Pope Benedict XVI recently released his encyclical and wrote that the church has sometimes viewed sexuality as something “negative”.
He declared that erotic love between married men and women is the center of God’s plan.
From the Austin American Statesman this morning, in which they released excerpts from the 71 page document, the pope states that
sex should mature into unselfish concern for the other, creating a love that ultimately leads to working for charity and justice for others and that
“Love is, indeed, “ecstasy”…not in the sense of a moment of intoxication, but rather as a journey, an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus toward authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God….”
The Pope began his message by stating that he fells God lavishes love on us which we must share with others.
WOW.
He didn’t come out condeming anything. He didn’t lecture anyone on what is right or wrong. He spoke of love.
And, I’d like to say, I feel like what he is saying is a beautiful rejoicing of what the artwork for MOTHERLODE exudes….a couple, intertwined, in the act of making love. Painted in a kama sutra, flat colorful style by local artist Aletha St. Romain, the woman and man are eye to eye, equal in their peaceful, gentle pose, with the slight hint of a smile at their lips. And there is an ironing board with a shirt draped casually, an iron, which is on fire, sitting calmly upon it. A basket full of unfinished laundry to fold….hangers scattered lazily about.
As if the morning chores were cast aside in this moment of passion. A mother in a state of creating more life, a woman in love with her partner.
Which leads me so nicely into John and Abigail Adams. While watching the PBS special on them the other night, my heart was bursting with love for my great-great-great grandfather and grandmother. The love and passion they felt for one another, the intelligent and thought provoking letters and conversations they shared over the span of their marriage….I don’t think I have been inspired by such a couple in a long, long time. I was crying with pride watching Abigail writing a letter during her labor with their last, and stillborn, child…a little girl…so strong was Abigail’s desire to share her sorrow and pain with her husband, she picked up a quill and paper and let her heart
spill over into her husband’s waiting hands. And can you imagine, to receive a letter like this? And to know weeks have passed since it was written, to know that you were not there when your beloved needed you most? To know that you are so loved to receive such
heartbreaking correspondence that only you will read? Oh, the amazing gifts that John Adams bestowed upon our country, and his tireless belief in the fact that this country could be a light to the rest of the world. How he stood up for the truth, even when others in his own party were turning against him. To have handed Jefferson the reigns to creating the Declaration of Independence because he understood Jefferson was from Virginia, and that his style of prose would be more suiting to the needs at hand. To have become best friends, to bring Jefferson into the warmth of his family life, and love him as family, only to have Jefferson betray him and undermine him with paid slander? To die on the Fourth of July, hours after Jefferson has passed; that Adams awoke, fit as a fiddle, and went out to his fields, walked the paths of his farm one last time, and on the very same day, only three hours later, lay his head upon his bed and exclaim, “Jefferson still lives!” and then to die himself! Unbeknownst to Adams, his beloved Jefferson had passed.
The fact that these two great men both died on Fourth of July….and the fact that Adams continued to be friends after forgiving Jefferson.
I am so honored to be a part of this family tree.
Perhaps I will dedicate this new cd to John and Abigail, for all they gave and suffered in the midst of one of the world’s greatest revolutions.