Bridging the Ideal and the Real

This is a story about the day Pittman’s Father died and the way men live with their ties cutting their bodies and feelings off at the neck. His intimacy at the end with his Father is revealing of the four Fs (feelings, failures, fantasies and fears) that he had a chance to hear before his Dad passed not knowing it would be the last time he saw him. In his Father’s life time, men would seal themselves off from so much because that is what they had to do. Even now, I would guess many men can relate to this kind of quiet desperation where their inner world is kept hidden from those that mean the most to them and even from themselves as they stoically stay on the left side of their brains. This mp3 is a talk given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 9-16-90 at Christ Church Cathedral Sunday School class in Houston, Texas. 

Pittman gives three stories at the beginning and then takes you through a bible story of Pentecost where they begin to understand that the holy spirit doesn’t dwell in heaven but within each human being. The surprise ending is a perfect symbol for each of us. This mp3 is a talk given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 5-22-88 at Christ Church Cathedral Sunday School class in Houston, Texas. 

Pittman begins by describing our need for Mother (matter) being transcribed into material and that although it is important to have our material and physical needs met, it is also not what gives our life meaning. We all run into ruts, hardship and the walls that life brings, when we need someone else to be Christ for us and show us what’s possible. What is the possibility in that divorce, that sickness, that accident that befell us? In every crisis there is a new genesis waiting to be born in us. This mp3 is a talk given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 5-17-87 at Christ Church Cathedral Sunday School class in Houston, Texas. 

Pittman begins with a humorous story from childhood about a dozen baby chickens all colored for Easter that his Father had brought home. Only one survived and grew up to be inferior as it had white feathers with purple tips. The shadow side of us is like that — different, rejected, inferior in some way — embracing this part of us is our our Easter story. Jesus took it all on. He did not deny his humanity and neither can we. This mp3 is a talk given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 3-19-89 at Christ Church Cathedral Sunday School class in Houston, Texas. 

Pain is a peculiar human possession. We do not become close truly intimate without pain. Each of us has to take the risk of loving another as there is no wonderful love story without pain which informs us that we are alive. Christianity at it's most basic level integrates the pain as part of the passion. This mp3 is a talk given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 6-21-87 at Christ Church Cathedral Sunday School class in Houston, Texas. 

Marion Woodman, in her book Addiction to Perfection does a definitive job explaining that our addictions whatever they may be are symbolic of our need for Mother. Our need to reconcile either too much Mother or not enough nurturing from the human being who was our Mother. What matters to us in the beginning is to have our basic human needs met, our physical needs met but the dark side of that is when we decide that materiality is what gives our life meaning. When we begin to worship that is when we get into trouble. The second question of what is possible only comes about when someone can be as a Shaman, a healer, a counselor for us and can give us a different perspective. The job of the church is not to judge us for our human imperfections and limitations. Every crisis, every failure and every wall we run into can be the new Genesis that Christ re presents us with which is a new possibility so that we can begin again. This mp3 is a talk given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 5-17-87 at Christ Church Cathedral Sunday School class in Houston, Texas. 

How do we know a piece of art, a song or wisdom or even the taste of water? Can we even know that which we cannot comprehend? How would I know what you know. Pittman describes the two bookends of knowing God. One is the anthropomorphic God who hears, who walks and talks like a human being which is simplistic on one bookend and on the other bookend of the teeter totter of our life is a God of nothingness where silence is all we know if we are honest with ourselves. In this proposition of the dialectical theism is knowing something that is beyond our own comprehension but in between there are things we can say. This mp3 is a talk given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 11-15-87 at Christ Church Cathedral Sunday School class in Houston, Texas. 

Pittman begins with the sadness he felt when he received notice of a friend/hero who had died when he happens upon a tv lecture by a female doctor about the endocrine system and male testosterone. As men, it is our transcendence and goodness, our imago dei which is even more than can be captured in any moment of time. On Father’s Day Pittman experiences three separate conversations; his 10 year old son who was with him, his 16 year old son’s letter and his Fathers phone call in a synchronicity that captures the complicated psychology of men at different stages of life all in one day. This mp3 is a talk given by J. Pittman McGehee on 6-14-87 at Christ Church Cathedral Sunday School class in Houston, Texas. 

Pittman begins by telling the story of hearing that Jesus was riding in to Calgary on an ASS and how that made him laugh as a young boy who was hearing it in a church of all places. Life is filled with ironic and humorous comedy when we don’t take it so seriously it can sustain us in times that we are going through tragedy that is unexplainable. He talks about the unconditional love of God for us as we are, to follow our calling, to trust our intuition no matter who approves or agrees with us as Jesus did. These thoughts and more are in this delightfully humorous yet poignant talk. This mp3 is a talk given by J. Pittman McGehee on 4-12-87 at Christ Church Cathedral Sunday School class in Houston, Texas. 

Human nature says everyone will have a different sexuality — a personality and mystery of it's own. In this talk, Pittman defines Gods gifts of sexuality 1) procreation 2) to experience union (with another and with God) and the responsibilities of bringing another human being into the world. We have a higher calling when it comes to sexual union because when we love one another, we love God also. This mp3 is a talk given by Pittman McGehee on 2-15-87 at Christ Church Cathedral Sunday School class in Houston, Texas.