« "You Say It Yahweh and I'll Say It Mine" »

I am about to retell the ancient, mythic Cain and Abel story, rather than assume that all of us know it. Knowing the story is essential to understanding Steinbeck’s East of Eden, because the entire novel is a contemporary rendition of it. Similarly, I connect with it as ancient wisdom that helps interpret Multi Earth’s baffling grip on us. But, before I retell the story, I want to say why the word “God” is often troublesome for me. 

Years ago I was reading Kudzu, a comic strip by Pulitzer Prize winning Doug Marlotte. The strip was about a Southern preacher, Rev. Will B. Dunn. He was in the pulpit talking about names for God. After giving many names, he finally came to Yahweh. But he wasn’t certain how to pronounce it. So after trying several ways, he summed it all up by saying, “You say it Yahweh and I’ll say it mine.”

When I refer to the deity prominent in the scriptures of Jews and Christians, including the Cain and Abel story, I often use the four consonants YHWH, the way the Hebrew bible writes the name. I dislike how the word “God” has become associated with countless activities and ideas alien, even opposite, to how I experience God. Rather than try to redeem the word or assume readers know what I mean and don’t mean by it, I will mostly use YHWH. You can pronounce it “Yahweh.” Even though we can not be certain of which vowels actually belong with the four consonants, “Yahweh” is most common. 

“God” is used throughout Multi Earth speech; YHWH does not fit with it. YHWH connects most especially with Creation, Edenic, and One Earth ways. YHWH’s revelatory moments happen most especially in nature and wilderness, rather than industrial or urban centers. They can, of course, happen anywhere YHWH chooses. I apologize to any readers for whom using a word from another language may be off-putting. I invite readers simply to say “YHWH” quietly and hear how breathy it is. As such, it reminds me that “breath” is an excellent name for the mystery of the divine. 

Let me know in a comment what names for the Sacred, for the Divine Presence, or God, work best for you.

Comments

[Trish Goedecke]

Lee, I share your discomfort with traditional names and notions of the divine; I also like the image of breath.
I have been meditating on this poem from the 8th century mystic Rumi, which I think shares the same interest in allowing our god to be living, rather than calcified in our preconceptions:

‘To place you in my heart
may turn you into thought
I will not do that!
To hold you with my eyes
may turn you into thorn
I will not do that!
I will set you on my breath
so you will become my life.’

[Lee Van Ham]

Wow, Trish, I love that! Both the way you put your thoughts and the way Rumi shared his with us. He's given us so many gifts. I just may want to get that into the final copy of the book.