Dogma, Karma, and ICSA
Have you ever heard the expression: Your karma just ran over my dogma.
or My karma ran over your dogma?
Or wait… is it: Your dogma ran over my karma?
What IS that ditty, anyway?
I’ve heard a few versions of this over the years but have never known exactly what it meant. Depending on the context, it could be a witty saying, a euphemism, an attack, or simply: word salad. 🧐
In response to last week’s writing No Dogma Allowed, I received a note from my friend and colleague Carrie Buddington who shared a version that she learned from her daughter while still immersed in a high control un-Christian group. My karma ran over my dogma. No ‘you’. Just me and mine. What I love about this, is the sentence that follows. Carrie wrote:
While I regret the image of a car running over a dog, I love the idea that my karma (life) has destroyed the dogma I was trapped in.
Isn’t that gorgeous? Life itself destroys the dogma Carrie was bound to. I love her wisdom: that simply living life is part of the deconstruction - and the destruction of cultic dogma. The hard, crusty, stale beliefs that were once revered, are dissipated by living life outside of the cultic environment. I am so inspired by this.
In case you are wondering, Carrie gave me permission to share her words. In fact, I also have the fun of being LIVE AND IN PERSON with Carrie and many others in Montreal, Quebec this week, at the annual ICSA conference! I am thrilled that the International Cultic Studies Association Conference is practically in my backyard this year (a mere 2.5 hour drive 🚗 from home) in a country and province that I have enjoyed for decades. Carrie and I will present with our fellow partner in crime, Esther Friedman on Saturday.
I’ll be honest. I had been feeling ambivalent 😶 about this year’s conference. I’ve spent so much time away from home or caring for others and I was yearning to stay put for a while and enjoy summertime ⛱ in Vermont. But plans were already made - and I need and want to follow through on these commitments.
And here’s the beauty of it: as soon as I got to my room (after a comedic adventure parking my car that wasn’t so funny at the time 🙃) my ambivalence disappeared. POOF! I am here, right where I need to be - engaged in work I love, with colleagues from all over the world. 🌎
Although less significant than Carrie’s liberation from dogma, my temporary hesitancy for the conference was also dissipated by life itself. I'm beginning to realize just how HELPFUL daily living (be it hanging laundry 🧺 preparing food 🍲, going to work 📋, or following through on commitments) can be in supporting recovery from cultic coercion.
Sometimes it’s the smallest thing that opens a door to experiencing greater peace, integration, and joie de vivre. I invite you to notice when such a moment might occur for you today. Let me know what you discover.
Do you have a personal commitment to write? ✍🏼 Or a niggly curiosity about it? Please come to a Writing to Reckon class on a Friday to discover what life wants to deconstruct or construct for you at this time.
Gerette
PS Our ICSA presentation will be live-streamed and recorded. There are SO many wonderful speakers and it’s not too late to register. Our presentation, Saturday at 2:45, will be an engaging mix of spoken word, music, and mini skits that compare and contrast our respective cultic misadventures using the framework of Lifton's 12 Psychological steps to Thought Reform... What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon, right? 🌟
PSS DON'T FORGET: the W2R Zoom Party IS THIS SUNDAY JULY 6th!I'll be freshly back from ICSA and look forward to connecting with all of you who have a little writing to share. Register, pick your favorite drink, a short piece of writing, and login on Sunday!
PPS Just for fun, here are a few sources that explore Karma/ Dogma. I’d love to hear your experiences of this saying!
https://sof-in-australia.org/article/dogma-and-karma-paul-tonson/
https://www.semperficatholic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5253
https://ottmarliebert.com/2007/01/03/my-karma-ran-over-your-dogma/
