Okay, maybe a South Park cartoon figure is an unlikely poster-child for a spiritual moment that I think of as Spiritual. Period.
This spirituality is affirmative, defining a group of practices that put meditation, art, community and ecological sustainability over institutional sustenance. The expression, “Spiritual but not religious” takes us down a long road of opposition to other practices, and who has time for that? If religious practices inform or support spiritual practices, that’s great. If they don’t, well just forget about them. Without our support, unhelpful practices just die on the vine. Fine.
And like Kenny, genuine spiritual practices and whatever they present as opportunities and life itself will be back again in the next episode.
What I love about Kenny is how this cartoon character can present time consciousness, as we all experience it but have no clear language for this experience.
There might be some confusion at the outset between theories of time in physics and time consciousness, which is what is being addressed here, though it could turn out to be a distinction without a difference: It might be that what we are conscious of as time is the same as what it addressed in physics, even theoretical physics. Or perhaps there is a difference. We might come back to this (or not) but, to be clear, time consciousness (human being’s experience of time) is what I’m talking about here.
And with respect to cartoon characters, after all, as my friend and philosopher Talia Bettcher says about all philosophy: We just make this shit up.
It does refer to something specific nevertheless, not solipsistic (just in your head; just in mine). There are words for this, shared concepts, and shared experiences that are reflected upon when….
“Oh no!” Kenny just died again.
