Homecoming Proposal Quotes

Disasters, he proposed, create a "community of sufferers" that allow individuals to experience an immensely reassuring connection to others

Fritz’s theory was that modern society has gravely disrupted the social bonds that have always characterized the human experience, and that disasters thrust people back into a more ancient, organic way of relating. Disasters, he proposed, create a “community of sufferers” that allows individuals to experience an immensely reassuring connection to others.

Fritz’s theory was that modern society has gravely disrupted the social bonds that have always characterized the human experience, and that disasters thrust people back into a more ancient, organic way of relating. Disasters, he proposed, create a “community of sufferers” that allows individuals to experience an immensely reassuring connection to others. As people come together to face an existential threat, Fritz found, class differences are temporarily erased, income disparities become irrelevant, race is overlooked, and individuals are assessed simply by what they are willing to do for the group. It is a kind of fleeting social utopia that, Fritz felt, is enormously gratifying to the average person and downright therapeutic to people suffering from mental illness.

One of his favorite stories took place during some senseless war between the English and the French. At one point it was proposed that a lighthouse off the coast of France be destroyed by British warships to impede shipping and navigation. “Sir,” an English admiral reminded the king, “we are at war with the French, not with the entire human race.

As I suggest in a previous work (O'Murchu 2000), we need a new metaphor to transcend the spiritual malaise of our time. I propose the metaphor or homecoming, and my central argument is that we need to come home, not to God, religion, or church, but to the creation to which we innately belong. Our exile, alienation, and estrangement are not from God, but from creation. With God everything is basically okay. Our spiritual not-at-home-ness has to do with our ambivalence and ambiguity toward God's creation. The long journey involved in this homecoming has several dimensions. It involves coming home to where God first encounters us, not with the threat of judgment or punishment, but with the embrace of unconditional love. From God's point of view. that is expressed first and foremost in the cosmic and planetary creation. Long before humans ever came to be, long before formal religion was ever conceived, God was birthing forth ancestral giftedness in the unfolding of stars and galaxies, of planets and quasars, including the paradoxical cacophony of building up and tearing down (Jer. 1:10) as the web of universal life unfolded.

I held the sign above my head for a moment like the guy in one of Emerson's favorite '80s movie say anything and prayed that from the back of the room Emerson was smiling but I couldn't see her. I have a speech planed. But I was paralyzed just mutely stood there holding my sign I knew I was making a fool out of myself but I couldn't say a word Emerson had to know she was the only person I would ever do this for. "Ask her!" Clarissa had her hands cupped around her mouth shouting up at me she yelled it out again "ask her!" already a few of her teammates picked up the chant "ask her! ask her! ask her!" I still couldn't see Emerson and I forgot every word of my speech but I took a deep breath. "Emerson, prom?" Every second felt like an eternity once those words left my mouth the audience was silent I felt abuse sweat trickle from my brow but then I saw her Emerson walked briskly up the center aisle of the auditorium and a relief caressed through my veins because she was smiling she ran up the steps and I dropped the sign on to the floor split the difference of the stage stopping a foot in front of her I stared at her my heart in my throat "yes!" she said with a huge grin a smile spread over my face and I sprung forward and wrapped her in a huge hug the audience started clapping and she wrapped her arms around me tightly. I hadn't admitted my feelings yet but this was definitely a good start.