Rumi - Again

So I'm doing a Beachbody yoga video and it's feeling a bit New-Agey but I'm trucking along trying to push past what my brain is telling me and in pops a "I read this great quote from Rumi" statement from the teacher and my interest in the video just vanishes. Quoting Rumi is fine and all but when it is done in the context of a Beachbody yoga class my awareness of the fact this is quoted out of any context - or, more realistically, within the context of what is in fact a luxury and outside of the original context of Rumi - I become irked. 

Working on it as this is my ego flaring up. Why can't I just let it go? People have been quoting things out of context for centuries. Some might argue the Bible quotes things from elsewhere and re-contextualizes them so who am I to say? Fair point.

My wife and I were watching a 'Christian' marriage videos and in pops a quote from H.P. Lovecraft. Seriously? They provide no context for the quote and just throw it in there. Perhaps behind the scenes they are fully aware of this quote's use and it was intentional but I'm not sure Lovecraft is exactly a purveyor of the views being espoused in the videos and I'm pretty sure that his views on race disqualify him as someone 

If there's one thing that drives me crazy it's authors and videos that just pull quotes at random to support views where in reality the quotes are often decontextualized or actually conflict (within context) with the overall views attempting to be supported.

I'm not saying not to read Lovecraft or not to watch such videos should a random quote appear, not at all. I'm saying that we must be wise and know our sources. 

Quotes Out Of Context

Is it me or is this a horrible thing?

When quotes are taken out of context far too often they are stripped of their meaning and re-contextualized in the context of ME, perhaps the true religion of the world and thus the true cause of all 'religious' wars.

I recently tried taking a marriage counseling course and on about slide three appears a quote from H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft is fine when taken in context but after emailing the team behind these videos I learned exactly what I feared: they had no idea who he was and chose his words based on their meaning in the context of their videos. Doesn't matter that he was an atheist and, more significantly, 'nativist' (i.e. racist) and that my wife and I are a mixed couple.

When I emailed him about this the response I got beyond was 'I don't know who he is' was 'I can't guarantee this won't happen again so you're probably better served elsewhere.' Disappointing from a Ph. D. I supposed I was hoping for some kind of dialogue, perhaps a deeper probe into why this was so upsetting, but I got the boot. Reinforced exactly what it was that trouble me about the use of the quote and the fact that this happens all the time.

Self-help gurus do it all the time, take a hodgepodge of quotes from wherever it is that suits their purpose and frame it around their own ideology that making a religion of ME. I think it is the fact there is no center of truth in this approach; this is how people find themselves enslaved in a cult led by a charismatic leader. That person becomes the center of truth through which everything is filtered. 

It is a shortcut and is the same thing far too many do with the Bible and other holy texts. I will fit the meaning, whatever it is (don't care, really) to fit what I'm trying to say whether or not it's right and I'm assuming that just referring to said author of the quote will have power enough to meaning something. Thump.

I've written about Rumi being Americanized before and stumbled across a similar article from The New Yorker:

The Erasure of Islam from the Poetry of Rumi

May as well just chuck the Bible and quote Hollywood or rock music and call it church.

The Web Of The Web

I often will start browsing the Web for one reason or other and it does not take me long to go down the rabbit hole of 'conspiracy theories' and sites where someone states as "the" truth what the vast majority are missing. Oftentimes, these sites are 'religious' or 'spiritual' in nature. I always start to read them, unless the graphics are bad or loud (for some reason, these sites always have terrible graphics), but it does not take me long to realize that the overly combative or self-assured nature of them cause my eyes to cross and my interest to rapidly wane. 

Irony, I suppose, as I am on the Web and quite possibly doing the same thing. I try and retain my sense of wonder and willingness to learn rather than holding fast to holding "the" truth, other than within my own understanding, that no one else has. It is for my gain, to make myself better, so that I in turn may try and make the lives of others just a little better.  

Freedom of speech, absolutely, yet freedom also to reject the same. 

The tolerant must be tolerant of the intolerant or they expose the deception of use of the idea of 'tolerant' as it is glamorized and glorified as a cardinal virtue.