What sets the stage fade out fade in
What is most important is where you are
The way your brain thinks
Past experience does not guarantee anything
We are prepared or we would have not made it here
Risk has accessed our ancestors well
There is one quality all doors share
They make you forget
What they are
Why they are is us
It is something simple we often miss
You forgot what you came for
Because your brain is on your side
This poem was inspired by an article or is it articles that keep reappearing. There is an interesting phenomenon to me in the information age. Interesting things often bubble back to the surface and make us pay attention again. I'm not sure when I first came across this idea of doorways making us forget, but I remember my response to it.
When things really make sense to me they have a certain feel for me. I guess secure would be the best root to build words for a description of this feeling. They however would fall short. I love to say you can always count on numbers, why I love math so much aside from all it has given us, but you can't always count on people and even less so words.
When I searched recently on the internet I found an article By Tom Stafford 8th March 2016, here is a bit of it:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160307-why-does-walking-through-doorways-make-us-forget
"It’s known as the “Doorway Effect”, and it reveals some important features of how our minds are organised. Understanding this might help us appreciate those temporary moments of forgetfulness as more than just an annoyance (although they will still be annoying).
These features of our minds are perhaps best illustrated by a story about a woman who meets three builders on their lunch break. “What are you doing today?” she asks the first. “I’m putting brick after sodding brick on top of another,” sighs the first. “What are you doing today?” she asks the second. “I’m building a wall,” is the simple reply. But the third builder swells with pride when asked, and replies: “I’m building a cathedral!”
Maybe you heard that story as encouragement to think of the big picture, but to the psychologist in you the important moral is that any action has to be thought of at multiple levels if you are going to carry it out successfully. The third builder might have the most inspiring view of their day-job, but nobody can build a cathedral without figuring out how to successfully put one brick on top of another like the first builder....The Doorway Effect occurs because we change both the physical and mental environments, moving to a different room and thinking about different things. That hastily thought up goal, which was probably only one plate among the many we’re trying to spin, gets forgotten when the context changes.
It’s a window into how we manage to coordinate complex actions, matching plans with actions in a way that – most of the time – allows us to put the right bricks in the right place to build the cathedral of our lives."
But as I looked closer it was an article from 2011 in scientific American I think that I saw first.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-walking-through-doorway-makes-you-forget/
The French poet Paul Valéry once said, “The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best.” In that spirit, consider a situation many of us will find we know too well: You're sitting at your desk in your office at home. Digging for something under a stack of papers, you find a dirty coffee mug that’s been there so long it’s eligible for carbon dating. Better wash it. You pick up the mug, walk out the door of your office, and head toward the kitchen. By the time you get to the kitchen, though, you've forgotten why you stood up in the first place, and you wander back to your office, feeling a little confused—until you look down and see the cup...The doorway effect suggests that there's more to the remembering than just what you paid attention to, when it happened, and how hard you tried. Instead, some forms of memory seem to be optimized to keep information ready-to-hand until its shelf life expires, and then purge that information in favor of new stuff. Radvansky and colleagues call this sort of memory representation an “event model,” and propose that walking through a doorway is a good time to purge your event models because whatever happened in the old room is likely to become less relevant now that you have changed venues. That thing in the box? Oh, that's from what I was doing before I got here; we can forget all about that. Other changes may induce a purge as well: A friend knocks on the door, you finish the task you were working on, or your computer battery runs down and you have to plug in to recharge.
Why would we have a memory system set up to forget things as soon as we finish one thing and move on to another? Because we can’t keep everything ready-to-hand, and most of the time the system functions beautifully. It’s the failures of the system—and data from the lab—that give us a completely new idea of how the system works."
The idea that when we walked into the cave the only way we could possibly survive is to be completely aware. Or aware enough. A pass fail system. Given our own limitations the only way we could possibly survive is to forget.
We find ourselves at the door: Pentecost. Science and religion don't always agree, but they both tell a story of the limitation of our biology. One gives purpose while the other sees survival as the only one. To be scientific is to be aware and observant and use relevant information. To be religious is to believe that there is purpose to it.
Pentecost is exciting so much so the disciples must tell the people it is too early for them to be drunk.
We know the story well and we find ourselves here each year usually dressed in red telling this story. If you did a poll of people and asked what they thought were the most important church holidays today would be well down the list, but for the Church today is really everything. The birth and death of our savior was not the beginning of the church, but when the promised holy spirit arrived.
We go through this door and we tend to forget. It is all we need to remember. We all know this, but we are often about surviving, when we need to be more about our purpose.
Jesus speaks of this story in the future tense in John 16, 5-11.
