• About
    • Mission & Vision
    • Our Leadership
    • ADF: A Druid Fellowship
    • Photos
  • Services
  • Calendar
  • Resources & Social Justice
  • Membership
  • Blogs
    • Prairie Tidings (Church Blog)
    • Rev. Badger's 2019 Stoic Blog
    • The Practical Bard (Rev. Missy's Blog)
    • Little Druid on the Prairie (Rev. Lauren's Blog)
  • Policies
  • Contact Us
  • About
    • Mission & Vision
    • Our Leadership
    • ADF: A Druid Fellowship
    • Photos
  • Services
  • Calendar
  • Resources & Social Justice
  • Membership
  • Blogs
    • Prairie Tidings (Church Blog)
    • Rev. Badger's 2019 Stoic Blog
    • The Practical Bard (Rev. Missy's Blog)
    • Little Druid on the Prairie (Rev. Lauren's Blog)
  • Policies
  • Contact Us
Mountain Ancestors Grove, ADF

A Year of Contemplation

Don’t Go Expecting Perfection (Day 213)

8/1/2019

 
Picture
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

One of my volunteer roles in ADF (the church through which I’m ordained) is to mentor folx who are wanting to complete the “dedicant program”. This course of study lies somewhere between a proper conversion experience and one of “tell us what you already think you know”. Compared to the rest of the study programs, guild training courses, or the clergy training tract, the dedicant work is a rather small bit of what could be a very long, and happy journey of religious exploration…

… and yet, of the nearly 12K people who have joined ADF over our nearly 40 year history, fewer than 200 (as of 8-1-2019) have completed the dedicant program. Less than two percent. Shocking, if you’d ask me (or if you’re on my blog subjecting yourself to my personal opinion of things).

Why? Aside from the offputting gatekeeping, erudite attitudes surrounding ADF’s study programs, from what I’ve seen as a mentor and guide, these low numbers are a result of the dedicant candidate’s inability to put the work into perspective and connect to the less-than-perfect bits of religious journeying.

In other words, by seeking utopian perfection in all-things-dedicant, the candidate creates the excuse to fail because of a righteousness-supported, “religiously-pure” impossible goal… and worse, they feel totally justified in their quitting, blind to the fact that it was they themselves who sabotaged their own progress.

In doing that, those folx allow an honest understanding of the world to stop them from making the best of any situation. They allow petty annoyances and minor obstacles to completely shut down the important work they’ve chosen to do…

… all because of an unhealthy obsession with perfection, and a pathological repulsion of pragmatism.

May we all be freed from perfection’s non-pragmatic grasp!

(See y’all tomorrow)
Ncik
8/1/2019 10:56:28 am

"Done is better than perfect."


Comments are closed.

    About the Blog

    Awakening the desire to explore Stoicism, and how it relates to his existing beliefs, Rev. William committed to working through the text, The Daily Stoic, a year-long journey to awaken the Stoic mind. 
    How things are structured can be found in the first post. 

    About the Author

    Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, Rev. William attended Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado where in 2007 he graduated with a degree in Religious Studies, minoring in Psychology. Currently residing in Longmont, CO, he is one of the Priests and founder of Mountain Ancestors Grove.  He spends his time playing mandolin (and some guitar), writing, engaging in LGBTQIA+ advocacy and education, community service, and sharing a larger vision of how a polytheist perspective can lead to greater human understanding, acceptance, and gods be good, peace. 

    Archives

    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.