dfnj
Well-Known Member
There's a common Jungian Archetype called our Inner Precocious Child otherwise known as our inner Loki energy. With that in mind consider the idea of constrained writing and something Pope Francis talked about.
Constrained writing is a writing technique where the writer is bounded by some condition. This condition is a requirement or rule which will impose a certain pattern to the writing. A famous example of a constrained writing is a pangram. A pangram is a sentence that contains every letter of the alphabet. The most famous example of a pangram is “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”
The idea behind creating a five sentence religion is to come up with a set of five sentences providing a good set of concrete answers to the to the four great existential questions about our lives. Here’s an example of one of my many attempts:
1. We only criticize and hate in other people what we don’t like about our own character.
2. Our own anger, pain, and frustration comes from causing other people anger, pain, and frustration.
3. Our own love, happiness, and hope comes from helping others experience love, happiness, and hope.
4. Community comes from not letting our convictions and prejudices prevent us from appreciating others.
5. We begin whole and complete, we experience having limitations, we return to being whole and complete after we die.
Creating a good set of five sentences for defining a complete religion is not easy thing to do. This requires a lot of thought. Having this five sentence constraint is challenging.
Another variation of the five sentence constraint is a one sentence constraint. I’m not sure anyone is going to beat this as the best one sentence religion: "Birth, and copulation, and death." T. S. Eliot
Here’s an example of a five sentence religion from Pope Francis:
1. The thumb is the closest finger to you so pray and express gratitude for those who are closest to you.
2. The next finger is the index. So express gratitude for those who teach you and heal you.
3. The following finger is the tallest. It reminds us of our leaders and those in authority.
4. The fourth finger is the ring finger, the weakest finger. It reminds us to pray for those in need.
5. And finally, your pinkie reminds you to pray and be grateful for yourself.
Pope Francis probably meant this to be used by very young children in Sunday school. But it’s good example of constrained writing by using our five fingers of our hand as a constraint.
Just after I wrote this down my inner precocious child in me chimes into my brain: Number six: You close your fingers into a fist and you are now ready to deliver the wrath of God! And then this chimes into my head: And whatever you do, don’t rotate the tallest finger to those in authority! It’s important we teach our young children how to respect leaders in authority!
Constrained writing is a writing technique where the writer is bounded by some condition. This condition is a requirement or rule which will impose a certain pattern to the writing. A famous example of a constrained writing is a pangram. A pangram is a sentence that contains every letter of the alphabet. The most famous example of a pangram is “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”
The idea behind creating a five sentence religion is to come up with a set of five sentences providing a good set of concrete answers to the to the four great existential questions about our lives. Here’s an example of one of my many attempts:
1. We only criticize and hate in other people what we don’t like about our own character.
2. Our own anger, pain, and frustration comes from causing other people anger, pain, and frustration.
3. Our own love, happiness, and hope comes from helping others experience love, happiness, and hope.
4. Community comes from not letting our convictions and prejudices prevent us from appreciating others.
5. We begin whole and complete, we experience having limitations, we return to being whole and complete after we die.
Creating a good set of five sentences for defining a complete religion is not easy thing to do. This requires a lot of thought. Having this five sentence constraint is challenging.
Another variation of the five sentence constraint is a one sentence constraint. I’m not sure anyone is going to beat this as the best one sentence religion: "Birth, and copulation, and death." T. S. Eliot
Here’s an example of a five sentence religion from Pope Francis:
1. The thumb is the closest finger to you so pray and express gratitude for those who are closest to you.
2. The next finger is the index. So express gratitude for those who teach you and heal you.
3. The following finger is the tallest. It reminds us of our leaders and those in authority.
4. The fourth finger is the ring finger, the weakest finger. It reminds us to pray for those in need.
5. And finally, your pinkie reminds you to pray and be grateful for yourself.
Pope Francis probably meant this to be used by very young children in Sunday school. But it’s good example of constrained writing by using our five fingers of our hand as a constraint.
Just after I wrote this down my inner precocious child in me chimes into my brain: Number six: You close your fingers into a fist and you are now ready to deliver the wrath of God! And then this chimes into my head: And whatever you do, don’t rotate the tallest finger to those in authority! It’s important we teach our young children how to respect leaders in authority!