We read from the Amplified bible:
The Holy Spirit Promised
5 “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts [and taken complete possession of them]. 7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the [a]Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him (the Holy Spirit) to you [to be in close fellowship with you]. 8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world about [the guilt of] sin [and the need for a Savior], and about righteousness, and about judgment: 9 about sin [and the true nature of it], because they do not believe in Me [and My message]; 10 about righteousness [personal integrity and godly character], because I am going to My Father and you will no longer see Me; 11 about judgment [the certainty of it], because the ruler of this world (Satan) has been judged and condemned.
Science has convicted our biology we just all don't care to know. The limitations are real. The question is what options remain. Jesus continues in verse 12-15 and he assures us that with the holy spirit ultimately we are able to hear the truth. We, you and I can bear it. To say forgive them who do not yet know.
5 “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts [and taken complete possession of them]. 7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the [a]Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him (the Holy Spirit) to you [to be in close fellowship with you]. 8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world about [the guilt of] sin [and the need for a Savior], and about righteousness, and about judgment: 9 about sin [and the true nature of it], because they do not believe in Me [and My message]; 10 about righteousness [personal integrity and godly character], because I am going to My Father and you will no longer see Me; 11 about judgment [the certainty of it], because the ruler of this world (Satan) has been judged and condemned.
Science has convicted our biology we just all don't care to know. The limitations are real. The question is what options remain. Jesus continues in verse 12-15 and he assures us that with the holy spirit ultimately we are able to hear the truth. We, you and I can bear it. To say forgive them who do not yet know.
12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear [to hear] them now. 13 But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth [full and complete truth]. For He will not speak on His own initiative, but He will speak whatever He hears [from the Father—the message regarding the Son], and He will disclose to you what is to come [in the future]. 14 He will glorify and honor Me, because He (the Holy Spirit) will take from what is Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Because of this I said that He [the Spirit] will take from what is Mine and will reveal it to you.
This next year of our church maybe when you go to the next room and you forget why you are there, maybe instead of feeling you are not good enough, you will think: I do need God and understand the limitation of you.
There is another story I love which I remember an equally resounding reaction to. You may have heard this, I'm not sure where or when I heard this but it was long ago. The goiter. I often reference this story to understand myself. When the thyroid gland doesn't work well quite often the brain will arrive at a simple solution: make a bigger thyroid gland. Seems reasonable. As results show a lack of results the brain continues with its course of action. The goiter can grow quite large and to a young person can leave a lasting impression, but it was more the brain believing it had a solution. Perhaps there was a positive impact I don't really know, but what I had was an understanding that the brain could believe in a solution and do things to make matters worse.
When the international community tries to intervene in the world they can believe in a solution and do things to make matters worse.
They say when people show you who they are you should believe them. Well when the brain showed me who it was I believed it. I wasn't ever mad at the limitations of my biology. I think Antonio Gramsci put it best, "My practicality consists in this, in the knowledge that if you beat your head against the wall it is your head which breaks and not the wall - that is my strength, my only strength." Well as much as I love him, I believe I have other strengths, but my practicality starts in the same place.
So what happens if we don't see the limitations of our biology? In most cases we fail to see a need or place for God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Antonio was a communist, he believed in community. We believe in community plus.
Sometimes we go the other way and do this thing I haven't really been able to describe, but will take a chance here: we try to out Christian each other. A blessing is only as blessing when it is received. I don't mean to give an answer to behavior I find myself involved in some as well. In an effort to not be mean we can be too nice.
We can be too nice to ourselves and not see our limitations, where would God be needed then. Here we again find what people don't really like about old time religion anymore: We are a culture of me. We don't like to talk about limitations. We make trophies all one size. People don't teach limitations. We teach the sky is the limit and it is empty above.
What ever you believe there is more above than below.
Let us Pray
Come, thou Holy Spirit, come:
And from thy celestial home send thy light and brilliancy.
Come, thou father of the poor,
come who givest all our store,
come the soul's true radiancy.
Come, of comforters the best, of the soul the sweetest guest,
sweetly and refreshingly.
Come, in labour rest most sweet,
shade and coolness in the heat, comfort in adversity.
Thou who art the Light most blest,
come fulfill their inmost breast, who believe most faithfully.
For without thy Godhead's dower,
man hath nothing in his power, save to work iniquity.
What is filthy make thou pure,
what is wounded work its cure,
water what is parched and dry.
Gently bend the stubborn will,
warm to life the heart that's chill,
guide who goeth erringly.
Fill thy faithful who adore,
and confess thee evermore,
with thy sevenfold mystery.
Here thy grace and virtue send,
grant salvation in the end, and in heaven felicity. Amen.
(Latin Hymn, 13th century)
Benediction
Go out into God’s world filled with the spark of the Holy Spirit. Let love guide your actions. Listen for the Spirit of Truth. Spread the peace of Christ and remind everyone you meet that each one is a beloved child of God. Amen.
https://teaandtheology.com/pentecost-benediction/
Nottingham UMC May 23, 2021
