for with the Franciscans all loving creatures, and
all do love, were the brothers an sister of Francis
(9) for from Luther and Descartes to Kant and Hegel
the human rights of all persons became law.
By meditating on this nine stage history of personhood
we will bring ourselves up to the brink of postmodernity
and be ready to appreciate Kierkegaard’s love and personhood.
notes:
1. Stanley Krippner, “The Epistemology and Technologies of Shamanic Sates of Consciousness,” Journal of Consciousness Studies 7 (2000) 93.
Part One
Joyful Beginnings
I. Mother
I.1 With Her Anglican mother
I.1.1 Identification in Mother-Daughter Bonding
Mother was born on September 6, 1917, at that time
of late summer when the sheep are brought down from
Rocky Mountain Highlands to greener lowland pastures
and when ewes are grouped with best bucks for breeding.
Mother was born into the passion of her mother,
Leona Hart-Abbott, and of her father, Levaur Paul Coates.
Gramma Coates had lost her mother when she was but eight
and Grandpa Coates lost his mother when he was only five.
They both grew up in the constant presence of their lost mothers.
When they met and told their stories to each other and ate
a meal together they knew that they were meant for each other.
And it was as if Levaur sensed his lost mother in Leona.
And in Levaur’s lost mother in him, Leona seemed to find her own.
With her many strong Anglican relatives Leona Mae went
through the mourning process in a very successful way.
The beloved presence of her absent mother, Martha Mae, opened her
in sympathy to the sorrows of others and she was robust
and happy and she wanted to bring others into her graced joy.
Already in the womb mother identified with the very feelings,
moods and attitude of her upbeat, strong, pioneering mother.
The very hormones and nervous system of Leona Mae
were identified with by Joneva Mae as the mother’s blood
and lymph system and mucosity became also the daughter’s.
Leona Mae’s preconscious feelings and passions and moods
and her unconscious attitude which evaluated and motivated
all of her conscious thoughts, words and deeds became also
the very fabric of little Joneva Mae and when she was born
and nursed through that first year at her mother’s breast
they bonded in a special dream and vision that would let
little Joneva Mae live out the life that Martha Mae lost.
Martha Mae, Leona Mae and Joneva Mae were one in Mae-love.
I.1.2 In the Attitude of Complacent Agape
Leona and Levaur came together in very positive times.
The First World War was ending and the Roaring Twenties
were already beginning their expansive and manic build up.
The Republican Party made life good for American farmers.
They had claimed their free land and the banking system
helped them get a herd of sheep and a pick-up truck and
all they needed to make the whole wonderful outfit work.
As a young girl between five and eight Gramma went through
very difficult times that would strengthen her throughout life.
In her memoirs Gramma Coates writes: “Father and mother
had misunderstandings so mother took me to Montana with her
where we lived for a year. Later father came out and got me
and I lived with his sister, Ida Blair, near Bellevue.
My mother passed away from a heart attack.” Gramma’s
mother was only seventeen when she married and all
of her trials must have been damaging to her immune system.
For her eight years of grade school Gramma grew up
in Bellevue, right there in the center of Blaine County, Idaho,
in a thriving mining town which was the State’s third largest city.
Already as a child Gramma loved her school and her church.
Two of her relatives from back in Kentucky were Bible scholars.
She loved reading and writing and listening and speaking and
those liberal arts opened her in her dreaming and thinking to
a desire for ever further learning, knowing and understanding.
The Anglican Church was very community minded and
searched out ways to be of service to any who were in need.
She learned the Our Father and it became her favorite prayer.
It helped form her inner-most attitude in a spirit of loving
forgiveness as she prayed each morn and each night: “Forgive
us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Baby Joneva Mae identified with Leona Mae’s forgiving heart.
I.1.3 In the Mood of Concerned Agape
During
