference to Walt Whitman. The primary reason for such reference is Whitman’s concept of “spiritual democracy” which resonates deeply with the soul of the Occupy movement, perhaps the last great popular movement still believing in the possibility of saving democracy from the oligarchs and seeing in democracy itself the sparkle of divinity — consciously or not.
Even though the Occupy movement did not deal explicitly with gender issues — at least not to my knowledge — it is notable that Walt Whitman embodied a very different kind of masculinity from the one prevalent both today and in his age. As Bucko and Fox note, Whitman “celebrated the diversity of sexuality in our species. He challenges, therefore, the sexual projections we make on each other from our unexamined inner fears”.
To me, Whitman is interesting today because he is quintessentially American and yet he embodies the opposite of that one impersonating the male toddler archetype in the White House. Jeremy Lybarger concludes his sparkling yet lucid essay on Whitman in the Boston Review with these words:
The Whitman who remains most central to whatever has become of the ‘American experiment’ is the poet who cruised the streets of New York, who skinny-dipped with rough trade, who caroused in pick-up bars and lowdown dives, who ministered to the bodies of young soldiers, who loafed with boys in the fields and backwoods of a perpetual frontier. The Whitman who matters most is the one who urged ‘be not afraid of my body’ (…).
What would it mean for American men to go back to Whitman as their spiritual ancestor? I don’t mean it in the trivial sense of imitating his behaviors, but in the sense of loving their own masculine bodies while not fearing their most tender feelings, in the sense of not fearing contact with the bodies of other men, in the sense of not feeling obliged as men to shun or submit to women.
Looking on from the place where we live now, that looks like a utopia. The Occupy Movement of 2011-2012 also was setting for itself goals that today seem completely out of reach — just stopping government-backed thugs from kidnapping people in the streets is a conquest. Yet we can’t live without the utopia of the “spiritual democracy” of which Walt Whitman was a champion. At the core of which a different, daring, courageous and strong, big-hearted and tender masculinity is necessarily placed.
Quote from https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/jeremy-lybarger-walt-whitmans-boys/
See also Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass.
See Matthew Fox and Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation p. 215
And Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine
And Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, Jen Listug, Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
And Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
And Fox, Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
Banner Image: Men offer a message of love. Photo by burak kostak on Pexels.
Queries for Contemplation
Fox and Bucko write: “Whitman calls us to reexamine our traditions and our relationship with our traditions and our life, and to envision a future that is based on a direct experience of spirit”. How does such envisioning include masculinity in your life?
Recommended Reading
Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to use our talents in service of compassion and justice and to move beyond our broken systems–economic, political, educational, and religious–discovering a spirituality that not only helps us to get along, but also encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, transforming them and in the process building a more sacred and just world. Incorporating the words of young activist leaders culled from interviews and surveys, the book provides a framework that is deliberately interfaith and speaks to our profound yearning for a life with spiritual purpose and for a better world.
“Occupy Spirituality is a powerful, inspiring, and vital call to embodied awareness and enlightened actions.”
~~ Julia Butterfly Hill, environmental activist and author of The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine
To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature, to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God
Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
By Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jen Listug
In the midst of global fire, earthquake and flood – as species are going extinct every day and national and global economies totter – the planet doesn’t need another church or religion. What it needs is a new Order, grounded in the Wisdom traditions of both East and West, including science and indigenous. An Order of the Sacred Earth united in one sacred vow: “I promise to be the best lover and defender of the Earth that I can be.”
Co-authored by Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jennifer Berit Listug, with a forward by David Korten, this collection of essays by 21 spiritual visionaries including Brian Swimme, Mirabai Starr, Theodore Richards, and Kristal Parks marks the founding of the diverse and inclusive Order of the Sacred Earth, a community now evolving around the world.
“The Order of the Sacred Earth not only calls us home to our true nature as Earth, but also offers us invaluable guidance and company on the way.” ~~ Joanna Macy, environmental activist and author of Active Hope.
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin
Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
Selected with an Introduction by Charles Burack
To encapsulate the life and work of Matthew Fox would be a daunting task for any save his colleague Dr. Charles Burack, who had the full cooperation of his subject. Fox has devoted 50 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship. His more than 40 books, translated into 78 languages, are inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and have awakened millions to the much neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West. Essential Writings begins by exploring the influences on Fox’s life and spirituality, then presents selections from all Fox’s major works in 10 sections.
“The critical insights, the creative connections, the centrality of Matthew Fox’s writings and teaching are second to none for the radical renewal of Christianity.” ~~ Richard Rohr, OFM.
